Cheap option from Bunnings to feed lawn. Suggestions?

[Aussie-Garden]

G'day everyone.

I have $40.00 that I can spend on feeding the lawn this week.

I believe it's a couch that came up itself after we built  18 months ago and is still spreading out to fill gaps.

We are in Northern Victoria and our ground is orange sand.

Last year I used Rooster Booster and it seemed to go well and it's just over 17 bucks for a 20kg bag.

We have a large area to cover with front and back, so I would grab 2 bags and use any extra for the garden beds.

I do see stuff like poultry manure in bags for around 8 bucks for a 25kg bag.

I would get more product for similar money if I bought 4 of these, rather than 2 of the Rooster Booster.

Just wondering what people think of this, or have tried something themselves or have any kind of recommendations.

As I said, $40.00 is my budget to feed the lawn.

Thanks in advance.

[prettyliving]

I’m defiantly no expert, hubby takes care of the lawns, but we put a bag of Baileys 3.1.1. down on our winter green a few months ago and it went nuts! Because of the added wetting agent it survived the hot summer we had in Perth too 👍🏻 

[Jason]

Let me tag our resident lawn care expert @Adam_W for you @Aussie-Garden.

I'm sure Adam would be happy to share his opinion.

Jason

[Kermit]

https://www.bunnings.com.au/scotts-lawn-builder-4kg-all-purpose-slow-release-fertiliser_p2962041

[Adam_W · Accepted solution]

Hi @Aussie-Garden this is one of those ones where the cheap option is not necessarily the cheapest.
I'll explain with actual examples & bear with me here...
It's not just as simple as 'this big bag is better value...' There are a few considerations you need to have.
- Coverage - how many metres square will the bag cover?

- Duration/frequency - how long does each application last for or put another way, how often does it need to be reapplied for best results?

- Environmental considerations - bulky fertilisers that need frequent reapplications will often be leaching nutrients into surrounding areas like drains, creeks, waterways & bush. Apart from the environmental concerns this also means you are quite literally flushing your money down the drain.
You may have had success with Rooster Booster but I would never recommend using a pelletised garden food on lawns. Few reasons - very high chance of burning, you are guessing on the application rate, it persists as (smelly) lumps for too long & tends to get walked everywhere, tend to be a very short feed time.
Funnily enough I've done the figures on a few popular lawn foods in a spreadsheet for an article I worked on. I broke it down to cost per 100sq/m that accounted for reapplications etc.
The ideal target for a food is best cost per 100sq/m annually from the lowest total weight.
The image below is some of the spreadsheet and shows that Lawn Builder is the most efficient & effective with Hortico coming in second.
How big is your lawn by the way? I ask because, as an example, an 8kg bag of Lawn Builder covers 570sq/m so if your lawn is 150sq/m then one bag for $46 will give you one years worth (four) applications.

Hope this helps!

[MitchellM]

@Aussie-Garden Just a heads-up, that Poultry manure is a 25 Litre bag not 20 kilo as the Rooster Booster is. So that is where you are seeing most of the price discrepancy.

I am just estimating, but I would believe a 25 litre bag of poultry manure would be around 8-10 kilograms.

[Aussie-Garden]

G'day everyone.

Quality replies as always and very much appreciated.

Will try to work out my lawn sizes and how to measure and throw fertiliser without a spreader.

Wife is going past a Bunnings tomorrow, so I'll do some reading up on actual lawn fertilisers today and organise a click and collect for tomorrow.

Thanks very much everyone.

[MitchellM]

@Aussie-Garden Make sure you post some update pictures once that fertiliser kicks in and feel free to post anytime you have a project you are working on, or need any assistance!

[Aussie-Garden]

G'day everyone.

I just wanted to say thanks again for the help.

It's now been a week and a bit since I used the fertiliser and the colour of the lawn has really popped and it is clearly creeping out and spreading at the moment.

It is what looks like a couch grass that just popped up after the build and we have been encouraging it to grow. No seeding or turf used.

I went with the Scotts Lawn Builder 8kg and I still have half a bag left, which I am happy about as I did  have a large area to cover.

Very glad I asked for advise here and went with a proper fertiliser.

Thanks again!

[Jason]

Good one, thanks for coming back to us @Aussie-Garden. Glad to hear you have got a great result.

Jason