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The Lawn Review: Home » My Experience Using Milorganite Fertilizer (+ Secret Weapon)

My Experience Using Milorganite Fertilizer (+ Secret Weapon)

Milorganite Fertilizer is one of the most popular fertilizers available on the market. Having good soil is absolutely ESSENTIAL for having a beautiful lawn.

green grass in frontyard

Bottom line on Milorganite Fertilizer: Milorganite is a tried and true fertilizer that works just about anywhere on just about anything. You can grab it for a great price from your local hardware store or on Amazon.

How do you get good soil you ask? One of the best ways is to fertilize! Let’s check out one of the best products:

Milorganite has an amazing reputation for quality

Milorganite is an OG of the fertilizer world. This stuff has been around almost 100 years and there’s a reason! It works.

Essentially Milorganite is a bunch of dead microscopic bug things that ate a bunch of crap out to the water in Lake Michigan. The company takes these little bug things and kills them, then dries them out and packages them in pellet form. (Super dumbed down version but that’s basically it.)

milorganite fertilizer bagged
We took this picture right before we picked it up.

These dead bugs are PACKED with nutrients that are like Wheaties for your lawn, flowers, shrubs, trees, vegetables, etc. Like the Frank’s Red Hot commercial says, “I put this S** on everything!” Just don’t eat it. Well actually you kind of can eat it because you can use it in your vegetable garden. But don’t eat the actual pellets, silly. 

It’s also great for use during the summer fertilizing season.

Is Milorganite fertilizer safe?

Milorganite is safe to use. Not only has Milorganite been around longer than the dinosaurs, it’s also subject to strict environmental control regulations. It complies with all the state, local and federal regulations. There is essentially nothing fake in this product, no synthetics, salt or other mined resources. It’s basically just dead microbes. Because it has nothing added to it (LIKE SALT) it won’t burn up your yard or harm newly planted landscaping.

fertilizer
Photo cred: Utah State

Milorganite is also pet friendly! I can’t tell you how many times my wife has worried about our dog, Bella, eating up the fertilizer I apply to the yard. (And honestly she does). I can sleep easy at night knowing this stuff won’t poison our family pup. It might make your dogs stomach hurt or ruin a carpet if ingested but it shouldn’t kill them.

How does Milorganite work?

Milorganite is a slow releasing fertilizer, so in addition to not burning up due to salt additives, it also won’t damage plants because it doesn’t decompose into your lawn all at once. It continues feeding for 2 to 3 months after application.

Green grass

This slow release system also is good for mother nature. Unlike some fertilizers, the slow release does a pretty good job at preventing it from being released into the groundwater. Like I said earlier, the key to a healthy lawn is healthy dirt! 

How to apply Milorganite Fertilizer in your lawn

To apply Milorganite Fertilizer on your lawn, I highly recommend using the Scotts® Turf Builder® Edgeguard® DLX Broadcast Spreader. Depending on your lawn size, dump a bag of this stuff into the hopper of your spreader and adjust the disbursement setting on the edge of the hopper to whatever the bag recommends. It’s a big orange knob. You can’t miss it.

broadcast spreader
Looks like this!

Then pull the handle on the broadcast spreader and walk around your yard just like if you were mowing. Maybe a little more spread out than you would if you were mowing but in a similar pattern. Just make sure you’re getting some overlap of pellets on every pass.

putting down seed in the fall pattern
Similar process as Scotts turf builder

A 32 lb bag should cover a 2,500 sq ft lawn. My yard is about 10,000 sq ft so I need about 4 bags per application. 

You really should fertilize four times a year if you want that deep rich green lawn. Think a meadow in Ireland or something. This stuff will make your lawn look GOOD. You really can’t use too much unless you go crazy with it. Remember it’s slow releasing so I tend to use a little bit more than they recommend. I apply on the holiday schedule, Easter, Memorial Day, Labor Day and Halloween. But it depends on where you live. Check out the calendars below to help you out.

milorganite cool season instructions
Application instructions for Milorganite fertilizer for cool-season grass.
milorganite warm season instructions
Milorganite Fertilizer instructions for warm-season grass.

Milorganite Fertilizer Review: Recommendation

Before I’d tell you to go buy a new mower, I’d tell you to buy this stuff. It truly is the foundation you’ll build your lawn kingdom on. You simply cannot have a lush, beautiful lawn that makes your neighbors do a double take without healthy soil. Trust me. You’ve got to be religious about fertilizing. Four times a year. Every year. FOREVER.

The certainties in life should be death, taxes and fertilization. A bag of it will run you about $30 on Amazon or at Home Depot. So for you Dave Ramsey budgeters, plan on spending about $240 a year on it. So yes, I would absolutely recommend this stuff to anyone wanting a show stopper lawn. 

Where to buy Milorganite Fertilizer

You can grab Milorganite Fertilizer from just about anywhere – but we found it for a great price on Amazon.

Our secret weapon: Lawn IV

While it is still a secret, we are working to develop the ultimate sidekick to Milorganite. More to come Spring of 2024!

Why we review lawn tools

The reason we started this website in the first place was because we had so much trouble trying to find reasonable, understandable, honest reviews for lawn equipment. And it’s not cheap! After hours and hours of research, trying products and returning them, and messing up our yards – we started this site. 

review lawn tools
We go to extreme measures.

As people who had to learn the hard way, we want you to know exactly what you are signing up for before you purchase a piece of equipment. That’s why we are committed to providing honest, easy-to-understand reviews that mean something.

Alex K

Alex K

Alex is not a lawn care natural. He had to learn things the hard way. But after stumbling through his first few seasons of lawn care, he learned a lot. Mostly - what not to do. Alex has become one of the country's advocates of battery-powered lawn tools, quoted in the Washington Post among other highly visible publications. Alex started The Lawn Review with his friend Tyler - who you may see in some of the videos on this website - to help normal people like you understand how to take care of their lawn themselves with the best tools possible. Alex has thousands of hours of experience using hundreds of different lawn tools and has found exactly what to look for in each type of tool. He speaks with deep experience not only about the boring technical specifications, but what the tool actually feels like when you are using it, what to look for before you make a purchase, and how the lawn tool measures up when you factor in price.