This is the prime time to fertilize your yard | Binetti
Fall plant food slowly release nutrients into the soil, keeping it healthy all winter long.
September 10, 2025 10:00 am
On Sept. 20, at 10:30 a.m., there will be a free “Turf Out” seminar at Squawk Mountain Nursery in Issaquah on getting rid of some of your lawn, and what to plant and to maintain a landscape with less lawn.
Fall is for planting and as the weather cools and rains return it is also the time to renovate your lawn.
The most effective time to fertilize a NW lawn if you only intend to feed your lawn once a year is in the fall. This is because a fall and winter lawn food will have a slow-release plant food that winter rains can wash down to the grass roots. Then, in the spring your lawn will grow fast and thick, crowding out many of the spring weeds.
This is also a good time to consider if you even need to have so much lawn as part of your landscape. Free seminars sponsored by local water districts are helping Western Washington gardeners reduce their water bills, use fewer chemical fertilizers and provide more blooms for pollinators by shrinking or even eliminating traditional lawn. If you allowed your lawn to ‘go golden’ this summer because you stopped watering, you may be happy to see it green up again in the fall. But this is also a good time of year to learn to live without a traditional lawn by considering some lawn alternatives.
Honey I Shrunk the Lawn: How to start small and grow less grass
Make your pathways and planting beds wider.
As shrubs and trees mature you can stop the time and expense of constant pruning by cutting away lawn areas to widen paths and increase the size of beds that hold shrubs and perennial planting beds.
Tip: Choose drought resistant shrubs such as barberry, potentilla, junipers and nandina when you open up more space for planting as the turf area shrinks. The freedom of not needing to irrigate and the money savings from a lower water bill are just two benefits of having more shrubs and less lawn.
Replace turf with low growing groundcovers that never need mowing.
For shaded areas there are evergreen ground covers such as ajuga, lamiums and sweet woodruff that will stay low without mowing and stay green without summer water. In the hot and dry areas, you can replace that thirsty lawn with drought resistant thymes, sedums and succulents.
Nobody ever killed a boulder or had to water gravel.
Consider planting some boulders instead of bushes and surround your big rocks with decorative gravel or river rock for a display that adds texture and contrast without ever demanding a drop of water. Gardening with more stone is rock solid advice for more carefree landscapes.
Go native for natural beauty.
Our Western Washington natural landscape is evergreen and ever beautiful. Why fight Mother Nature? Replace a section of turf with one tall focal point tree such as our native vine maple, surround this with three to five lower growing native shrubs such as Oregon grape (Mahonia) add some sword ferns for more texture and carpet the ground with native salal or coral bells. Want a more formal look? Add a bird bath or a collection of fancy bird houses on tall pillars. Don’t forget the boulders. Native plants just do well here naturally.
Marianne Binetti has a degree in horticulture from Washington State University and is the author of “Easy Answers for Great Gardens” and several other books. For answers to gardening questions, visit plantersplace.com and click “As The Expert”. Copyright for this column owned by Marianne Binetti. For more gardening information, she can be reached at her website, www.binettigarden.com.
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