Detox Your Lawn

Detox Your Lawn
Is your lawn a drug addict? According to the Gardening Guru, if you've been using high-nitrogen chemical fertilizers, it is. Dave Daehnke, the executive director of the Reeves-Reed Arboretum in Summit, New Jersey, adopted the Guru moniker in 1994, when he began a gardening-related radio show. Since then, he's been planting the seeds of a simple, organic approach to lawn care in the fertile minds of his listeners. "For
millions of years before people started growing grass, Mother Nature did a fine job of feeding all the plants," he says. "She didn't have any Scotts or Miracle Gro or any of that; it was just a natural decomposition of leaves into nutrients."

Since the 1960s, though-that drug-happy era-most American lawns have been living on a nitrogen high. Whereas natural fertilizers offer plants less than 10 pounds of nitrogen per 100 pounds of fertilizer, the high-powered chemical fertilizers deliver much more. Scotts Lawn Pro Super Turf Builder, for example, is a 30-3-3 mix, which means that there are 30 pounds of nitrogen and 3 pounds each of phosphorous and potassium in a 100-pound bag. The result? Short-lived, supergreen highs followed by
yellow, unhealthy-looking lows. The grass may in fact be unhealthy: The soil's natural microorganisms can be harmed by excessive fertilizer.

Ready to kick the habit? Though he admits your lawn may show some withdrawal symptoms (in fact, he recommends weaning it from the high-performance fertilizers over two seasons), Daehnke says it's simple to switch to an all-organic, chemical-free lawn. Here is the Guru's get-started approach.


1. Start with a professional soil test. All plants grow better in soil with a pH between 6.5 and 7. For a small fee, state agriculture services will test and recommend ways to adjust your soil's condition, or try a private company like EarthCo (drgoodearth.com).

2. Spread some compost. If you don't rot your own, you can buy compost at nurseries. If your soil is sandy, compost will help keep water from leaching away from the grass; if there's a lot of clay in the soil, it will help prevent water runoff. And it adds beneficial nutrients and microorganisms.

3. Fertilize organically. Daehnke says that any fertilizer with less than a 10-10-10 proportion is typically all-natural, even if it's not labeled that way. There are, however, a number of lawn-specific organic fertilizers on the market (see "Organic Fertilizers", below).

4. Mow high and only when needed-not on a weekly basis. Root depth grows in proportion to grass height, so the longer your grass, the deeper and stronger its roots. Mowing, then, is really akin to pruning. You remove the oldest and least alive part of the plant to encourage new growth. Cutting more than a third of the leaf away is harmful, so you'll likely need your mower set to three inches in the spring and fall, and
four inches in the drier summer. The upside: Longer grass and stronger roots make it harder for weeds (especially crabgrass) to gain a foothold.

5. Don't sweat the weeds. There are corn-based organic herbicides, but a few weeds don't hurt. They may stay green when the grass goes dormant in midsummer. Besides, farmers learned long ago to rotate their crops. Letting some weeds in this year might make grass easier to grow next year.


6. Water wisely. Climates, soils, and even sprinklers vary so widely that most watering advice is local, but the basic goal is one inch of water per week (including rain). Watering after 3 p.m. can increase the chance of disease, as the plants sit wet overnight.

7. Walk barefoot. With an organic lawn there's never a need to keep off the grass.

For more details on lawns and other gardening topics, visit
thegardeningguru.com.

Sidebar: Organic Fertilizers

Organic, natural fertilizers may come from several sources: plants, animals (manure or animal "byproducts"), or minerals. Plant-based products are the most environment-friendly. Here are several organic brands that are available at nurseries, lawn-and-garden centers, or through the Web.

Perfectly Natural (perfectlynatural.com) is a Canadian company whose 100 percent plant-based products are "food-grade."

Ringer Lawn Restore, from Woodstream (victorpest.com), combines
poultry-feather meal with plant and mineral products.

Dr. Earth Super Natural Lawn Fertilizer combines fish and
poultry-feather meals, plant products, minerals, and beneficial microbes (available at emerysgarden.com).


© 2002 New Age Publishing, Inc.



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