A beautiful lawn is a wonderful addition to any backyard or garden. But having your lawn lush, rich, green and healthy isn’t a given. The way to achieve a beautiful lawn that’s the envy of your neighbours or anyone who passes, is to get a really good lawn feed.
There’s a lot that goes into making the perfect lawn feed, but to help make your choice of lawn feed easy, we’ve handpicked our top 5 lawn feeds that are out on the market today, and our reviews of them are coming up shortly.
Then we go a step further and run through everything you might want to think about before you buy your lawn feed in our buying guide. AND we also cover a few of your most frequently asked questions.
Let’s go!
In a hurry? This is our winner!
- Richer, greener lawn in 5 days
- Dissolved nutrients lowers the risk of scorching
- Easy to apply using the Miracle-Gro Feeder or mixing in a watering can
Best Lawn Feed – Comparison Table
Best Lawn Feed – Reviews
Miracle-Gro 11149 Water Soluble Lawn Food 1 kg, Multicolour
Miracle-Gro has had some really positive customer feedback about this water soluble lawn feed, scoring an impressive 4 and a half stars out of a possible 5 on the Amazon page – even after well over 700 customer ratings.
Rather than sprinkle granules onto your lawn, with this lawn feed, you dissolve a spoonful of it into a filled watering can (or Miracle-Gro’s own Feeder) and apply it that way.
Since the lawn feed is dissolved in water when it’s applied, it gets to work far more quickly than the granular alternative, as it begins to be absorbed on application, and you can see visible results in as little as 5 days.
The other advantage of this method compared to granular feed is that there is less risk of scorching, or fertilizer burn, since the feed will be distributed far more evenly.
As with all lawn feed, this will make your lawn both thicker and greener, thanks to its nitrogen content. But there are also two further ingredients which do a lot for your lawn.
There’s potash, which makes your grass more resistant to disease and drought. And then there’s also phosphate, which is there to ensure you get strong roots.
The instructions on the back of the pack are very clear and easy to understand, and it explains the portions to use for a 100 square meter lawn (and from there you can scale up or down) and it clarifies how often to use it, which is handy for anyone new to gardening.
- Great, well established brand
- Impressive customer rating
- Easy to apply evenly
- Results in 5 days
- Less risk of fertilizer burn
- Thicker, greener lawn
- Resistance to disease and drought
- Phosphate for strong roots
- Clear instructions & guidance
- Requires use of watering can or feeder
- On occasion the results aren’t as obvious as they could be
Miracle-Gro EverGreen Complete 4 in 1 2.1kg - 60m2
Miracle-Gro is THE biggest name for lawn feeder and for fertilizer in general in the UK. And it’s popularity comes down to just how well it performs compared with the cheaper brands in the market.
This particular lawn feed is a huge best seller, with boxes flying off the shelves. And those who have bought it seem very happy with their purchase, seeing as after well over 1000 customer ratings, the average Amazon customer rating comes in at a very impressive 4 and a half stars out of 5.
This lawn feed provides 4 functions, to give you a thicker healthier lawn in just one week, a greener lawn, and it will kill off any weeds and also kill off moss. But that’s just the benefits listed on the front of the box. It also helps protect against heat and drought.
The ingredients in the feed that make your lawn so thick and green are the nitrogen and potassium. The nitrogen forms part of the chlorophyll molecule which gives the grass its green color and helps the grass to grow. Potassium meanwhile is also a key nutrient for your lawn. It’s also involved in photosynthesis and strengthens roots.
We love the detailed guidance on the back of the box. The guidance includes when you should use the lawn feed and even includes spreader settings.
- Great well established brand
- Flying off the shelves
- Impressive customer rating
- Thicker lawn
- Greener lawn
- Kills off weeds
- Kills off moss
- As this is a granular lawn feed, you have to be careful how you apply it in order to prevent fertiliser burn.
- As it includes pesticides, you should keep pets and small children away until the feed has been dissolved.
Miracle-Gro 119665 EverGreen Fast Green Spray & Feed, Liquid Lawn Food, 1 Litre, Clear
Here’s a great little liquid lawn feed from that great brand Miracle-Gro!
Being in liquid form it provides much quicker benefits than you’d get with the granular variety, and you can see your lawn become thicker and greener in just 24 hours!
But this particular lawn feed has advantages beyond that, specifically in how it’s applied. The bottle has a special application system which allows you to attach your garden hose – and you literally feed and water your lawn through the applicator at the same time. No having to do any careful measuring or calculations.
Another advantage of this lawn feed is that it’s child and pet friendly, thanks to the lack of pesticides, so you can have little ones and pets in the garden afterward without having to worry.
In addition to nitrogen to make your lawn thicker and greener, the formula also includes phosphate for stronger roots, and potash to make the grass more resistant to disease.
Not only are the results super quick, but the application process is super quick too – it only takes 12 minutes to feed (and water) a 100 square meter lawn.
As to how often to apply it, the recommendation is once every 6 weeks from early spring through to autumn.
- Great, well established brand
- See results in just 25 hours
- Grass is thicker and greener
- Quick & easy to apply, no measuring
- Feed and water simultaneously
- Child and pet friendly
- Stronger roots Resistance to disease
- You will need a standard hose pipe to apply it
- You will need to apply it every 6 weeks for several months
Miracle-Gro 119685 Evergreen Fast Green Liquid Concentrate Lawn Food - 100 sq m Coverage, Fast-Acting, Green
This is a great little lawn feed from that ever popular brand Miracle-Gro.
Being a liquid fertilizer, it gets to work much faster than the granular alternatives – and you may well be able to see your lawn become greener in as little as 24 hours.
But that’s not it’s only plus point – it’s also child and pet friendly. This is because it doesn’t contain any nasty pesticides.
It’s easy to apply too, simply pour it into a watering can with the right proportions of concentrate and water, and apply it through that. You should be able to get very even coverage if done right, and is less likely to cause the fertilizer burn that can often come about when using granular fertilizer.
Nearly a third of the formula is nitrogen, so you get plenty of that super important ingredient to make your lawn lush and green.
Miracle-Gro recommends that you apply the fertilizer again 6 weeks after the first application, and the bottle only provides enough fertilizer for a small lawn, so one drawback is that you may well need to buy more than one bottle of fertilizer.
However, it is a concentrate, so a little should go a long way.
- Great, well established brand
- Works super quickly
- Child and pet friendly
- Clear instructions and easy to apply
- Plenty of nitrogen included
- Even coverage can be achieved
- Small bottle, more may be needed
- Needs to be reapplied
- No weed killing properties featured
- Requires use of a watering can
Westland 20400352 SafeLawn Child and Pet Friendly Natural Lawn Feed 80 m2, Green, 2.8 kg
Now here’s a lawn feed to compete with Miracle-Gro!
This granular lawn feed from Westland contains no nasty chemicals whatsoever is 100% derived from natural sources.
In addition to the nitrogen which makes grass thicker and greener in under a week, there’s also friendly bacteria which breaks down dead leaves and moss, converting them into nutrients, and allowing grass seed to fill any gaps and thinner areas.
And you don’t get any scorching or fertilizer burn, since the nutrients from the micro-granule formula are released very gradually over a long period of time.
Although this lawn feed prevents the growing of weeds and moss, it does it all without the use of pesticides. How it does this is, as the grass becomes stronger it will start to outcompete weeds and moss.
All that and it’s certified child and pet friendly too!
The way the box describes the coverage that can be attained is very easy to visualise, since it’s described in terms of car park spaces.
- Thicker greener grass
- Results in less than a week
- 100% natural formula
- Friendly bacteria
- No fertilizer burn
- Prevents weeds & moss
- Child and pet friendly
- Clear instructions
- Should be applied every 3-4 weeks from February through to September
Best Lawn Feed – Buyer’s Guide
Now we’ll go through everything you might want to think about before you buy your lawn feed.
Types of Lawn Feed
There are main types of lawn feed out on the market today, specifically granular or dry fertiliser, and liquid fertiliser.
Granular Lawn Feed
Granular lawn feed as the name suggests is composed of granules of fertiliser that often come in a shaker container, that you apply to the lawn shaking the tub to spread the granules as evenly as possible across the lawn.
If it doesn’t rain within 24 hours of the granular lawn feed being spread, you will then have to water the lawn.
Alternatively the granular lawn feed can also be distributed to the soil via a mechanical spreader.
If the lawn feed isn’t evenly spread, then this can lead to the lawn becoming patchy. There’s a reason this happens. When you over fertilize a lawn, the salts from the fertiliser build up in the soil and cause a drying effect, which can result in the grass turning yellow or brown. This phenomenon is known as fertilizer burn.
Liquid Lawn Feed
Using liquid lawn feed on the other hand is a great way to avoid fertilizer burn. Liquid lawn feed comes in large spray bottles, and as a liquid, they are far more fasting acting. This is because they get absorbed directly through the roots and leaves, the process beginning almost immediately.
Depending on the quality of the lawn beforehand, you may need to apply the liquid fertilizer once or twice a month.
Size of Granules
The size of the crystals in granular lawn feed can significantly affect how long they take to be absorbed by the lawn to take in those all important nutrients.
Smaller, more soluble fertilizer, is easier and quicker to dissolve when rain or water is applied, which in turn enables the nutrients to be absorbed more easily and quickly
Weed Killing Properties
Lawn feed is available with or without weed killing chemicals. Typically a lawn feed with weed killing functionality usually targets moss. This could be a handy facet to your lawn feed if the nutritional profile of the soil is low.
However you could also solve any potential moss problems by raking the soil.
Turf Hardening Properties
Having sufficiently hard turf can prevent your lawn from a number of diseases, such as brown patch, powdery mildew and dollar sport. When lawns are struck with such diseases usually the only way this can be “solved” is by scorching the entire lawn and starting all over again.
If this is a potential concern for you, you could opt for lawn feed with turf hardening properties.
Time of Year
Different fertilizers work best in different times of year, due to featuring different levels of different chemicals.
Spring fertilizers contain more phosphorus, so that the lawn can really take root and start growing strong as soon as possible, even after a dormant winter.
Autumn fertilizers on the other hand are lower in nitrogen, and are best suited to defending your lawn against diseases.
Application Rate
Different lawn feeders offer different recommendations as to how often the lawn feed should be applied.
Opinion on how often a lawn feed should be applied is very mixed, and the best advice is to see how it grows and apply as required.
Precisely when you apply fertilizer depends on a number of different factors: the type of grass you have, the type of soil you have, and also the climate.
With more water or rain, there is more growth, and so you will need more fertilizer, and then as the grass grows more, it uses more nutrients still. So the real key is to feed or fertilize your lawn when your grass is doing the most growing, whenever that might be.
As a general rule with the application of lawn feed however, it’s a case of less is more. Applying too much lawn feed can lead to the fertilizer burn we talked about earlier.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can I make my grass thicker and greener?
Using a good lawn feed is one of the best ways to make your lawn thicker and greener. But there’s more you can do besides.
Before applying lawn feed, you should test your soil’s nutrient and pH levels, and take steps to adjust the pH if it’s too high or too low. You should also sow plenty of grass seed, remembering to use shade tolerant grass if required, and also aerate your lawn before fertilizing it.
Once your thicker lawn is on track, you should follow good lawn watering practices to provide it with sufficient water. You should also take steps to control weeds, since they compete with your lawn’s grass for sunlight, water and nutrients.
What is the best spring lawn feed?
In the spring to create the perfect lawn, it more often than not becomes more important to tackle any weeds and moss in your lawn. For that reason, we recommend that you get yourself our Number 2 pick, the Miracle-Gro EverGreen Complete 4 in 1.
Can you overfeed your lawn?
The short answer is yes – more isn’t always better. If you apply too much grass fertilizer, a good share of it will leach through the soil and make its way into our groundwater.
You should take care to apply your lawn feed only as often as the instructions on your particular lawn feed state.