What type of lawn do you have and where in SC are you located?

And...

How high do you mow?

How much do you water?

Milorganite doesn't have any weed control products in it. You don't have to water it in like Scott's and you cannot burn your lawn with it. I've tried by pouring it in a pile about an inch deep in a small section of my yard and it didn't burn it. If you apply Milorganite at the suggested rate on the bag, you are only putting down 2/3 of a pound of Nitrogen.

I have centerpede grass and I am in Columbia, SC. I normally cut my grass about 1 1/2 - 2" i guess. I dont water in the fall and winter but I water once a day in the spring and summer.

Oh my gosh, Mr. Jones, you have got to change your watering practices. Deep but infrequent. Once a week or once in 5 days, but NOT everyday. Water 1 inch once a week. Measure your watering by placing tuna cans around the yard as you water. Learn how long it takes to get one inch of water getting sprinkled on the lawn. Do that once a week. Sooner if the lawn looks stressed. Bill Hill

Thanks for coming back with that information. Centipede grass does well when mowed low, so you are doing that just right. I agree with billhill on watering. We've been preaching 'deep and infrequent' for a couple years and have lots of testimonials as to the effectiveness. You'll have to adjust your watering to your soil, humidity, and grass, but even in Phoenix they can water once a week during the summer.

Why water like that? Weed seeds need continual moisture to germinate and sprout. If you water every day, or the seeds do not have a chance to dry out, they will sprout and you get a weedy lawn. If you water deeply, your grass will grow deep roots that can go longer without water. When you have moisture deeper in the soil then you can allow the soil, and seeds, to dry out at the surface. So by watering deeply and infrequently you can avoid weeds and your grass can survive drought better.

If you are going to change your watering, now would be a good time to start before summer hits. Since it is early spring, I would start "cold turkey" by watering deeply every other week. If your grass starts to wilt before two weeks is up, water right away but water a little longer next time.

Getting back to the original question, I fertilize five times a year on the federal holidays. I picked the holidays because they work for me to keep the grass green all season. I start on Washington's Birthday, then Memorial Day, 4th of July (organic only), Labor Day, and Thanksgiving.

Thanks for the information I will change my watering habits ASAP. What do you recommend I do now as in fertilizing?

I start fertilizing on Washington's Birthday because it is the closest holiday that precedes my local 'last frost' date by 3 weeks. Does that make sense? What that means is I want to fertilize 3 weeks prior to the last frost date. This is for organic only, not for chemical fertilizer. So you could go by that sort of timing.

What do you suggest I do now? What kind of fertilizer do you recommend?

If you are going to do it now, any organic you want will be fine.

Centipede - the lazy man's grass and almost as ugly as the bug of the same name. Just my opinion.

You don't need much nitrogen for this stuff. If you fertilizer 4 or 5 times per year, you want to stay away from nitrogen based ferts on your bookends and use the middle 2 or 3 with nitrogen based ferts.

Look for products that have iron to help hold your color and my advice is to use preemergents. It is not an aggressive growing turf and can have a hard time out-competing weeds when conditions aren't favorable.

Have you thought about switching to zoysia?

Thanks for the info....The centipede grass is what was outside when I moved into my house.

I never heard of Zoysia until now. I will research it and see if it is something I will switch to.