Natural Green Lawn

October and November are great times to get your lawn prepared for next year. I know you are tired right now after the long summer, but don’t stop now guys! Natural lawns need that extra bit of attention so they don’t decline over winter and into next spring.

Today I am giving you some simple steps you should be taking now so you are set up well next year.

1) Aerate your lawn now. Lawn aeration is one of the very most important practices of the natural lawn care enthusiast! (yes, you are an enthusiast!)

The reason lawn aeration is so important is because it is mechanical and works EVERY time you do it. Removing cores of soil from the lawn helps relieve compaction created during the hot summer. It also allows the turf roots to spread out, making the lawn thicker. Lawns expand their root systems in fall naturally anyway, so aerating pushes that process along.

2) Lawn seeding. One of the secrets to having a thick lawn is to “Always Be Seeding.” This is especially necessary when you have a natural lawn. The type of seed you use will be determined on your area of the country, but where I live in the Midwest, we use either Kentucky Bluegrass, Perennial Rye Grass or Turf Type Tall Fescue. In fact, it is a great idea to use a mixture of these when you can.

For seeding, throw it down right before AND right after the aeration. Just pretend you are feeding chickens and toss it out there. If you have thin spots, throw down more seed there.

Don’t worry about the seed germinating this year. Just let it lay over winter and grown in the spring of next year. We call this a “dormant seeding.”

3) Prevent crab grass now. I have talked before about Corn Gluten as a crab grass preventative but I didn’t tell you that you can start applying it in the fall as a double measure for the next year. Corn gluten needs to build up in the soil so applying it in the fall and again in the spring accomplishes that and will stop more of the crab grass from popping up in later May and June.

4) Fertilize. I want you to fertilize twice in the fall and early winter. Once in October and another time at the end of November would be perfect. I always recommend Milorganite of course. This will help prevent snow mold in the lawn and help it green up during the earlier spring a little faster than the rest of the lawns on your block!

So there you go guys, step-by-step fall lawn care tips, naturally!

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.