Question
How much nitrogen is recommended to make my grass greener without damaging it? Denver,CO

Answer
Slow-release Organic Nitrogen is the ultimate fertilizer for Lawns.

Don't be fooled by the low numbers on the containers.  These numbers don't BEGIN to give you the news about Grass nutrition that goes on underground at the bottom of the food chain, and ending up in your Lawn.

It's the MICROBES down there that manufacture Nitrogen.  Keep your Microbes happy and you'll find your Grass never looked so beautiful.  Funny how that works.

Here's how Jeff Lowenfels, garden writer and author, explains it in his book, Teaming with Microbes:  'Applications of synthetic fertilizers kill off most or all of the Soil food web microbes.  These fertilizers are Salts, and when they come into contact with Soil microbes, they cause osmotic shock -- that is, water in the cells of these organisms flows to the higher concentration of Salts, literally bursting through cell walls and killing off the microbes that hold (bacteria and Fungi) and cycle (nematodes and protozoa) nutrients... 100 pounds of Nitrogen Lawn fetilizer per acre will wipe out a healthy Soil food web.'

Build up your Soil.  Not your Grass.  Let Nature take its course.  You can't beat Mother Nature.

Any questions?

THE LONG ISLAND GARDENER