Proper fertilization is necessary to produce a healthy, high-quality, attractive lawn. The first step in fertilizing your home lawn is to obtain a soil test before applying any nutrients. A soil test provides key information including soil pH, potassium and phosphorus levels. Soil testing is often free through county Cooperative Extension Service offices. See our list of state agencies to you find your local contact. Collect soil samples in a bucket from the upper 4 to 6 inches of soil from ten or more locations around the lawn. Remove any vegetative material such as stems and leaves and air dry and mix the samples thoroughly. Take about 1 pint of the mixture to your county Extension office for analysis. This will give you the best starting point of what fertilizer to use. Fertilizer is based much more on the type of soil you have, then the type of grass you have. If you don't have the time to do proper soil testing, then use a good organic fertilizer such as LazyMan Soil Doctor.