Lawn Care Tips

Growing a healthy and safe lawn doesn't have to be complicated. If you build the soil and follow a few basic cultural techniques involving watering, fertilizing, and mowing you can develop a lush, green organic lawn without harming kids, pets, wildlife, the water supply, or the rest of the environment.

Watering

Water early in the morning. Much of the water from daytime watering is lost to evaporation. Avoid over-watering- it is more damaging to a lawn than under-watering. Watering one inch per week should be sufficient.

Fertilizing

Fertilize once or twice per year--early spring and then again in the fall. This is sufficient for an attractive lawn. Cool season grasses are semi-dormant in the summer; fertilizing during summer will be less effective. Fertilizing in the fall promotes vigorous lawn growth the next spring.

Use a fertilizer with time-released, water soluble nitrogen. These fertilizers are less likely to burn your lawn and a slow release allows the roots to absorb the nutrients as needed. With fast acting fertilizers some nutrienst are washed away with watering/rain and the wasted fertilizer often finds it way into ground water and pollutes the aquifer.

Organic lawn treatment professionals recommend treating lawns with corn gluten as an effective pre-emergent for weed control.

Minimize pesticides and herbicides as they often kill soil organisms valuable to a healthy lawn. Soil over-treated with chemical pesticides/herbicides can take as long as a year to recover.

Spot treat weeds with vinegar to minimize herbicide use. Be sure to treat the targeted weeds only as vinegar can also burn grass and garden plants. Pulling weeds can also be effective--be sure to remove as much of the root as possible.

Mowing

Mow high. The simplest way to help your organic lawn grow up healthy and dense is to adjust your mower's cutting height to its highest setting. Why? Tall blades of grass have more surface area exposed to the sun, enabling them to photosynthesize more sugars and starches for greater root growth. Greater root mass means better access to water and nutrients, so plants are more tolerant of drought and can recover more rapidly from dormancy.

Cut grass to 3 to 4 inches tall. Most grasses can be mowed to a height of 3 to 4 inches. Some varieties, particularly fine fescues and centipede grass, fall over at that height and should be mowed a half inch to an inch shorter than other grasses.

Remove just one-third of the blade. No matter how tall the turf, refrain from cutting off more than one-third of each grass blade in any single mowing, or you risk stressing the grass. And cutting off just one-third will produce small clippings, which you should leave on your lawn right where they fall.

Keep the mower blade sharp. A dull lawn-mower blade will tear grass, and the jagged wounds make the plants susceptible to infection and allow for more rapid evaporation. It is recommended to sharpen the mower blade after every 8 hours or so of cutting. Most hardware stores and any power-equipment dealer will sharpen your blade quickly and inexpensively.

Grasscycling - Leave the clippings on the lawn. As grass clippings decompose, they contribute valuable nitrogen to the soil, almost 2 pounds of nitrogen per 1,000 square feet of soil each season or about half of the lawn's annual fertilizer needs. They also add organic matter and provide a variety of other benefits to the soil and grass. Many people believe, however, that clippings left on the lawn contribute to thatch-dead or dying grass parts that form a layer on top of the soil and obstruct moisture and oxygen from reaching plant roots. But just the opposite is true: Fresh clippings stimulate earthworm activity, which breaks down thatch.

Fear no weeds. You'll leave no room for weeds if you mow your grass often (but not too low) with a sharp blade and grow it in soil that's rich in organic matter and biological activity. Researchers at the University of Maryland confirmed that mowing cool-season turfgrasses to 3 inches high works as well as or better than herbicides for suppressing crabgrass. It is the opinion of many organic lawn professionals that dandelions, common purslane, and other low-growing annual weeds also do not survive in a lawn that's cut high.