Question
I live in Winchester, VA (northern most tip of Virginia).  I have fertilized my lawn once in early spring and I am about to fertilize again.  I am curious if you would recommend a summer guard application.  I have heard some say it may do more harm than good.  Is this true?  If so, what would you recommend. Thanks for your time,
Jay

Answer
I do not recommend the use of fertilizers on cool season grass in summer (you will have cool season grass in your area). In warm season areas, such as the deep south where they have warm season grasses, fertilizing in summer is needed and useful, but in your area, fertilizing in summer does more harm than good.

Wait until september to fertilize again, and then repeat in early to mid november.

The recommended fertilizer timing for your area would be May, September, November.

You can use Scott's fertilizer products, but skip the summer guard for two reasons:
1) the grass should not be fertilized in summer
2) the use of pesticides (included in scott's summerguard) kills just as many - or more - beneficial insects than harmful and unless you have a proven problem with insects destroying your lawn, do not apply pesticides to a home lawn (and if you do, use a pesticide only product without fertilizer in summer). Pesticides should never be applied preventiatively (despite the commercials) and only in response to problems, unless it is applied preventiatively against an DOCUMENTED past problem with specific insects.

Note: just because a fertilizer is guaranteed (in commercials, etc) not to burn the lawn in summer, it is not the same as it being beneficial to apply fertilizer in mid summer.

In your case, you should not fertilize cool season grass:  just skip this application and wait until september.

The overriding purpose of the commercials on TV which heralds the use of fertilizers with summerguard in summer are primarily concerned with selling more products than following a sound fertilizer program.