For those aiming for a healthy, drought-resistant, fescue lawn, now is the second-best time of the year to seed and fertilize. To get the best results, first measure your lawn.

Seeding

For new fescue seeds, you’ll want to place 6 pounds per 1,000 square feet of lawn. Be sure to test your soil pH. In this pine tree infested area, it is likely that soil is too acidic, so limestone will need to be applied to bring the pH up.

Fertilizing

Fertilize with 1 pound of nitrogen per 1,000 square feet. Nitrogen is the first number in the N-P-K fertilizer naming scheme. The most accurate way to determine the right fertilizer is to perform a soil test. That said, most likely you’ll want a fertilizer with a 3:1:2 or 4:1:2 ratio. If you are not seeding now, go ahead and get a fertilizer with pre-emergent weed control. Be sure to cross your lawn one way with fertilizer, then do a second pass perpendicular to the first to insure even coverage.

In order to calculate how many pounds of fertilizer to buy, divide 100 by the first number on the fertilizer bag, then multiply that by the number of thousands of feet of lawn.

Example #1: A lawn is 7,000 square feet in size. A 16-4-8 fertilizer is being used. Divide 100 by 16 to get 6.25 pounds per thousand. Multiply that by 7 for 44 pounds of fertilizer.

Example #2: A lawn is 5,000 square feet and 18-24-6 fertilizer is what the guy at the gardening center is pimping (this ratio is 3:4:1, way too much phosphorus and not enough potash for the amount of nitrogen). Since we’re in a bind, we go ahead and buy it. 100/18=5.56 lbs per 1,000 sq feet. The 5,000 square foot lawn needs 27.8 pounds of this fertilizer.

The three times to fertilize a lawn each year are during the first half of September, Thanksgiving, and Valentine’s Day. You do not want to fertilize a fescue lawn after March 15. This promotes fast vegetative growth which renders the plant susceptible to disease and intolerant of late summer drought conditions. Some plant centers are advising this as well as fertilizers with non-optimal ratios for Piedmont N.C., so be careful.

February is also time to fertilize bulbs. Top dress early bulbs as soon as they come out of the ground. Use 2 pints per 100 square feet of 8-8-8 or 10-10-10 fertilizer.