How Much Fertilizer Do I Need To Fertilize My Lawn?

Your task is to determine:

How much fertilizer you need to maintain your lawn according to the University of Maryland recommendations?

i.e. 1 pound of N per 1,000 square feet

How do you do that?

Figure out the area of the lawn to be covered with fertilizer.

Choose one of these two methods using the Measure Your Yard publication:

1. Calculate the area of all the space covered by lawn. If you have a lawn that does not have planting beds, or has just a few beds, use this method.

2. If your landscape has many planting beds use this method:

a. Calculate the area of the property. Either get this information from your plat or measure it yourself.

b. Calculate the area of all the space not covered by lawn. Don't forget to include your house, driveway and other paved (impervious) surfaces as well as planting beds.

c. Add all these spaces then subtract that number from the area of your property. You will be left with the area of lawn you plan to fertilize.

Perform the calculation according to the formula in the "Fertilizer Rates" section of the Help the Chesapeake Bay publication.

formula:

Total fertilizer needed =	N application rate in lb/1000 ft^2	=	Lawn size in ft^2
	N content of fertilizer as a decimal		1000

Click here to see an example of how to determine how much fertilizer to use.

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