20 Best Lawn Fertilizer For Winter (2023 Updated)

I totally killed my front & side yard in late September. In October I reseeded & followed the instructions from Jonathan Green experts with Love Your Soil, Mag I Cal, Green Up Seeding & Sodding, and Black Beauty Sun & Shade Seed.

My yard turned out beautifully. The first of November I put down Winter Survival on my already envious yard in the neighborhood & the yard just popped even more. My beginning goal was to have the WOW effect yard in the neighborhood.

I believe I succeeded.

I spread this along with Milorganite on my mother’s yard to prepare for winter. I use this on my own lawn with great results. I only use organic products; no chemicals at all! Do It Best made the ordering so easy.

I look forward to doing more business with them.

I sprayed more than half of the solution about 5 days ago. Looks like the grass is changing from yellow to green. I wish there was more in the bottle- I have a large space to cover. Definitely recommend.

My centipede starts to grow and a late spring freeze knocks it back. So it goes into summer with yellow areas and large yellow spots. The more normal green/yellow has been restored in 24 hours, not perfect but more than good enough to keep the HOA off my back.

Booster has helped very much. (what has not worked) usual fertilizer, liquid iron, lime, re-sodding in spots, top soil,.

After scrolling through the aisles and buying countless products, I finally found a product that works. My lawn was embarrassing, bright yellow! I applied this product on a Saturday morning, by Tuesday, my gosh, the difference, green!!! Finally a nice sight as I pull into my driveway!.

Nothing disagreeable about the smell, works well for encouraging healthy green growth. My experience is that it may indeed discourage deer. Can’t swear it’s true, but there are a lot of deer in my immediate area.

They randomly eat whatever isn’t fenced but don’t seem to touch things that have Milorganite scattered around. I use light feedings more frequently. Would give 5 stars except for my concern for what household chemicals could have been dumped down drains.

Maybe my thought is outdated but just the same, I don’t use it directly on my vegetable garden. Instead, I use it on the extended field/yard and use the cuttings for compost and mulch. The Milorganite does a good job keeping the field productive.

I’ve been lawn guy for more than 45+ years. I’m passionate about how my lawn looks. Always had one the best, if not THE best, looking lawn in the neighborhoods I’ve lived. Read all the rave reviews about Milorganite, so a couple of months ago I thought I’d give it a try.

My lawn is about 2,500 sq. ft. Applied nearly a full bag with my hand spreader, and waited to see the lush green appear. Didn’t happen. Only a minor change. Then the record breaking heat came in brutally.

High nineties and triple digits every day and has not let up. Everyone knows a healthy, nourished lawn will withstand that kind of weather much better than a weak lawn. Then the brown areas began to appear even with stepping up watering.

I even resorted to supplemental hand watering those areas. Still looked pretty bad in many areas and pale green. Tried applying a little more Milorganite and watered well every morning. No change. My lawn was weak, malnourished, and suffering from the heat.

So, I went a bought a bag of my old favorite, Scotts Turf Builder All-In-One Lawn Food and applied it. A week and half later, my lawn is thick, lush, and deep green again, and the brown areas are coming back to life and looking good again.

I have even cut back on the watering and it’s still looking like it should. Healthy, deep green, nourished and strong. So, sorry Milorganite. You’re just weren’t up to the task nor my standards. Oh, BTW, your dark black color makes it impossible to see where it’s going when applying by hand spreader!.

I ordered this bag of Milorganite in the Eufaula, Ala store. It was shipped to me directly with no shipping charge. This is my second bag of Milorganite. I am using it as recommended to me by Pike’s Nursery staff in Marietta, Ga as an effective deer deterrent.

I spread the first bag about a month ago around azaleas and camellias, which have been heavily hit by the deer, this past winter. I notice my roses and daylilies, which were also being eaten, are now growing normally.

The azaleas are putting out new growth. I hope Milorganite is repelling deer, but also realize the deer have new spring growth to eat in the woods. In any case my friend has been using Milorganite for years on his lawn with great results on his grass.

Last year he didn’t use it and they had a lot of deer damage in the yard. They hadn’t put the two together. I have high hopes.

I have spent a lot of time with my 1/2 acre lawn in the last month. De-thatched, aerated, re-seeded, and topped off the effort with Greenview Fairway Formula Fall Fertilizer. May I say it was worth the effort.

The Fall Fertilizer popped the original grass and accelerated the newly seeded. I have a uniform deep green colored lawn filling in fast. I only use Greenview products and my confidence has been repaid over several decades.

I love the results I gogt from this prouduct. I only use greenview product and am in the annual program. Anything extra that I need I order it through the greenview website. An awesome Lebanon seaboard Co.

site. Their seed is excellent, zero weed sed in the mixtures. The seed successis definetly needed when seeding. Love their products!!!.

Really helped with the fall and winter time keeping the st Augustine green and healthy. The reason for 4 stars is that the application rate for my spreader listed seemed to be too low to achieve results.

The prior year I did not get the same results so I’ve bumped it up one full increment this year and that was the trick. Highly recommend to get your lawn to stay green into the cool season. (Florida).

Instead Happy Lawn Summer worked great on my lawn. I got a 25. 46 lb bag and spread it on my front yard where I have the most problem areas. I have tried many different products and haven’t had much luck.

I followed the directions on the bag of the Instead Happy Lawn, which were very easy to follow. The results were not immediate, however it’s been a few weeks now and my Lawn has never looked better! It is greener, fuller and just looks beautiful.

My neighbors have asked me what I have used and I have happily told them. I love that this brand is made with pet/children friendly ingredients and that the ingredients are natural. The packaging is also recyclable so that’s just another plus.

I have already and will continue to highly recommend this product.

My grass definitely perked up after being nourished with wheat flour, feather meal and molasses—the all-natural ingredients in Instead Happy Lawn Summer lawn care product. This fertilizer “recipe” is something I understand because I am a baker and cook, who just loves to see my family’s happy smiles as they consume and compliment nutritious food I serve.

So, I was especially excited to see a ‘Happy Lawn’ after I spread and fed it with lawn food that is safe, nutrient-rich, and easy to absorb with a light sprinkling of water to quench its thirst. As neighbors compliment my healthy lawn, I encourage them to try Happy Lawn fertilizer to see how it can improve their lawn.

I like that it is pesticide-free and a safe solution to protect our environment.

I love that this fertilizer is natural. My wife was happy to see that I fertilized our lawn with this all natural product. The bag is good for 4,000 square feet. I am no professional, but the instructions are step by step, so it is impossible to mess up.

So far, my lawn is looking great. I have already told my friends about this natural fertilizer. This is my go to fertilizer from now on. I don’t have to worry about all the bad, harsh chemicals going into my lawn.

Started using this Feb 2021. Found it on Amazon. I bought the Kit. Sprayer comesFulled and you get four bags in the box, so 5 applications. I used it all on my Bermuda Glass front and back yards. It is very hard to find this in stores and online.

I paid $14. 98 on Amazon and reordered just the Lawn Food. I am new to growing Grass and this works well I guess. Bought this House 1 1/2 years ago and the lawn was not good. I give myself 2 years to have a Golf Course Lawn and this is year one.

Looks like it helps. I also use other Natural Fritalizers as well.

When I was 18 or 19 I lived in a house with a neglected lawn and for some reason decided to try this. Yard was full of clover, dandelions, and other weeds. Had large area bare spots of N. C. red clay around trees.

I put it down heavy just once and it killed off about every weed. Big patches of weeds became bare spots then the grass filled in and thickened, turned a nice darker green. Grass started spreading to the red dirt spots.

Neighbor across the road could tell a difference from her house a good distance back from the road away from ours and asked me “what did you do to your yard? It looks good”. I’d recommend putting it down a bit heavier than instructed if you have a serious weed problem as long as it won’t run into a creek or other water source.

Be ready to mow the yard because it will make your grass grow.

Have had good results with Scotts Crabgrass Preventer. Its finer texture seems to provide more even application compared to the larger granules in other brands. It claims to be “season-long” protection vs.

3-4 months as mentioned by some competitors. I just applied it a few days ago, so only time will tell if the current product works as well at preventing crabgrass as it has in the past for me. My frustration with the product solely lies with BJ’s.

I discovered that a special/reduced price on the website was only for online orders. In- store pricing was $5 higher. NO WHERE WAS THAT MENTIONED in the online posting. I had to place an online order, then return to do a store pickup.

Here’s what so-called pros rarely, if ever tell you, and I found out the hard way! This stuff does work, but you have to use just about the lowest setting possible. no more than a 3-4. Otherwise it’s too concentrated and will burn the loan, particularly after temps are consistently above 75 or so.

I also found that you can use the product about every 4 weeks or so, but again, use a low setting. It may not get ALL the weeds or seeds, but it will still look great. Also, continue to overseed ALL summer & water as much as your budget (or wife) will allow.

Allow for seed that’s just not gonna catch, birds & squirrels getting their fill as well as heat. Whenever feasible, also try to cover the seed. I have found that potting soil actually works better than top soil.

It costs more, but start doing it in stages. Any “program” actually takes a couple years anyway, regardless of what Scott’s says. Finally, in the fall, use step 4, but about January, there is a product not in the 4 step program, but made by Scott’s that I can’t think of.

It’s just a fertilizer I think. Use that & wait about 10 weeks before using step 4. Good luck.

I got this on a bit late and already had a fair amount of post-emergent clover. The clover is gone after two weeks. However, I made the mistake of applying extra to a few areas where there was a lot of cover.

Clover is now gone but I have some mild burning of the grass in those areas. Apply as directed and don’t overlap too much with the spreader or over-apply, or you could get brown patches. Where applied as directed my lawn looks great and the clover did get under control.

I spent a lot of time, sweat, and money on preparing my front lawn for reseeding, and over seeding. I did everything right, except find and read these other reviews for this product. Top soil was raked evenly, this Step 1 for Seeding was spread according to the correct distribution, seed was spread.

Whole lawn was rolled, fluffed up, and watered properly at dawn and dust. It has been 17 days without a single seed germanization. Nothing! My local garden store recommended this product, and I have since shared the story with them and to never recommend this product to anyone again.

Extremely dissapointed with this product!.

When we bought our home 13. 5 years ago, our entire yard was nothing but weeds (crabgrass, quackgrass, dandelions, clover, chickweed and so many more. if it was possible in Minnesota we had it in our yard).

I had asked many people for advise on how to go from this awful “yard” to a beautiful lawn (I grew up having had sod and learning from a young age that it takes work to maintain a beautiful lawn) and was told time and time again that my yard was a lost cause and I needed to have it dug out, treated, have good black dirt brought in and to have sod laid.

This was not an option. A few years in (we had lived here 4 years at the point I had time to put work into the yard. during the first few years, my goal was to not make it worse) when my kids were a little older, I started to put some major work into my yard.

I started by working on the soil that we had and by literally hand pulling the weeds. daily and for hours each day. I was seeding with Scott’s Kentucky bluegrass mix in both spring and fall and fertilizing three times from spring to fall (using season appropriate fertilizer).

Each year, there was marked improvement in my yard. Every year my neighbors would comment that they saw the improvement in my yard. Three years ago, I switched to a certified sod quality seed and continued to hand pull weeds and fertilize (only used Scott’s fertilizer based on the recommendation for a particular time of year.

it’s also the only brand of fertilizer my dad ever used when I was growing up) while I continued to supplement the soil based on the area we live in (we have sandy soil for the most part, but there had been black dirt out down originally).

Two years ago, I could actually say I have a lawn and not just a yard. There were far fewer weeds in my yard (when I say far fewer, there was more than 95% less weeds and I had gone from spending hours daily hand pulling weeds to being able to only weed the yard once a week).

Last spring, I signed up for Scott’s lawn program where they ask about your yard, seed used, condition and help you determine the size of your yard and they build a fertilizer plan for you and send it automatically based on your region and tell you when to apply it.

I continued to use the sod quality certified midnight Kentucky bluegrass I had been using and last spring, summer and fall, with the exception of 2 “problem” areas that I had to go out a few times a week and hand pull quack grass, I only had to hand pull weeds a total of 4 times the entire season for the remainder of the yard (I had clover in two areas that crept over from the neighbor in two places, creeping Charlie in those areas as well from the same neighbor and I had a total of 8 dandelions the entire summer.

the clover and creeping Charlie were just in the spring and once pulled and properly fertilized did not return). My lawn had become so healthy that my neighbors began to “copy” my seeding and fertilizing schedule, even my mowing schedule) and my neighbors were using Scott’s green max thinking that was how I was getting the beautiful color of my lawn (none asked what I was using or how I had pulled off what everyone thought was impossible, had they asked I would have happily shared what I had used).

My lawn was so perfect last year that even our regular UPS, fedex and Amazon drivers were commenting on my lawn! I definitely put hard work into my lawn when most said it was a lost cause and couldn’t be turned around.

I also have 3 rescue dogs who definitely are hard in the lawn and with the Scott’s program (and excellent seed), I defied the odds and went from an eyesore of a yard to a lush deep green lawn that my neighbors envy and most would think I have sod and that it wasn’t seeded.

Sure, there were far less labor intensive, less time consuming ways to pull off what I pulled off, but the Scott’s program definitely makes it easier and takes a lot of the guesswork out of it. The key really is following the directions on how to fertilize.

If you don’t follow the directions, you will “burn” your yard and possibly cause more damage. If you follow the directions provided by Scott’s, you’ll get great results. and not just the directions on the bag but the recommendations on when it’s best to use each product for your region.

I’ve tried other brands of fertilizer out there (based solely on what I could afford at the time) and Scott’s by far puts out products that are far superior that give far better, longer lasting results.

Using the Scott’s program guarantees that you have the correct products delivered to your door at the correct time to use them (usually arriving a week or two before you would want to put them down).

The price of the fertilizer is also slightly cheaper than buying it at the store (and considering most people who fertilize their yards use the same products you’ll be looking for at the same time, it’s sometimes hard to find what you’re after).

I definitely recommend Scott’s fertilizers and the Scott’s program.

I’ve used Scotts products for 20 years and have been happy with the results overall. However, one issue I’ve consistently had is with the recommended spreader settings. Across two different Scotts drop spreaders and numerous Scotts products, I’ve always had to subtract 1 off the number on the back of the bag to get the right amount down.

For example, for this product, instead of a 6 1/2 (the number on the bag, not the 7 it lists on this website), I set the Scotts drop spreader at a 5 1/2. If I use a 6 1/2, it puts down 50% more than recommended rate.

Not sure why it recommends a 7 on the website. My guess is a 7 would drop twice the recommended amount as holes on the bottom get exponentially larger at higher settings (that is, a 6 puts down *way more* than twice as much as a 3).

I think the actual drop rate can depend on your walking speed, angle you hold the spreader, and amount of product in the hopper, so maybe that explains the difference. Just be careful, better to err on the side of too little than too much.

After 10 weeks of growing 400 sq ft of Sun & Shade Mix, I had a full, vibrant green lawn. Required 4 waterings a day, but since I’m working from home, I considered it a once in a lifetime opportunity to throw careful attention to the project.

Added this product according to the instructions on 6/4/21. Today, 6/9/21, I am looking at 60% – 70% burned out. All those man hours, toasted. Probably going to require a re-plant in early September.

Is it just me, or did the marketing team get a little overzealous and make this product look like it has no downside. I was not even aware that there was any risk in using this stuff. I’m not landscaper, and I don’t have decades of experience to rely on, so maybe I applied with a liberal hand.

But if you sell this stuff in every big-box store in America, you should take time to let people know this can seriously damage people’s property. You fooled me.

I got this Greenview Fall Lawn Food to put on my (rather small) lawn. You do have to apply it with a drop spreader so that you don’t end up with too much in one place. I also got it more at the beginning of spring versus the beginning of fall.

I live in Michigan so our weather is pretty crazy. It does work really well as long as you follow directions. You’re going to want to apply it to a dry lawn, on a nice day (thing 60 degrees or more), and water well for a few days at least (don’t overwater though).

Applying in fall would certainly have made it easier. As we are approaching the middle of spring here, I can already see my lawn starting to look more lush and green. I’m so excited to see how it looks as summer comes!.

The fertilizer is easy to spread. Directions are clear and helpful. It’s tough to tell year to year how well the product works. If nothing else, all else being equal, I think the grass feels a bit more robust this Spring than previous springs.

So maybe chalk that up to the mix? Definitely follow the spreading instructions. A little goes a long ways. I did like the weight of the mix – it was easy to apply but didn’t blow around in high winds.

It appeared to find it’s way to the earth well. All in all, I’m fairly pleased.

I got this to try on an area of my yard that we are having problems with. The area was dug up 2 summers ago. We planted new grass there but it hasn’t done very well and gets burned up by the sun very easily.

I went out and applied this to a portion of that area right before it rained. I went back out to check on it about a week later. The grass in that area did have a darker color to. It seems like it’s going to help my grass.

The lawn food is kind of pellatized. It was easy to spread ( I just put it in a bucket and scooped it out with a cup). I didn’t notice any kind of smell to it when I was spreading it. I plan on putting this on the rest of the yard this weekend!.

This is carried by our big box and mom and pop hardware stores here. It has no phosphates which makes it fish and aquatic friendly. Spread over a lawn that has early spring bulbs (snow drops, crocuses, muscari and dwarf irises) within the grass.

I feel it actually improved the growth of not only the grass but the performance of my spring bulbs. Used along the edge where our fruit trees (cherry, espalier apple and plum) are and it helped their spring budding as well.

Since it doesn’t have the weeding chemicals in it I didn’t hesitate to use it.

This is one of the best products you can add to your lawn. Milorganite being the other best. Seriously why add all that salt to your lawn with synthetic fertilizer and kill everything in you soil? This feeds the microbes in you soil and in return gives you an amazing lawn with a little patience.

I highly recommend!.

I have used this in the past to get rid of thatch. The bacteria in it cause the thatch to turn into nutrients and recycle into the soil. Great product Don’t leave it outside of the house unattended though as the squirrels think it is food and will tear the bag open.

This fertilizer greened up our lawn in about 4 days, just like the label promised. And it doesn’t smell bad, like our old organic fertilizer used to. The price is less, and this is good stuff. Already recommended it to a landscaper for his own use in his business.

Had minimal detectable effect [i. e. browning] after two weeks, and then only on fine spiral-bur clover. Had no detectable effect whatsoever on all other broad-leaf weeds like Dandelions. Just followed up today with spray on weed killer.

Over the years I’ve found most any brand of weed and feed nearly useless on lawn weeds in Central CA, valleys or coastline. You must fertilize, then spray for weeds separately to have any significant effect.

Lawn green-up was also minimal after two weeks.

Comparing this to Scotts Turf builder: Ingredients are similar N/P/K is 29-0-4 compared to Turf builder’s 32-0-4 It costs a fair amount less As Scott’s says; their pellets are all in one. I can see that as a potential benefit as their fertilizer will be a 32-0-4 mix everywhere it is spread.

The Ace brand does have separate pellets, so if they are not evenly mixed, it will not be a 29-0-4 mix everywhere it is spread. BUT to my eye, it was evenly mixed. AND the pellets did not stick together like what happens with Scott’s fertilizers I have used.

Another reviewer complained that it did not work well with his Scott’s drop spreader. For my Scott’s hand held broadcast spreader, the fact that the pellets did not stick together made it work better than Scott’s fertilizers for my spreader.

I am going to stick with this.

Usually, I buy the Scotts 4 step program, but, this year I decided to try the ACE brand since it was cheaper. My Review isn’t really based on the effectiveness of the product as that is yet to be seen, but, more about the application.

I have a Scott Elite spreader that is 1 year old. The step 1/2/3 use 3. 5 for spreader settings. I didn’t change this when adding the ACE crabgrass and very little was coming out. The yellow crystals appear quite larger than Scotts.

The bag says to use setting 4, but, that was even low. I ended up bumping up to 4. 5 to get correct distribution. So word of caution is to increase your number if coming from Scotts.

The Long Island turf builder worked very good in so far as fertilizing the grass, resulting in a lush green grass. However, years ago Scotts went to a uniform pelletized formula where the product is a consistent mix, similar to your regular Turf Builder and many of your other products.

It goes on very evenly and flows out of the drop spreader very well. This was a big improvement over what I would call the other cheaper products on the market then as well as today where they all contain these very hard particles.

Your Long Island mix has for some reason gone back to this and I was very disappointed as soon as I opened the bag. I knew what was ahead. The very hard white granules kept the sliding door on the bottom of the spreader from closing several times.

In addition they are very noisy and over time I am sure they would do damage to the spreader as you hear the auger grinding on them. One of the reasons I have been using Scotts products for years is because I believe Scotts is the only product that does not have these irritating and damaging very hard white inert particles in the mix.

PLEASE DO NOT GO BACKWARDS AND DO THIS TO ALL OF YOUR OTHER PRODUCTS! I would give the product a higher rating if not for the above problem.

The Scotts® Turf Builder® Long Island Lawn Food is exactly what my lawn needed. I carefully followed the instructions and within a week I noticed a huge difference. After continued use, it made my lawn thicker, greener and healthier! I’ve been getting compliments on how lush my lawn is.

Prior to using this product there were a few large dead spots. Now they are filled in! I’m very impressed to see these results. Nothing else has worked as well as this turf builder. This product is durable and very reliable.

I highly recommend it!.

Tried this lawn food this year for my lawn. Follow the instruction using the hand spreader, the result was great. Nice green, lush. Even a friend commented on it. Well comparing to last year where I used a different type of lawn food, and cause local “burnt” spots.

Furthermore, living in Queens, which is really part of Long Island, it’s nice to know that this product is design with Long Island waterway in mind.