Organic lawn care

I find myself more and more reluctant to use chemical laden fertilizer and other lawn products this year. I would appreciate advice from those who've gone organic or at least "more natural" -- what's your regimen, products, etc. Or even some insight on lawn care companies that use organic/natural products.

thanks.

 

This company, http://www.prolawn.com/, has a booth at EarthDay@Loudoun. They do organic lawn care.

 

We use HollyTone (for shrubs & evergreens) and Powdered Lime for the grass (it sweetens the soil and reduces the acidity, thus promoting stronger roots & a lush green lawn).

For extra GREEN, we mix in Ironite (liquid for our irrigation system).

 

In the Spring you can put down Corn Gluten Meal (CGM) on your lawn as a fertilizer and crabgrass pre-emergent. Studies have shown its usefulness in preventing seeds from germinating which is how it helps prevent crabgrass. You can't use it if you're planning on over seeding with grass seed because it will prevent its germination as well. It's especially good for lawns that have applied compost because it feeds the beneficial microbes that are working to keep the grass green and healthy.

If we are putting down grass seed we'll apply alfalfa meal which is supposed to be good for new growth. Soybean meal is good for nitrogen.

You can get alfalfa and soybean meals at the Loudoun Mill right off of Route 7. We've had to go to Frederick to get our CGM.

If you're going to use weed spray, spot treating the weeds is less intrusive than spreading stuff on the entire lawn. Some of those pest & weed controls will also kill off the beneficial things living in your soil.

 

I've been using these guys for many years...

http://leesburg.naturalawn.com

Great service, beautiful lawn. Give them a shot.

 

If you want an organic fertilizer you can buy at Home Depot, you can try Milorganite. It's processed biosolids.

I was looking at the product listing for the fertilizer on the Naturalawn website. Looks like a combination of meals (soy bean, blood, corn) and biosolids. Sounds like good stuff! That's basically what I aim for when I apply compost, corn gluten meal, soy bean meal, etc.

We have the time to do it ourselves but if I wanted a lawn care company, I would look into them further.

 

We have been using this company for years - and I highly recommend them if you do not want to try and do it yourself. Check them out at Earth day - you will not be disappointed in their service!

Staci

 

thanks for the responses all. For those using prolawn or naturalawn, can you please give me an idea of the cost for their service?

JLC - I have time to do stuff myself, just not the time to figure out what to do (and I tend to over research stuff before acting... paralysis by analysis). Its already too late for crabgrass pre-emergent. Do you have a year round program or can you point me to one? thanks.

 

Ahhhh.one of my favorites from my days working at golf courses.....reprocessed and repackaged New York City sewer sludge. And it smells exactly like what it is!!!!!

 

The biggest difference, I think, between chemical and organic lawn care is that in chemical you feed the grass while in organic you feed the soil which in turn feeds the grass. This is why it may take 2-3 weeks to see a green up from the organic fertilizer rather than 1 week from chemical.

This means you have to have living microorganisms in your soil. Are they still there after years of chemical treatment? I don’t know. The easiest way to reintroduce them is to add some compost. You can do this by spreading a layer of Compro which is pretty hard work and stinky. The stuff is basically processed human sh*t. But the results in a few weeks are incredible. An easier way would be to use a commercial organic fertilizer, like Milorganite, which contains dried biosolids. Cliff may think it’s stinky, but it’s no worse than walking through a barn. And a lot less stinky than using fresh compost. It’s doesn’t have the lawn on steroids impact of fresh compost, but it’ll help.

I did notice while looking at Naturalawn’s website that they sell their products without their service and have different items to use throughout the year. I’m not affiliated with them and only read about them yesterday, but it looks like some pretty good stuff. Like I said, I like that they combine feed meals with the biosolids. Kind of a one-two punch. But it’s more expensive to do it that way. I can get a 50lb bag of soy bean meal for under $10 from Loudoun Mill.

Here’s a link to a pretty good FAQ on the subject of organic lawn care. I first went to GardenWeb when I decided to look into organic lawn care a few years ago and have found it a very helpful place.

 

JLC, you explained it perfectly. We had a neighbor that used a chemical lawn care company and had the best looking grass in the neighborhood. The first summer after they moved away the grass didn't look like grass anymore. It all but died and the new owner couldn't figure out why until they did some research. The treatments killed all the natural bacteria and left the soil void of all beneficial insects and worms. The yard was like a mini toxic waste dump!

 

Well stated! Miorganite worked great, just smelled like, as you said human sh*t!
When we lived in Massachusetts, there was a chicken farm/coop a few miles away. They had 5000 chickens. They sold 50 lb bags of chicken manure for $2. Worked great and didn't smell bad.

 

Very disappointed with Prolawn....called them TWICE and no phone calls back...not even an email response from TWO WEEKS ago! Seems they arent that responsive to new customers!

 

Have to concur on the hard work, we tried it one year. Oof. Good link though. I hope this topic gains some traction.