The Basics of Organic Lawn Care

Anyone interested in organic gardening surely is interested in an organic lawn care regimen. Lawn care free of chemical fertilizers and herbicides isn’t difficult nor is it any more expensive than traditional lawn care. It turns out that our lawns have a major impact on our environment.

Did you know that 30% of water on the east coast, and 60% of water on the west coast is used to water grass? It’s also staggering to know that 20% of your local landfill is filled up with grass clippings, bags of leaves, and other yard waste. Would you believe me if I told you that we’re dropping 70 million tons of fertilizers and pesticides on our lawns every year? Our lawn mowers, weed eaters, and leaf blowers emit 10 times more hydrocarbons that automobiles. Our lawns are having an untold impact on the environment. Why not make a few simple changes and go organic!

Let’s take a look at 3 simple steps to go organic:

1. Raise Your Mower Blade

There are several reasons to raise your mower blade. The more grass in your lawn the more water the blades can hold. So if your area of the country is riddled with a terrible drought season, allow your grass to grow longer.

If your grass is allowed to grow high it will shade out the weeds. If the weeds can’t get the vital sunlight due to your grass outgrowing it they will die off. This will keep you from having to drop nasty weed killers on your lawn to keep it looking great all year long.

2. Water Less

Hundreds of millions of gallons of water are wasted every year watering grass. If people understood how grass uses the water they would understand it’s much better to water less. The more often you water, the less work your grass has to do to get that water. In other words, your lawn’s root system is shallow and will dry up quickly when the drought is in full effect.

If however you water less, but water deeper into the soil, your grass will have to grow deep root systems to get to that vital moisture. This will help it thrive when the shallow rooted weeds are struggling to find water.

3. Use Organic Fertilizer

Chemical fertilizers are essentially salt. These salts are extremely detrimental to anything living in the soil beneath your grass. Without these vital critters in your soil you miss out on many of the benefits they bring your lawn, like aeration and natural fertilization. With organic fertilizers these organisms flourish because they have a food source, and do not get burned by the chemical salts.

Your grass type will determine when you should fertilize. Cool season grasses need fertilizers in the fall. Fertilizing during the summer will only feed the weeds. For warm season grass, spring and summer are the perfect time to give your lawn a heaping helping of organic fertilizers.

This post as been brought to you by the lawncareguide.org. We’ve also got some great resources on organic fertilizers and organic weed control