Fall feeding is one of the most critical feeding times for your lawn.  A healthy and stable plant can endure the hardship of winter better than a week plant.  Using a winterizer lawn food builds better hardiness, stem strength and disease resistance in lawns.  It also is a good evaluation time for your grass.  Is there proper moisture content with good drainage?  You don’t to have places that have standing water.  This just causes more stress to your lawn along with the winter stress.

Fertilome has a winterizer that is 10-0-14 that also contains trace elements.  The application rate is 20 lbs per 5000 square feet.  It is also is labeled to use around your shrubs and trees.  Trees use 1 lb per inch of trunk diameter around drip line. For shrubs use 1 cup per 3 ft of height around drip line.

Another thing to think about is overseeding your lawn with perennial ryegrass.  This does not mean perineal that comes back every year.  Perineal ryegrass is a really thick ryegrass that makes your lawn look green, thick and luscious.  This is the grass that the baseball fields use in the winter.  When they start spring season there is a silent competion between   the coaches of who has the best looking field.  Futura and Panterea are names of 2 of the varieties used in our area.

(Mitzi Thomas owns Minden Farm & Garden LLC. Watch for her column on Fridays in Webster Parish Journal.)