My Organic Lawn

If 2011 is the year you’ve decided to “go natural” with your lawn care, then you are in luck… it’s also the year (like now) I decided to give you some great tips to help you. ha!

This article is designed to give you a few basics that you need to understand about organic and natural lawn care. Listen up and get started ASAP! (depending on where you live and what the snow situation is of course)

Some Light Raking

“Oh Gosh, did he tell us to rake the lawn?”

Yep guys, I did (some)! I have never told you that lawn care was easy! Get out there and do some light raking, especially on the areas that are matted down from heavy snow or foot traffic. I have areas in my own lawn that are in the shade, and the snow lingers there longer creating a snow mold problem beneath. It isn’t a serious problem, but raking it out to increase the air flow is important.

Some of you may need to do a little more than just light raking in the spring. If you have a major lawn thatch problem, plan to rent a power rake and get after it early on!

Crabgrass - Ick!

Prevent Crab Grass

If you are going natural, then good on you! … but crab grass is still a pretty major concern and our natural/organic options are few. They are also not as effective and have a much smaller window of opportunity. Enter: Corn Gluten.

Corn gluten meal is a corn by-product that will do a fairly good job of preventing crab grass if you get it down in time. That means you must apply it pretty much as soon as the snow melts. In addition, you have to put it down freeking heavy ya’ll! It’s natural, and because of that, it takes a ton of it to build up to the point where it will work to thwart the crab grass. PLEASE read the label on the product you get and follow follow follow it! So many times I see so-called lawn pros giving out natural lawn care advice but they don’t stress the need to ensure your application rate is correct. When using naturals and organics for lawn care, you need to be prepared to shovel that shix onto the lawn, literally!

Get My Book

Yeah I know, I an schlogging my lawn care ebook again, but that’s because it will help you get results! So many of you guys do a lot of the right things, but you just don’t know exactly WHAT to put on your lawn. Sure, you know you want to go organic, but which organic fertilizer is the best? And where do I get it? I show and tell you all of that in the book for just seven bucks! What a bargain! LOL Get it here

Drink Some Wacko Brew and be Patient!

Be Patient

Finally, you guys really do need to chill out a bit on the lawn! Drinks some beers and enjoy the process will ya? When you go natural, it takes a bit longer to see results, but once your lawn does respond and becomes thick, green and vigorous, it will stay that way longer! Trust me, the natural lawn care marathon is very rewarding if you just stay the course!

Are you with me? I hope so!

Enter, the Lawn Boy Insight Series. Now I have been mowing lawns and working in the lawn industry since I was 16-years-old (I am 36 now) and this is the very best homeowner style mower I have every used. Lots of power, quality construction, starts on first pull everytime…
It mulches, catches and side discharges, but we are mostly concerned about the mulching part.

You see, when you buy a mulching lawn mower you want one that is powerful enough to grind up the clippings into small bits, and not leave clumps. If you have a mulching mower that leaves clumps, it is either underpowered or it’s not really a mulching lawn mower… trust me, I have seen both. It also may not have a deep enough deck, allowing the clippings to fall out too soon before they get chopped up. The Lawn Boy Insight Series mowers, however, don’t have any of these problems. They are truly smart mowers.

Anyway, the Lawn Boy Insight Series packs plenty of power, has a great self-propelled rear wheel drive system operated by “sense-a-speed” instead of levers and handles, and it also has really fat tires, making better lawn stripes. And we all know how cool it is to have nice lawn stripes!

I promise you this is the very best self propelled mulching lawn mower you’ll ever own. The cheapest price is below too… cheaper than any store I have seen, even with the shipping. Check it out you lawn care nuts!

How Often Should I Aerate My Lawn?

Aerating your lawn is the single most beneficial thing you can do every season. That’s right, I said “every season.” Some folks have taught that aerating the lawn only needs to be done every couple years, but for grass that is treated naturally, we need to give it that healthy boost every spring and every fall if we can. And honestly, even if you do use commercially available synthetic fertilizers and weed and feed products, aerating your turf twice a year is still a very good cultural practice. So, not to belabor this point, but PLEASE aerate your lawn every spring and every fall without fail.

What Exactly Is Lawn Aeration?

Glad you asked! Aeration is the process whereby a machine that is a little larger than a lawn mower is fun over the lawn and cores of soil are actually removed from the ground. These cores are about the size of a half-roll of dimes, or about 2″ long. By removing cores of soil, we very effectively relieve soil compaction, allowing the turf roots to expand and thicken. In case you didn’t know, a thicker lawn root system reveals a thicker top grass plant… and a thick lawn is what we want guys!

You have to be sure that when you either rent an aerator or have your landscaper do it, that you actually get a “core aerator.” So many times I have come across people who rent machines or buy tools that only poke holes in the soil. While this is going to be helpful, there is a lot more to aeration than just “poking holes.” Removing cores is what truly relieves compaction.

In addition, removed cores are deposited back on the soil surface where soil organisms are redistributed throughout the turf area. These organism feed on thatch layers in the lawn, helping to control it!

Can I Overseed With Aeration?

yes yes yes you can! In fact, it is a great idea to overseed your lawn just before you aerate. Take your regular lawn fertilizer spreader and fill it full of fresh seed mix. (I usually recommend a mix of perennial rye and KY bluegrass). For an existing lawn, you should apply between 3 and 4 lbs of grass seed for every 1,000 square feet of lawn space. Once you have spread the seed, run the core aerator over the lawn and keep it all wet for about 7 days with light and frequent waterings. This process included with the overseeding is best done in the fall time.

That’s really it guys, that simple. There are many advantages of natural lawns, but if you don’t aerate, you will be hard pressed to experience them. So when you set off to take on your organic or natural lawn program, be sure to include aeration in the mix, without fail! Of course, if you want to know how I treat my own grass naturally, step-by-step, you can pick up my e-book right here, right now for just $7. yep, cheap but full of info… it gives you a complete lawn care program for the entire year. Check it out will ya?

Well guys, I gotta be honest and tell you that there is no clear definition of green, responsible lawn care. It really depends on who you are talking to, what their experiences are, and where they learned turf care. But since this is my lawn care tips blog, I figure I will give you my own opinions which have been formulated over nearly 20 years of turf care experience.

Integrated Pest Management And Natural Lawn Care

First off, there is no way to go 100% organic or natural in you lawn care regimen and expect to get top results. (by top results I mean a thick, green, weed free lawn). There is NO ORGANIC WEED KILLER! If anyone tells you that, they are flat out selling you snake oil! In addition, there is no such thing as a 100% weed free lawn! Weeds will always come back into your grass during any given year because of factors out of your control; ie: that neighbor that does nothing at all for his grass.

So this brings us to Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and your lawn care regimen. Basically, IPM is a thought process whereby we only use chemical control (non natural) when pest pressure (in this case the best is weeds) exceeds amounts that we are “willing to deal with.” Now, farmers will use IPM in a different way that you and me as homeowners, but that is not the point here.

The point is that if you are going to “go green” with your lawn, you will need to be willing to accept “some” weeds in your lawn. In addition, when you do spray those weeds with a herbicide, you don’t use a blanket application, rather a targeted, or spot-sprayed application. This is the essence of IPM when it comes to erradcating weeds in your lawn: SPOT SPRAY ONLY!

This also means that you don’t have to break out the pump sprayer every time a dandelion or thistle pops up either. If you want to be natural in your lawn care, who says you can’t pull weeds by hand? Afterall, it doesn’t take that much effort to do so, and pulling weeds is very environmentally friendly! Get your hands dirty guys!

Lawn Fertilization; natural and organic

There is a lot that I could ramble about when it comes to properly using fertilizer on your lawn with an eye on the environmental angle. In short, if you choose to use 100% natural or organically derived fertilizers, you should expect to get very slow, yet sustainable results. What I mean by that is organic fertilizers will NOT release nutrients in colder temperatures, and even so, they release slowly when it is hot.

In addition, when you use an organic fertilizer like Milorganite, you have to put down heavy amounts to make any difference. Personally, I am fine with putting down 15 lbs per 1,000 sq feet of lawn space when using Milorganite, but to the average homeowner, it will feel like you are applying it with a snow shovel!

This is, in fact, the biggest problem most homeowners encounter when applying natural or organic lawn fertilizers: that bein they don’t put down enough. You guys are so worried about burning your lawn, so you dial back the amounts not realizing organics won’t burn anyway.

I guess that is all I have to say today, but the key is following along with my program and understanding the organic lawn care takes time, hard work and most of all, patience! If you do that, you will eventually have a lawn just like mine pictured here: 99% organic!

And seriously, that really is a smart question to be asking, because, well, a thicker lawn will naturally resist most other problems that come up. So let’s explore that first (yeah, I am a little long winded, so bare with me k?) 

Advantages Of A Thick Lawn

If your lawn is thick, it can survive and sustain itself through natural “pressures” that come against it during the year. These pressures can be as simple as drought and heat, or as complex as insect or disease infestation. The truth is, however, that the healthiest lawns will have a healthy root system, and a healthy root system is by default a thicker one, making the top of the lawn (the part you and I see) thicker and prettier! (you should read that again to understand it!)

A thick lawn will also keep weeds down and out, as well as offer more benefits for playing games like horseshoes or corn hole. Plus, nice, thick lawns make your neighbors jealous, and THAT is really our aim ain’t it?

How To Get A Thick Lawn

Well, there are a lot of ways to make your lawn thicker, but here are the most basic points.

1) Proper fertilization: Feeding the lawn the right way will make it grow thicker. It sounds simple, but lawns are a lot like people: the more you feed them, the thicker they get. But what you feed the lawn is important too. You want a nice balance of nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus to feed every part of the grass plant from root to stem to blade. Of course, this will also benefit the lawn’s color in the process. If you want some super good details on how to fertilize your lawn, get my book!

2) Lawn Core Aeration: if you read this lawn care blog often, then you know I am a big proponent of lawn aeration. This is a process whereby a large aeration machine is taken across the lawn. The machine pulls actual plugs of soil out and deposites them back ont eh surface. The plugs themselves are only about the size of your thumb, but my removing them, air water and nutrients get directly to the lawn’s root system, making it expand and grow! Thicker roots baby! I personally think you should aerate your lawn every spring and every fall no matter what! If you can’t do it, then hire a lawn pro to do it for you… it’s that important.

3) Proper Lawn Watering: you’ll also hear me harp on this one a lot too; water your lawn right. The reason I constantly talk about irrigation practices is that doing it wrong can destroy your grass fast man! If you water shallow and frequent, you are going to create a shallow rooted lawn. That’s because light watering does no penetrate, meaning the grass roots mu turn upward to get that little water you sprinkled. Shallow roots cannot resits heat or other stresses, so they die and create a thatch problem!.. bummer!

What you should do is water just 2 or 3 times per week, and do it deeply. Like leave that sprinkler out in each are for an hour or so and let that water soak in deep. Be consistent and always water in the AM rather than the night. If you have an automatic sprinkler system, you can get away with having each zone on for 40 minutes three times per week. This is because properly installed irrigation systems are very efficient, meaning you can get a good soaking in less time.

That’s it guys: these three easy tips will help you have a thick lawn all year long, and remember, a thicker lawn is our ultimate goal!