What is the best fall fertilizer program to use on St. Aug. I live in the DFW area, and getting into organic programs.

Thanks

Welcome to organic gardening. You will probably be finding yourself UNlearning a lot of things you thought you knew about gardening. One of the first things to UNlearn is we don't feed the grass - we feed the microbes in the soil. They need sugar and protein to live. They get the sugar from the grass roots and the protein from all the dead animals on your lawn. For those of us who don't have a lot of dead animals, we substitute protein based fertilizers.

I have used corn meal in the fall but this year I'm going to be using corn gluten meal (CGM). I have a lot of problems with spring weeds that, apparently, sprout and remain dormant from fall through winter. So I need the weed seed supression that CGM gives in the fall. CGM is also a great fertilizer, so that's what I'm doing.

If you don't have a spring weed problem, then any protein-based organic fertilizer will do. All the expensive, name-brand, organic fertilizers are protein based. They all seem to cost about a dollar pound in bulk. Instead, I get corn meal at feed stores for $6.50 for 50 pounds. Fertilize at the rate of 10-20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. Alfalfa meal/pellets is a good fertilizer, too. For that matter, so are used coffee grounds, so if you know anyone in the restaurant business, they could collect coffee grounds for you.

go to Starbucks, at least here in Abilene, they bag all there coffee grounds to use in your yard, compost pile,garden or whatever. You get a lot in one bag and it is free.