Natural Green Lawn

We have been talking a lot about natural lawn care, and obviously, that is the point of this site, but I need to clue you guys in on something, and that being the benefits of using synthetic fertilizers in your lawn treatment program as well.

First, let’s define some terms so you guys can follow my thinking ok?

What is Natural Fertilizer?

A natural lawn fertilizer is one that is derived from elements that are naturally occurring on the Earth. Yeah, not the most technical definition, I know, but think about this:

Your lawn needs nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus to grow properly in most cases. These are known as “macro-nutrients.”

There are other “micronutrients” such as iron, that will also help your grass, but for our purposes here, we are focusing on the macros.

There are naturally occurring phosphorus and potassium deposits throughout most of world. There are also ways to find naturally existing nitrogen.

Natural nitrogen usually comes from organic sources, namely plantlife. Just so you know, not all natural fertilizers are organic, but all organic sources are natural! Read that one twice ok?

Long story short, we need to find a way to get natural nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus into our lawns to make them healthy. The problem with this is that many natural sources of macro elements are not concentrated enough to do us any good. This is why we do, on occasion, need to utilize some synthetic, or man made sources and include them in our lawn care treatment program.

What is Synthetic Fertilizer?

Synthetic lawn fertilizer still contains the macro nutrients for the lawn that I mentioned above, however, the elements are chemically bonded or “made” in a lab somewhere. Think of synthetic fertilizer just like daily vitamin capsules you take. When you take a store bought vitamin supplement, that is man made and it gives you 100% of your daily needs in a convenient, small dose. You could, theoretically get the same nutrients by eating 100 stalks of broccoli every morning, but who can do that right?

Synthetic fertilizers work the same way. You put down much less to get a big impact, faster.

What Is The Natural and Synthetic Fert Balance?

Here’s the key to it all: natural fertilizers will only release nutrients (break down) when there is sufficient heat to do so… and they release very very slowly. This is good because the lawn can intake the nutrients slowly, growing and thickening at a normal, healthy pace. But the problem comes in when you are trying to green up your lawn in March and April and the night time temps are still in the low 30s and 40s … it’s just not warm enough to break down those natural nutrients.

This is where proper use of synthetic fert comes in. The synthetics are made to break down with water! And what do we get lots of in March and April?… yep, rain!

So the key is to use a nice balance of good synthetic fertilizer in the spring, and slow releasing, healthy natural fertilizer in the fall. Bing, bang, done!

If you’d like to learn more about this concept, one that I call a “hybrid lawn treatment solution” then get my step-by-step ebook for just $7 now. It takes you through the exact steps you should be following during the year to achieve a healthy, natural, thick lawn. It basically tells you “when to do what for your lawn” without using harsh products that will do more harm that good. Get the book here.

You guys have probably figured it out by now, but I am a big fan of natural lawn care. There are many reasons for that, but before I talk about it, let me tell you about my lawn care experiences over the years. You see, I started my first lawn business at the age of 16. Prior to that I did some lawn mowing here and there, but it wasn’t until I started thinking about buying a car that I really saw a way to cash in on the lawn care business. Back then, none of use really cared much about the environment or keeping within some kind of “green” or “eco-friendly” practice. We (me and the other kids in the neighborhood) just wanted to make some money and get the lawns cut as fast as possible so we could get paid and hit the movies or whatever!

Now let’s fastforward about 20 years to where I am now. I am the operations manager for a very large lawn fertilization outfit in Chicago. (Can’t tell you the name due to non-compete issues). I am a licensed pesticide applicator in both Illinois and Indiana and I have walked on over 10,000 lawns during my days in the business. If it can happen to a lawn, I have seen it, from Florida where I started as a kid to the midwest where I work now.

What are the advantages of a natural lawn?

First off guys, having a lawn that is treated with natural products or methods is going to last longer and stay greener and healthier for the long haul. This is because treating your lawn organically/naturally is going to yield very slow, sustainable results instead of fast results. Let me illustrate:

If you feed your kids candy what happens? They get an immediate burst of hyper energy that ends quickly in a crash. The same goes for your lawn. If you use the wrong synthetically produced high nitrogen fertilizers, your lawn will green up very quickly and grow super fast, but crash very soon. This is because high nitrogen synthetic fertilizers release nutrients fast; I mean very fast guys, but they really do nothing to help grass plants develop strong roots in the process. So essentially what you get with synthetic fertilizers like Scott’s or K-Grow is a fast green that cannot support itself in the long term because there are no root structures to maintain it. So the lawn continues to need heavy doses of nitrogen to sustain its green appearance.

Now let’s talk about a lawn that is treated with slow release natural fertilizers. Yep, that’s right, natural organic fertilizers are naturally slow releasing. That’s really the first  and biggest advantage. You see, synthetic fertilizers release nutrients (mainly nitrogen) when they get wet, which is why you are told to “water in the fertilizer.” But that means the nutrients get washed into the soil all in one big shot, fast. But organic or natural fertilizers release their nutrients by naturally breaking down over time. The main thing needed for organic fertilizers to release nutrients is heat. And when the temps do hit a level enough for the nutrients to break down and release, they do it slowly, over time, meaning the grass roots get the slow treatment too. Slow release means slow growth, steady as she goes.

Finally, a lawn that grows slowly will also sustain that growth for a much longer period of time. That means that you really need to do little to the grass once it gets to a certain point, naturally!