Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I was using Scotts Fertilizer because that's what everyone seems to use and recommend. I was using Scotts summer and winter fertilizers. Every summer I had to deal with lawn disease. I always watered early morning and never watered at night. It didn't matter if I watered 4AM, 6AM, every other day, watered less or watered more. I then used Scotts Lawn Disease Control, which didn't help much so I used Bayer Lawn Disease Control. About 2-3 summers ago the lawn disease got so bad it killed about half of one side of our lawn and started getting all kinds of weeds where the lawn died. I now believe the Scotts Fertilizer was adversely affecting the health of the soil making our lawn more susceptible over time to disease and weeds. I finally got fed up and no longer use Scotts or any synthetic fertilizer. Scotts used to have an organic lawn fertilizer called Organic Choice available at Home Depot that I started using then all of a sudden I couldn't find it anymore so I just decided that I'm done with Scotts altogether. In fact I couldn't seem to find ANY organic lawn fertilizer at Home Depot so I started going to Orchard Hardware Supply and buying Espoma Organic Fertilizer. The best time to apply seemed to be in the fall and about 2-3 months before summer. I also started seeding the lawn with the same type of lawn that we have to grow new grass in areas where grass had died and to add more grass to the rest of the lawn. It has been a slow process but I have been working on restoring the soil after reading that synthetic fertilizer over time can adversely affect the health of the soil which can result in lawn issues. I wanted to order more Espoma Organic Fertilizer online but then found Safer Brand Ringer Lawn Restore II on Amazon. I liked the fact that this organic lawn fertilizer was formulated to restore nutrients in the soil which is exactly what I have been trying to do. Everything in the product description is exactly what I have been looking for. To be honest I was already working on restoring the health of the soil and had been applying other organic fertilizers but still wasn't getting the really deep dark green healthy looking lawn I wanted. I decided to try Safer Brand Ringer Lawn Restore II. My lawn is probably less than 1500 square feet total but I used a little more than half the bag during my first application about a month and a half ago. This organic fertilizer has NO manure like smell and actually seems to have kind of a beer like smell to me but I couldn't really smell it once applied to the lawn. A few days ago for the hell of it I decided to use the rest of the bag and now all of a sudden within the last couple of days our lawn has been completely overtaken by a really nice deep dark green color. I know I applied far more than recommended but since the nitrogen number is lower than other fertilizers and weather is cool I didn't think it would hurt. I have been watering about 5 minutes per day since temperatures have been no more than about 60 degrees during the day since it was applied to keep the lawn moist so it will absorb the fertilizer. I did not mow the lawn until 2 weeks later after it was applied since I want to the granules to dissolve and absorb into the lawn instead of the mower picking up the granules. IMPROVING SOIL AND LAWN HEALTH WITH ORGANIC FERTILIZER CAN BE A SLOW PROCESS BUT IS WORTH IT!! For lawns with really unhealthy soil and have had years of synthetic fertilizer use it can take some time to restore soil health and at first you may not see that much of a difference after the first application. Remember that the health of the soil doesn't deteriorate overnight so restoring the health of the soil isn't going to happen overnight either. My neighbor next door uses synthetic and I'm not sure what brand they use but it seems like they have to apply a lot of it several times a year to keep their lawn green. I know because it seems like I am always having to sweep up the little white granules off the sidewalk and street after they apply it. At first glance they appear to have a nice lawn, "however" if you look close there are weeds and bare spots. They mow their lawn all the time so the weeds are not noticeable unless you look closely. Their lawn has also being overtaken by clovers and weeds on multiple occasions which I believe is due to the synthetic fertilizer they use. Then of course they put more synthetic fertilizer with weed control to get rid of the weeds. I didn't realize how toxic the synthetic stuff could be until I started reading about it and it seems like so many people are just mindlessly turning their lawns and properties into toxic waste dumps. In addition, many people seem to forget or don't care that this stuff runs off into storm drains and runs off on sidewalks where people walk. I think every Home Depot should carry organic lawn fertilizer since locations near us no longer seem to carry it. I also think it's time for Scotts to start pushing organic lawn fertilizer as much as much as they push the synthetic stuff.