Organic vs. Chemical Lawn Care

By caring for your lawn in an environmentally friendly manner, you can save money, dramatically improve the overall health of your lawn, and help reduce pollution from pesticides. The chemical-based lawn care companies have led people into thinking a lawn that is neon green and grows 10 inches high each week is natural and healthy, and that you need to apply harmful pesticides to keep the weeds from taking over. In reality, they are destroying the real health of your lawn and replacing it with an illusion of health. An illusion that you pay them to maintain. It's good business for the "lawn care" companies, but I see it as wasteful (of your money), and harmful to the lawn and the environment.

I'll try to keep this short and sweet, just to educate you on the basics. It is so important that people return to caring for their lawns in a more natural way. It's better for the lawn, the Earth, and your wallet.

Why a synthetic approach to lawn care is bad:

    First, if you want to read some details on the dangers posed by commonly used pesticides to humans, pets, and the environment, please visit Beyond Pesticides and check out the Pesticide Fact Sheet. The scary truth is that we really don't know the long-term effects of most pesticides. Yes, you can have a nicer lawn by using chemicals, but what is the real cost? A more naturally maintained lawn will still look nice, cost you LESS money, and will not pollute the earth.
    Your lawn is a small ecosystem on it's own. It depends on natural cycles and microorganisms to maintain itself. When you hire a lawn care company that is centered around using synthetic chemicals & pesticides to keep your lawn looking good, you are creating an unnatural environment in your lawn. Although you will have the ILLUSION of a healthy, green lawn, you are doing much more harm than good. Pesticides are seriously polluting our soil and groundwater. Aren't there enough man-made chemicals in our soil, rivers, and oceans already? Second, by applying pesticides and synthetic fertilizer to your lawn, you not only kill weeds and bugs, you kill beneficial microbes that live in the soil as well. They die mostly because of the excess salts deposited in the soil from the synthetic fertilizer. Your grass needs these microbes to help break down organic matter and convert this detritus into nutrients. This is why many chemically treated lawns that are not bagged when mowed need dethatched once or twice a year. You have to remove the clippings that have accumulated because your lawn can't break them down naturally. Grass clippings and detritus are an essential source of nutrients in a healthy lawn. You can clearly see that these nutrients cannot be utilized to their fullest by a chemically treated lawn. 

    A chemically treated lawn will give you a lawn with few weeds, but also extremely nutritionally deficient and without means of naturally breaking down organic matter for food. So, to make up the difference, the lawn is over fertilized with liquid fertilizer on a regular basis to feed the lawn. These liquid fertilizers are very high in Nitrogen, and while it makes your grass green up quickly, it does little else to help your lawn! Nitrogen causes the grass to put most of it's energy into blade growth. Yes, this looks great. The grass is bright green and grows twice as fast as my neighbors! This is not natural, folks. It's like steroids for your lawn. The grass puts most of its energy into blade growth and very little into root growth. As a result, the grass cannot tap deep into the soil where the water is. It's roots stay close to the surface, causing your lawn to stress easily during times of drought or little rain. People try to compensate for this by over watering, which is encouraged by the chemical lawn companies. This further adds to the problem of the grass not sending roots deep to find water. They don't need to, they get all they need right here at the surface! Also, the lawn grows about twice as fast as normal, requiring more frequent mowing and creating excessive clippings. If the clippings are not bagged, they will not decompose, and will bunch up and create dead spots in the lawn. The lawn will need dethatched and spot seeded All of this results in a very weak, chemically dependent lawn that requires more work and money than should be necessary. Getting off the junk and going all natural is always possible, it just takes a little time to establish the natural cycle again.

Why organic is better:

The Trade-Off

    We all know there are two sides to every coin, and organic lawn care is no different. By not using pesticides, your lawn will have a few weeds. This is unavoidable. Somewhere, in the history of American lawn care, a lot of people decided that the only thing growing in a lawn should be grass. This is not easy to accomplish, and the ONLY way for this to happen is to use pesticides. A healthy, natural lawn will always have a few weeds, but there are environmentally friendly ways of dealing with them. 

Read on for details about how to control weeds naturally.

The Basics of Organic Lawn Care 

Corn Gluten Meal is usually used once a year to help control dandelions and some other common weeds. It's benefits are twofold: it is a great fertilizer on it's own, and it also destroys weed seedlings as they sprout. It is totally natural and safe for lawns, people, and pets. CGM is best applied heavily in the spring when the forsythia is in bloom. Because it also kills newly sprouted grass seedlings, it is not to be used when seeding a lawn. It is also a very effective pre-emergent weed control for landscape beds, rivaling it's chemical competitors. 

Hand Weeding is an option for small and medium sized lawns and landscape beds. This is better than chemicals for dandelions. About 90% of dandelions that are properly physically removed do not come back. Combined with corn gluten in the spring and weekly mowing, there will be very few dandelions in your lawn.

Mowing The Lawn High gives it a height advantage, and can help crowd out the low growing weeds simply by getting more sun than the weeds. It really one of the best things you can do to reduce and prevent weeds. Mowing too low tips the scales in favor of the weeds. A fescue lawn should be maintained between 2.5" to 4.5". Also, bigger and taller blades of grass mean your lawn can photosynthesize better. We mow all our customers' lawns at 3.5" unless they ask for a different height. I mow my own lawn at 4". If you are going for a nice cross hatch or stripe patteren in the lawn some folks are so fond of, taller grass leaves better stripes.

Proper Watering strengthens your lawn and reduces disease. I have seen a lot of lawns in my time, and most of them that are watered are actually over watered. It is best to water for about 1 hour, once a week, assuming it did not rain much that week. Over watering keeps the lawn's roots close to the surface, reducing their heat and drought resistance. It also encourages the growth of moss, fungus, and mold. None of these things are good for your lawn.

Over-Seeding at least once a year is essential because the more grass there is, the less weeds there are! Because your lawn is mowed regularly to keep it looking nice, the grass never has a chance to seed itself. Replacing the seed that your lawn has not been able to produce is a great benefit to your turf. You can seed fescue lawns anytime, but spring & especially early fall is best for Southwest Ohio. Remember not to apply corn gluten meal when seeding! Wait at least 6 weeks or until the grass has become established.