ONCE, I used Weed & Feed fert. Killed some veggies I had growing off to the side.
Don't know why I used it, because I found that fertilizer killed my worms in my NJ lawn. After that, I always used composted cow manure. It's a pain to spread though. So, for the last few years I've been using Milorganite.
This year, I switched to Cock A Doodle, chicken-based, fert for my lawn and Espoma 18% N, another organic but cow or pig manure based, to correct the C:N ratio on the sawdust that I get. It would also be good for the lawn.
If you want to find out why fert kills worms, read the book Teaming with Microbes. You can also understand why such low N stuff like Cock A Doodle and Milorganite works, too. They (and compost) feed the microorganisms, which then feed your lawn. Regular fert just nukes everything, and only about 10% of so of it actually gets to the roots of the lawn, e.g. guess where the other 90% goes: ever hear of runoff and sink-in to the water table? With Weed & Feed, you're really nuking everything and weakening the roots of the grass that you really want. Just mow high to let the grass shade out the weeds. Weeds are green, too.
I just spread lime and fertilizer with a hand-held or little 2 wheeled broadcast spreader. I just did my fields with my hand-held this afternoon. Too rough to run the 2 wheely one over and around brush and rocks and stuff. Those big 3 ph ones can put stuff in many places where you don't want it. I'd only use them for doing big open fields.
Ralph
