Question
I live in the Pacific Northwest and a couple of weeks ago I set the spreader wrong. Really over fertilized the lawn.  Now I have a lot of dead spots.  I know that over time (a year or so) it will flush its self out and grow back in.  But if Fertilizer changes the soil to an alkali condition, would it not help to give the lawn some Lime to counteract and sweeten it, and move the process along faster?  I'm also thinking of A little topsoil and some Lawn Patch on the spots. Good advise appreciated.

Answer
Depending of course on what fertilizer you used, it could be a matter of a couple of weeks or a matter of months (if this was a slow release fertilizer) before the soil will be fertilizer-free.

Fertilizer pH varies a LOT.  Superphosphate (40-20-0) has a fairly neutral pH.  Likewise, Potassium Nitrate (13-0-44).  Ammonium Sulfate (20-0-0), Dried Blood (12-0-0), and Urea Formaldehyde (38-0-0) are Acid.  Sodium Nitrate (15-0-0), Wood Ashes (0-1-5) and Bonemeal are Bases.  Their effect on the pH of the Soil you put them in can be almost instantaneous -- or it can take months.  The damage caused by your fertilizer however is not due to a pH problem -- although the first thing you should do when taking on Lawn care is get a measure of your soil pH and a full analysis.  The damage you see is due to the Salt in the fertilizer.  You burned the Grass in certain spots with too much Salt.  Lime (which is alkaline, and yes, it does sweeten the soil) will not help.

My friend, you need to slow down.

Pray for rain.

Wash out the fertilizer and start over.  Step 1:  A soil test.  Get this from your local Cooperative Extension -- for less than the price of a bag of that fertilizer, you can get a complete printout of what you have in your Soil and what you need.  Then you won't need to fertilizer with the wrong stuff.

Like I tell people, it's like baking a cake.

If you want to bake a cake, you check the cupboard, you check the refrigerator, you make a list, and you go out and buy what you need.

Then you come back and you get out the ingredients.  You set the temperature of the oven.  You wait until it's hot enough.  You mix, and you bake.  You set the timer.  When it's ready, out comes a big, delicious, beautiful cake.

What's the temperature of the oven?

Do you have eggs?

Do you have flour?

If you have a soil test, you know what's in the cupboard, what's in the refrigerator, what's the temperature of the oven, how long has it been in there.  You need to know these things or you cannot grow the best Grass in town.

Most people get their information on Lawn growing by watching the Scotts commercials during half time.  They read the directions on the bag of fertilizer.  That's EVERYTHING they know about Grass.  To me, that's like reading Pravda to learn about Current Events.  Scotts has one plan in mind: To make you buy more Scotts.  And you are going to do that now because you have wiped out your Lawn with the stuff, and you have to get more Grass, which they also sell.

Get that soil test.  Turn over -- excuse the expression -- a new leaf.  Find out what your soil pH is -- a soil test will give you that number.  Do you need to put down Lime?  A soil test will tell you.

And if you're thinking you don't need to know these things, think what your cake would be like if you just ran out and bought everything and threw it in there.  Not much of a cake.  Grass grows just like you make a cake.

If your pH is too high, you find your Grass is deficient in things like Boron, Copper, Zinc and Iron and Magnesium.  If it's too low, you find your Grass shows symptoms of TOO MUCH Iron, Magnesium, Zinc and Copper, but a shortage of Calcium and Magnesium.  You need these problems on top of the one you're dealing with?

Tell me your zipcode.  I'll give you the contact info for the closest, cheapest Soil Test.  Or if you're feeling rich, you can get the one they do at your local Soil Foodweb headquarters, which I believe are in Washington State, where they do the Rolls-Royce of analyses.