Organic Lawn Care

Reducing Pesticides In Your Lawn Care Treatment Program

by Fritz on May 31, 2010 · 0 comments

One way to go green or live green without making too much of a sacrifice or change in your lifestyle is by taking care of your lawn in the right way. When I say “the right way” I mean in a way that not only saves and protects the environment, but is also healthier for your lawn to begin with anyway.

I need you to look at lawn care in a different way than you are used to. I need you to look at you nice lawn but see it three years from now. You see, let’s assume your lawn is in terrible shape right now, well, you can’t just expect that it will be perfect and green in less than one season. In fact, if you follow my lawn care schedule, you will be able to get your lawn healthy in just about 3 years and you won’t destroy the environment or your soil in the process.

What I espouse is a system of lawn and garden care known as “Integrated Pest Management.” IPM is a philosophy whereby you only eliminate pests (such as weeds and insects) in areas where their numbers require treatment in order to protect crops. In this case, our crop is “grass.”

The good thing about grass is that it is forgiving and can take a lot of stress so IPM techniques work really well. We start out with some heavy but targeted pesticide usage and scale that back as we use good, organic fertilizers to thicken and stabilize the turf. It sound complicated but it really is simple and works well. Get the book here.

The Joy Of Composting

by Fritz on December 8, 2008 · 0 comments

Home composting is becoming more and more en-vogue. Composting is just cool.

One of the most powerful air pollutants is the naturally occurring organic gas, methane. It is a far better greenhouse gas than carbon and is now found in the atmosphere at concentrations of more than 150% over pre-industrial levels.

When people put organic matter in the regular waste stream, these coffee grounds and sandwich crusts are acted upon by decomposing microorganisms, with methane being a common by-product. This is why garbage dumps must be equipped with release valves. Otherwise, they’d literally explode from the pressure.

One way to avoid the bulk and threat of such waste is to keep your own compost pile. These are not difficult to keep, even if entire books can be written on the finer points. Nor do they need to smell bad. Many cities are now separately collecting organic wastes as part of municipal compost programs, many of which are then used as fertilizer for city and park lands. The only thing we recommend is that if you are going to go digging and rooting around in your compost pile, just be sure to get some Fab Foaming Face Wash and practice good skin care technique! We’re all about the “getting dirty” but we also want to you stay young an vibrant! :)

Compost is a great fertilizer and rewarding too. Try it today!

Organic vs Natural Fertilizer

by Fritz on October 28, 2008 · 0 comments

Lawn care is one of the easiest ways to “go green” and you won’t have to pay more or sacrifice quality by going the organic route. In fact, organically treated lawns look better than their chemically slathered counterparts if cared for properly. Folks, you should be excited about this! Organic lawn care is the ultimate in balanced green living!

Fertilizer For Nutrients

I think it’s pretty obvious that fertilizer is used to make lawns green and thick. But there is a lot more to it than just throwing down some pellets that came in a bag labeled “Step 2″ or “Step 3.”

Fertilizer is …Any of a large number of natural and synthetic materials, including manure and nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium compounds, spread on or worked into soil to increase its capacity to support plant growth.

It is important to keep in mind that fertilizer IS NOT plant food! Plants create their own food through the process of photosynthesis. Fertilizers (nutrients such as Nitrogen, Potassium and Phosphorus) only serve to support this process. And, just in case you are wondering, grass is a plant!

There are 2 classifications to deal with: Natural Fertilizer and Organic Fertilizer.

Natural Fertilizers

What is Natural fertilizer? The term “Natural” refers to “Existing in or formed by Nature” or “based on the state of things in nature; constituted by nature”

So let me ask you folks, is everything in nature safe to put on your lawn? Crude oil is found naturally in Texas, but I don’t think any of us would spread it in our front yard. In addition, do you see a difference in elements that are found naturally or made synthetically if they are chemically exact matches? Phosphorus for example, is a basic element in lawn fertilizer. There are plenty of places where phosphorus is mined from a natural deposit, yet, phosphorus is also manipulated in the lab and used in your daily vitamins. Which one do you want in your stomach?

Phosphorus in its natural state is not always concentrated enough to be effective for your lawn anyway. In other words, you might have to spread 20 pounds of naturally found phosphorus on your front lawn in order to get the same results that 1 half-pound of synthetic will get for you. Which is better for the environment in your opinion?

The point here is that just because something is “natural” does not mean it is automatically good for your lawn or the environment. Sometimes science improves on nature. The other thing to keep in mind is the advertising you see on TV and websites. If someone is touting their products are “all natural” or “naturally derived” they are playing on your sense of emotion. Most folks think the terms “natural” and “organic” are interchangeable… they are NOT! To sum this up: natural fertilizers are not always the best to use on your lawn.

Organic Fertilizers

What is Organic fertilizer? The term Organic means: “Of, relating to, or derived from living organisms” You can see that organic could be classified as “a step closer” to being environmentally aware in this regard. To further confuse you, some things that are organic are also natural, but not everything natural is organic! Got it? Furthermore, just because something is organic, does not give you the right to spread massive amounts of it all over everywhere without regard. Too much of a good thing ain’t always good. Rotten bananas are organic, but you wouldn’t eat 100 of them would you?

Organics for lawns can come in many forms such as blood meal, poultry waste(chicken parts and chicken poopy), manure(cow poopy), compost and fish emulsion, just to name a few. Organics are the best for your lawn, period!

The main concern that folks have with organics is that they take a while to produce results. But I have never had a problem with this.

I hope that after reading this article you have a good understanding of natural and organic lawn fertilizer because in future articles, we are going to learn exactly which ones to use and how to use them to achieve superb results!

Lawn Weed N Feed And Its Negative Impact

by Fritz on October 19, 2008 · 0 comments

Within the lawn and landscaping industry there are lots of opinions about what is good or not so good for the environment. The same would hold true for homeowners.

But there is one issue that most pros agree on, and that is that bagged “Weed and Feed” products are NOT conducive to healthy lawns or our environment.

I have previously written about pesticides, lawns and our environment, but want to reiterate some of the key points for you here as we venture into Spring..

Problems with Weed-n-Feed

1. Bags of Weed-n-Feed sold to homeowners contain an over-abundance of nitrogen which detroys the soil and pushes too much top growth. They most normally contain “quick release” fertilizers that create fast greening, but no sustainable long term benefit to the turf.
2. Many experts will tell you that phosphorous leaching into groundwater is the big problem with these bagged products. And while I am not a fan of dumping mass amounts of anything on the lawn, I believe if homeowners and pros alike would follow labeling instructions, they are not endangering our groundwater or lakes. The key is FOLLOWING the DIRECTIONS on the bag! (I included this one in the interest of covering all bases!)
3. A granular weed-n-feed product like the Scott’s Plus 2 product contains herbicide and fertilizer in one convenient bag: just dump in your spreader, set the release rate, and lay it down…easy! The problem is that you are hurling massive amounts of granular weed killers everywhere weather there are weeds there or not.

Scotts plus 2 is bad for our environment! It doesn’t make sense to throw weed killer in areas of the lawn where there are no weeds! Whats more, while the weed control does not selectively kill the grass plants, it still puts heavy stress and pressure on them and can weaken them over time.
The best alternative to Weed-n-Feed products

I recommend a balanced approach that utilizes target weed control as needed with the eventual goal of eliminating it completely.

This is accomplished by spot-spraying weeds using a garden pump sprayer with liquid weed control mixed with water (according to label instructions). In some cases, a blanket application of liquid weed killer may be needed, but over time, this will be reduced until the weed problem is manageable by good old fashioned “pulling” by hand. (my own lawn is now managed by just hand pulling of weeds)

In addition to spot-spraying of weeds, I recommend slow-release organic or semi-organic (called ‘bridge’ products or ‘hybrid’) lawn fertilizers. These products will add nutrients to the soil without destroying it in the process. They also support healthy soil biotics which are the foundation of healthy turf.

On a final note: it’s not a good idea to completely “refuse to use pesticides” in your lawn if you indeed do have a major weed problem. Think about this: if your weeds go to seed every year and spread out to all the neighbors on your block, and they do not share the same environmental devotion as you, won’t you be indirectly causing them to put down greater amounts of pesticides every year? Your weeds will continue breeding in their lawns, and they will soak them with more weed killer; year after year! Think about that.

As I always say, “Balance is the key.” When Mother Nature operates in extremes (hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes), people and the environment are damaged, but when She sees fit to offer us balanced conditions (warm breezes, light rains, sunny days), everyone is happy. Which attitude should we take? Thanks for reading Balanced Green Living Blog.