On a hot spring evening, nothing is as pleasant as seeing your family and pets gamboling in your lawn. Fresh air purifies your soul and is the best way to take your mind off work.
The lush, green lawn is a result of your consistent lawn care efforts including the chemicals you have been feeding your lawn with.
You know chemicals are unsafe, but had you known that they are cancerous, you would have given it a second thought.
Yes, they are and there’s a study to prove it.
A study published in Environmental Research periodical says that the exposure to the certain type of lawn care chemicals may increase the risk of malignant lymphoma in dogs.
Further studies are being conducted to find their effects in humans. But why take the risk when you have an option of going green.
By now if you have made up your mind to opt for organic lawn care, these tips can help.
5 Organic Lawn Care Tips
1. Fertilize
Just the way you need food, air, and water to survive, so do your plants.
Natural fertilizers, when fed to the soil, nourish the grass, unlike the chemical fertilizers which run into the water resources.
The better the nutrients your grass receive, the more it is drought-tolerant, disease-resistant and maintenance-free.
But which are the natural lawn fertilizers?
Kitchen and yard-waste can naturally fertilize your lawn.
Before you add the fertilizers, get your soil tested. The soil tests will tell you the amount of nutrients to add.
Adding the fertilizers in excess or in a meager quantity can kill or weaken the plants.
2. Choose the Right Grass
Not all grasses are equal. Some prefer sun while others need a shaded place.
Some can survive droughts, while some need to be watered regularly.
So get the seeds which suit your climate and can sustain in the surrounding environment.
The soil type, climate as well as rainfall play a major role in deciding the type of grass that will suit your area.
3. Water as Required
Lawns need an inch of water per week in the growing season to be green and healthy.
Organically-cared lawns consume less water than chemically treated one.
To have a healthy lawn and conserve water as well, these tips can help.
- Water early in the morning.
- Select the right plant for the right place.
- Water deeply and infrequently.
- Use organic fertilizers.
4. Aerate Naturally
As a child, we were always told that earthworms are farmers’ best friends. They aerate the lawn.
Earthworms and other insects like spiders, ladybugs, wasps, and beetles help in maintaining a healthy ecosystem.
They eat away the insects that damage your plants.
So next time you see these creatures don’t get them out of your lawn.
5. No Herbicides
Herbicides aren’t essential for a healthy lawn and many lawn experts don’t recommend it.
One best way to avoid weeds is to grow such healthy grass that it inhibits the growth of weeds.
You can put corn gluten meal to prevent weeds. It reduces weeds to a significant extent.
Regular mowing also ensures that weeds are removed before they get a chance to scatter their seeds.
Does Organic Lawn Care Give Better Results?
People wonder if organic lawn care gives results like a chemically treated lawn.
You would be surprised to know that organic lawn care gives better results than chemicals.
- Grass that is grown using compost has root length two to four times more compared to the ones grown using chemical fertilizers.
- The lawn is more resistant to environmental stresses and drought.
- The amount of dormant grass is lesser in compost treated lawn than chemically treated one.
- Also, the thatch decreases in lawn that is treated organically.
We sure hope you adopt these organic lawn care methods this spring and summer.
You can also hire a local lawn care company on Same Day Pros. Download the Same Day Pros app to hire one from your smartphone.
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