Follow these steps to give your lawn the nutrition it needs:

Make sure this is the right time to fertilize your turf.

Purchase fertilizer and check the label to see how much nitrogen it has in it.

Determine how much actual material you need to apply per application and how often it should be applied.

Set your spreader to the appropriate setting.

Pour the material into your spreader over a driveway or other cement area where spilled material can be swept up (pouring over a lawn where spilling may occur can lead to burn); do not let excess fertilizer be washed into storm drains.

A few days before you fertilize, deeply irrigate your lawn so that the soil is moist; the grass blades should be dry by the time you start your application.

Apply fertilizer.

Fertilizers and amendments

Organic amendments are not necessarily fertilizers and should not be substituted for them. A soil analysis will tell you what nutrients or amendments your soil needs.

Complete fertilizers

Fertilizers containing all three primary nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium) are called complete fertilizers. If high levels of phosphorus and potassium are already present in the soil, supply nitrogen alone. For most established lawns, nitrogen is the only nutrient that needs to be supplied on a regular basis, although it may be beneficial to apply a complete fertilizer with all three nutrients at least once a year.

Fertilizers are formulated in different ways according to how they make their nitrogen available to grass roots.

Dry vs. liquid materials

Most fertilizers are formulated as dry materials, however there are some formulated as liquids. Liquid formulations are not normally recommended for use on home lawns because they are hard to apply evenly and need to be applied more frequently than dry fertilizers. Turf can easily become burned. They are also more expensive than dry formulations.