A Greener Lawn
A couple of months ago I came across an article in Men’s Health called “Your Lethal Lawn.” It was a bit doom-and-gloom about the negative effects of chemicals on our lawns and the people who live on them (if you couldn’t tell from the title), but the point still resonated with me. It sort of reinforced our decision to stop fertilizing and using herbicides /pesticides on our lawn a few years ago so that a certain chihuahua wasn’t romping in chemicals… and tracking them back into our house. And as we grow closer to a time when Clara will be doing the same thing in the yard (and crawling around on the floors inside) we’re still personally set on staying fertilizer & pesticide free in our front and backyards.
The article wasn’t all about scare tactics though. It touched on some practical tips for moving towards a more natural regime for maintaining your lawn. Those suggestions piqued my curiosity because since banishing fertilizer/herbicides/pesticides from our lawn we really haven’t done anything proactive to maintain it and it certainly could use some help (especially after the heat/drought we’ve been “enjoying” here in Virginia). Luckily the article referenced a book, The Organic Lawn Care Manual by Paul Tukey, which even more luckily was carried at our local library (free books= booyah). You may have actually spotted it in some of our office progress shots from a few weeks back.
So like the captain of the lawn care nerd squad I’ve gone through the whole book from cover to cover, reading more about soil texture, grass anatomy, and watering than I ever thought I’d have the patience to read. It was actually quite fascinating and has me wishing I had the time, energy, and money to overhaul our entire landscape (fortunately the author offers plenty of tips for working with what you’ve got – some of which I hope to try in the coming months).
Many people actually wonder why we have so much grass while considering ourselves to be green, but because we don’t use any fertilizers/pesticides/herbicides and don’t even water our yard unless we’re seeding it (which we haven’t done for 2+ years) it’s actually a pretty eco friendly expanse of green. We even use a reel mower 90% of the time so we don’t even have the gas guzzling guilt to deal with. But anyway, back to the book. When I said I was acting like the captain of the lawn care nerd squad, I meant it. Just look at how many pages I flagged:
Without even attempting to play organic lawn care expert here, I thought I’d at least share some of my “aha” moments and tips from reading The Organic Lawn Care Manual so that you guys might get a flavor for what I found so interesting:
- Do you only visit certain parts of your property to mow? This was a throwaway question but it’s the #1 idea that has stuck in my head. The book asks us to reconsider the needs of our lawn and calls into question the ideal of a golf-course ready expanse of green in front of our homes. Tukey does a good job at not making anyone feel bad if they just love a big, grassy yard but his thought to seed part of his own backyard with wildflowers had me rethinking a few spots on our own property.
- Self-sustaining vs. drug-addicted lawn: I liked his analogy that the goal with a lawn should be to train it to take care of itself, not teach reliance on a cocktail of weed and insect killers, fertilizers and winterizers. A healthy organic lawn is one where the plants are strong enough (and the soil is nutrient rich enough) that it crowds out weeds, survives droughts, and fights off disease on its own. Sign us up.
- It’s about soil first, grass second: Tukey spends a fair amount talking about soil (though in his opinion not enough). He reminds us that without enough healthy soil as a starting point, you’ll constantly be battling your yard. He dives deep into tips of conditioning with compost, compost tea, aeration, etc. but really drives home the point that you should understand your soil (by digging in and examining it, and by conducting a soil test) to see where you may be lacking. I may try the soil test and compost tea thing, btw. Updates to come if/when I do.
- Use water wisely: And even though we don’t water our lawn (thank goodness for all the fall storms that seem to tide it over from year to year after such hot Virginia summers) there’s a whole chapter on watering with great tips like: water between midnight and 9am, so it can soak in before the sun evaporates it (did you know evening watering could over-moisten things and lead to fungus?). Also you should aim for fewer, deeper waterings (which encourage deep root growth) rather than frequent, light waterings (which leave roots more vulnerable on the surface) – though always stop to let water soak in if you see it pooling anywhere. And who knew the best sprinklers where those spinning rotary kinds? We used oscillating ones (with the gradual swaying fan of water) back when we established our yard, but apparently they don’t distribute water as evenly as they should.
- Be wise when water is scarce: His discussion of droughts was most pertinent to me, so I liked little explanations like a browning lawn is just the grass going dormant and conserving its energy. While your instinct may be to continue to water every 4 to 8 weeks-ish to keep your yard from browning, watering too much before the drought could unnecessarily “wake up” the lawn before the drought is over (and it’s more protected when it’s brown and dormant than “awake”). He also suggest leaving grass a bit longer during droughts because it will create its own protective shade. We always cut our lawn on the highest setting (except at the very end of the season) because we heard it was best, but now we actually know why!
- Imperfection is okay: Perhaps my favorite lesson from the book is that an imperfect lawn is okay (if it’s okay with you). While Tukey does spend a lot of time talking about how to crowd out, cut out, and even burn out weeds – he also makes the point that a plant in our yard is only bad if we say it is. If you can live with a patch of clovers or a few dandelions on your lawn, leave them alone (clovers are actually good for the soil, believe it or not). In fact the first step of his RILE approach to weeding is “Relax” (the others are “Identify,” “Listen” to what it’s saying about your lawn’s health, and “Eradicate” if necessary).
- Mowing can be an art form: Tukey reminds us that cutting any plant is an unnatural activity that the plant has to recover from, so grass is quite amazing in the way that we shave it constantly and it comes back more often than not. He offers a lot of tips like mow in the evening for minimizing wear on your lawn and your equipment. Alternate directions each mowing so you don’t encourage permanent tire-track lines. Oh, and of course never cut more than a third of the blade on any one day or else you could shock it too much.
There’s a bunch of other interesting stuff in there (at least by my standards), including a nice collection of how-to guides. He also covers a lot of options for non-grassy yards like gardens and xeriscaping. And hopefully in the next few months I’ll be able to try out some of the things he suggests in an effort to green up our lawn both literally and figuratively.
Do you guys have any earth-friendly and lawn-friendly tips or tricks to offer? Any organic lawn care suggestions that you care to share? Or have you tried some of these things with much or limited success? Please share because we’d love to learn more – especially me, since I’m clearly a card-carrying member of the grass geek society.
*BONUS FREEBIE! When reader Alee spotted The Organic Lawn Care Manual back in our office post, she was delighted to see her company’s book in our house. When I told her I was planning to blog about what I learned she and Storey Publishing offered to give away FIVE copies of The Organic Lawn Care Manual to you guys! So if you want a shot at one of the free copies, head over to our Facebook page where we’ll be accepting entries today (and announcing the winners on Friday, so be sure to check back). Thanks Alee and Storey Publishing for the bonus freebie!
Image credits: “Lethal Lawns” image from here because I recycled my issue before photographing it (d’oh!), wildflowers from bratjerm on Flickr, sprinkler from here, clover from here.
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I’m always glad to read about (really) green gardening!
My backyard has thick clay soil and a dozen giant pine trees that have made the soil highly acidic. That’s not exactly lawn friendly (but the poison ivy loves it…yuck). I’ve used grass clippings, compost, and clean wood coals and ash to amend the soil. Over time, the plantain army has retreated, and grass has taken its place. I think the thing that made the biggest difference was simply leaving the clippings on the lawn!
I’ve been keeping a chemical free lawn for about 12 years now. I use corn gluten meal as a pre-emergent weed killer/fertilizer Corn gluten meal is a corn byproduct and an ingredient in some foods – particularly cheap dog food – so it’s not a toxic chemical. It just so happens that it inhibits weed growth.
I purchase mine via mail order from a company called Gardens Alive online. They call it Wow Plus! and have also mixed some bone meal in with it to add other nutrients and boost it’s fertilization properties. It works fairly well if you apply it at the right time – not 100%, but far, far better than nothing.
I’ve also used Milorganite which is sewage sludge from the city of Milwaukee. You can buy it at Lowes. It doesn’t inhibit weeds, but it is a readily available non-chemical fertilizer that puts a widely available human byproduct to work!
You can have a decent lawn if you go non-toxic, but lowering your standards somewhat is critical. In my opinion, if you’re other landscaping is nice and things are nicely mowed and edged, that’s more than half the battle weeds or no weeds.
We have never done anything with our front lawn (yet) except for mowing it occasionally. Our back yard is a weed wasteland but we one day hope to have a deck back there and a nice little area of grass for the kids to play on. However, I would definitely want to go the most green and organic route.
I have one question for you (and any readers!), how do you deal with the neighbours? We have a neighbour who has come into our yard to kill a wasp nest, who sprays ant hills on our front path/garden, and sprays our dandelions on the boulevard. I get that he might not like those things in his garden or front yard, but I have kids and would prefer to not have those kinds of chemicals around!
Hey Amy,
Yikes! We would just very nicely explain that our kids have an allergy to that (or they had some reaction or weren’t feeling well the last time he sprayed). Just some little white lie to protect them in the long run. He probably thinks he’s doing you a huge favor, so hopefully a sweet request that he let you guys take care of those things in ways that won’t hurt the kiddos might work? Good luck!
xo,
s
If you guys do plant some wildflowers (which I think is a great idea, we’ve done it in our yard here in Southern CA), be sure to plant ones native to your area. Otherwise you might be encouraging invasive species that will then crowd out the native plant life, which in turn is detrimental to the native bugs, birds and wildlife. And that would be so not green!
We also opted to not treat our lawn with pesticides or fertilizers this year, as our first year with a new baby. He is crawling now and we didn’t want him crawling in the yard with any harmful chemicals, or us walking through the yard and then tracking anything into our home as he crawls all over the place.
It’s a bit more challenging when going to parks, friends and family homes. I try to keep him up near me when I am unsure of what has been used on the grass and walkways. Slings are a great item in this case, close to Mommy is always a good spot to be :)
Great post and great thoughts! Love this blog.
chemical free lawn is what should everyone aspires…it is really wonderful to look at and the best thing there is you could help for the benefit of our nature..
I also would agree with the imperfect lawn..I always believe to nothing is perfect..imperfection is one of the unique characteristic of being natural..
hi, i’m from indonesia. In my city Jakarta, there’s this simple…simple technology called biopori (biopores). It’s a friendly way to overcome flood (work as drain holes), and also to improve water infiltration, convert organic waste into compost, and utilizing the role of activity of soil fauna and plant roots. You need a simple tool, but with your creativity, i’m sure you don’t need one :)
And to do it, it’s as simple as drill a cylindrical hole vertically into the ground with a diameter of 10 cm. the depth is 100 cm or not to exceed groundwater. The distance between holes is 50-100cm (the amount of holes depends on rainfall intensity in your area. The more rain, the more holes). You can strenghten the mouth of the hole with cement around it.
Fill the hole with organic waste from kitchen garbage, leaves or grass clipping. Organic waste should always be added every 2-3 days.
Biopores are activated by soil organism, such as fauna and plant roots. so it really helps if you want to have healthy soil.
This is the link http://www.biopori.com/index.php , but unfortunately it’s only in Bahasa. You can always googletranslate it though, or just look at the pictures to see better what it looks like.
It really helps! In a terrible dry season, we never run out of ground water, unlike my neigbours. I also have compost as organic fertilizer for my plants.
Hi guys, over here down-under there are many with the same ‘green’ ideas, turning to good old molasses for feeding turf (grass). It’s cheap & very effective in creating a healthy soil environment, which in turn feeds grass.
Give it a go!!
I’ve also borrowed this book from my library! It is most definitely a great reference book to own. I hope I’m one of the lucky winners.
Totally agree! We’ve stayed away from the chemicals as well and are moving in a more organic direction. Living in a subdivision makes it difficult though. While we stay away from the harsh chemicals, our neighbors on either side of us do not. I cringe seeing the kids running around in it and smelling the icky chemically smell. Funny thing is that our lawn is looking greener and healthier than their lawns, even with all this heat and minimal watering on my part. Hehehe! I hope we win a book! I’ll be sure to share with my neighbors too!!! ;)
Okay, I just spent 20 minutes trying to find the facebook post to reply to. I saw it all well and good until I logged in to comment, and then it vanished.
Guess I’ll have to scout amazon… (if it’s as good as all that, I have a feeling we’ll want our own copy.)
Thanks for the info! And yay for rain back in VA! (Although, I’d really like to get back to line-drying one day.)
Sorry Facebook did that you to Meghan – the post is getting a bit buried down the page, but if you look for the image of the lawn mower on grass you might be able to find it quicker. But vanishing when you click to comment is something I can’t explain. Weird!
And yes – hooray for rain!
-John
I work for a newspaper in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, and just copy edited a story from The Associated Press wire about you guys! It was about how difficult it can be to maintain your family’s privacy as bloggers.
Anyway, just wanted to say it was nice to see your faces during my sometimes boring editing duties!
Thanks Molly- that’s so funny! It’s such a small world!
xo,
s
Sounds like a great book. I’ll see if I can find it in our library.
Not sure if you guys are considering seeding some wildflowers as part of your yard, BUT it would make for some beautiful opportunities for photographs of Clara!
Two things from a fellow RVA resident: I know that the VT cooperative extension office does soil testing at a very reasonable price and they will give you an extensive analysis of whats going on in your yard. Also, at the South of the James market, their is a vendor who is selling a “compost tea”, a natural fertilizer. Just thought I would send those two pieces of info your way.
Thanks for all the helpful tips and suggestions that keep rolling in from you guys! We really appreciate the suggestions and the info!
xo,
s
Something else you need to consider (other than killing weeds) are pests (like fleas) in your lawn that could be harmful to Burger and your entire household.
My mom uses diatomacious earth on her lawn and it works really well. It’s powdered fossils that cut fleas and other nasty bugs and then dehydrates them – but it is completely harmless to humans and pets (actually they make a food-grade version that they suggest you ingest for intestinal parasites or can rub it on your pet’s coat – so if either of them eat some it won’t harm them in the least).
Also – you can look into getting nematodes for your lawn or planting lavendar. :)
Great post, John. Thanks for including some of the cool lawn care tips.
My husband and I were able to keep our lawn chemical free from the start (it’s only our second summer here), and it will stay that way. I’m also trying to make a (flower) garden by using native, wild plants. They are the best adapted to the local conditions, and a lot of them are actually quite pretty. It’s only a weed if one of us doesn’t like it!
Facebook giveaway, hunh? I’m out of luck, then, as I oppose their immoral privacy practices (among other things). :(
Not to worry- we have weekly contests right here on the blog so stay tuned for Monday’s!
xo,
s
Another non-chemical weed-killer idea for your patio:
vinegar!
It is good for so many things. :)
Spray straight vinegar in a spray bottle, wait a day, then the weed will have died and will be easy to pull up.
I like the idea about planting wildflowers–we have a pretty big backyard that is still totally dead (the house was a foreclosure), and J and I have talked about seeding grass just right around our patio, and seeing if we can bring back the field grass further out. If we can’t, maybe wildflowers are a good option…
great blog post! my mom could probably rival you, john, in lawn-nerd-dom — i believe she bought bat guana for her garden soil on ebay?? (who knew there was a market for that??)
as another option for those who want to forgo “-icides” yet still want “the look” of a perfectly manicured, green lawn… ever think of “turfing” it (or even just areas of your lawn)? there’s some really awesome, really safe synthetic turf out there these days. easy peasy, even for a nature-phobe, lazy bones like me. :) if you ever have any interest, let me know.. i *may* have a contact for you ;) (disclaimer: my husband’s company sells this stuff. we have it at our house. our poodles love it. my sister/brother in law have it at their house. their kids love it.). :)
Lots of good ideas here. I am lucky to live in the Pacific Northwest, and in many areas the obsessively perfect lawn ethos has been trumped by the desire to keep chemicals out of our environment. This is actively promoted and supported by our county government, and they have a lot of information and good ideas that you could use:
http://www.kingcounty.gov/environment/stewardship/nw-yard-and-garden.aspx
Imperfection is okay…and smells better than the herbicide/pesticde aisle at the local big-box home store.
I love wildflowers, but often after the first year or so, some varieties start to dominate and you might not have the color assortment you might like. You might want to pick 3-4 types of self-seeding annuals and make your own blend that (nigella, bachelor’s buttons,and red corn poppies provide a red-blue color punch). In spots where you don’t really need lawn, consider carefully layered native/climate-friendly perennials that can handle your weather without extra water.
Also, there are a lot of super drought tolerant perennials that have a colorful wild flower feel. I like High Country Gardens (http://www.highcountrygardens.com )as a resource for drought-tolerant plants and beautiful ideas.
The only sunny part of our front lawn disappeared right after we bought our house and was replaced by an organic raised bed vegetable garden. We added a sand box with a cover in the shade when our kids were little. We hang out in our front yard all summer long, and get enjoyment out of every inch of our lot. The only other neighbors who do are those who have done what we have done. However, neighbors and people out for walks come by often and talk to us about our tomatoes or tell us that they love our yard…I can’t remember a negative comment. Pretty much all our other slices of lawn are where neighbors can’t see them.That might be a solution for people in areas where people are still addicted to chemicals and perfect lawns. Boy, people who are house-shopping, this makes the case for staying away from areas with formal landscaping covenants.
A big lawn that you do not use is not the best use of space, especially when you have a little one who is going to want to start exploring next summer. Think as your garden as an extension of your home that you divide into “rooms” with different functions depending on sun exposure, proximity to house, recreation needs, etc. Then “decorate” it to meet those needs.
In addition to our veggie garden, we have: a shady native plant area that makes a great semi-private “kid camp,” berry patches, fruit trees and vines, herbs to fondle and sniff, a worm bin, a strip of lawn for low-key catch, a cherry tree to climb, a conventional patio for parties and pogo-sticking, recyled pieces of school blackboard on the fence for art projects, and art and decoration tucked away for tiny and big people to come across as they wander around. All this in a lot just less than 8000 square feet, without a lot of daily maintenance, and 100% organic.
Hi Guys! As a horticulturist who oversees the residential landscape maintenance program for a landscape architecture firm outside of Chicago, I have a couple of practical, tried and true tips for you…
1. Aerate, aerate, aerate! Each fall, aerate and throw down some new grass seed. This is the best way to have a great lawn, chemical free, organic and easy to boot! You can rent an aeration machine, or if you’re serious about it, buy a small one to use yearly.
2. Wildflower beds can be beautiful, but often become quickly overrun with weeds. Part of the reason for this is that most people won’t know which are flowers and which are weeds, but mostly because it will require a LOT of weeding and fertilizing to get great blooms! That good soil you’ve created for your flowers will really help those weeds grow, too! Story short, have a wildflower bed because you love one and think it’s worth the extra TLC!
Those are my two best tips for you… I love, love your blog and was excited to see some garden stuff! Great Job!
Wahoooo! Thanks again for all the awesome tips everyone!
xo,
s
As a natural lawn care business owner (who references Tukey A LOT), another important bit of information to share is to let your clippings fall. Do not bag your grass clippings! The clippings provide a ton of nitrogen (fertilizer) and will also break down into organic matter. It does NOT contribute to excessive thatch, so go right ahead and leave them be! You’ll save yourself a lot of time and sweat, too!
If you’re a lawn care nerd then I must be some kind of house cleaning nerd because my library copy of Martha Stewart’s Homekeeping Handbook looks exactly like your book- pink post-its horizontally and vertically. It made me laugh.
We started two years ago with a very weed infested lawn here in Florida (the result of an empty field in front of our house, wetlands behind the house, and two hurricanes that let the yard go to pot twice in ten years) and I wanted to go green. I used organic method (corn gluten, natural fertilizers, a lot of products from “Gardens Alive”) and a good chunk of money and two years later we realized this: organic methods may be great to maintain a good lawn, but to turn a really bad lawn around, they just didn’t work (we also have sandy soil and centipede grass which I don’t even really believe is grass, but at least it’s green!). So this year, at the “suggestion” of our homeowner’s association, we hired a yard service for the front yard, TruGreen. Chemicals and all, we’ve given them nine months… they have done NOTHING for us… in fact, our lawn is worse than ever. While I fight them in court to get our money back, I’m starting to believe the only solution is to re-sod and then start organically from scratch.
Interesting point about pets bringing chemicals into the house from the lawn. Organic options seem like they could be healthier for people and lawns.
After two years of having a 5-time per year company apply chemicals to our lawn, we switched to an organic lawn care program. It consists mostly of applying Milorganite in the late spring and them whenever we feel like it, and then hand pulling weeds when we feel like it. I live in Milwaukee so the Milorganite is available just about everywhere and is pretty cheap too.
We also leave our clippings on the lawn and keep it on the long side (long compared to our neighbors with golf-course lawns). This fall, we plan to aerate and over seed. Home Depot rents an aerator and we’ll split the cost with our neighbors!
getting a great lawn takes a lot of time and effort. Seeding is the hardest approach but also the most rewarding. I enjoyed this post a lot and lawn care really can be an art to master.