If we only spread fertilizer we are doing nothing to improve your soil. Fertilizer is only feeding the grass. If your soil is healthy your grass will look good with less water and less fertilizer.
We spray a product called Sanctuary 11-21-21 which contains Mycorrhizae — beneficial bacteria that feeds the microbial activity in the soil. The more microbes the healthier your soil and thus healthier grass. We can't tell you enough of the benefits. We mix Mycorrhizae with the dirt around every tree and shrub that we plant. It has greatly reduced the number that we replace due to dying.
We also spray Rapture 4-0-4 which is a micronutrient package. This feeds your grass with numerous minerals that will help your grass continue to be healthy through the hot part of the season. Iron greens your grass up without the fast growth that is hard on your grass.
Lots of nitrogen actually causes grass to grow rapidly which, if the weather conditions are not perfect, stresses the grass, causing it to need more water to sustain the rapid growth. Also mowing so much of the leaf off — because you do not have time to mow multiple times a week — is also hard on the grass.
On the flip side we all want dark lush green grass. So we try to balance the right amount of nitrogen yet not too much to cause rapid growth.
From taking many soil samples in the area we find that the pH of the soil is often high. The remedy for this is Solu-Cal, an enhanced gypsum product. Solu-Cal helps neutralize pH. If soil pH is high or too low your lawn is not able to efficiently use the fertilizer that we spread on. Some lawns begin to look peaked a few weeks after we spread fertilizer. This often is a sign of pH imbalance rather than a lack of fertilizer. That is why Solu-Cal is targeting the root of the problem instead of spreading more fertilizer and not fixing the long term problem.
Solu-Cal also aerates soil, helping water and oxygen penetrate better. It flushes contaminates, such as salt, out of the soil. As with any soil issue it does take time — to neutralize pH it can take several years. Core aeration is a great way to speed up the process.