Lawn

The Lawn Reform gang asked for your comments and got lots of ‘em – thanks!  Here’s the greatly amended version now on our website.  Comments are enabled there. [click to continue…]

{ 2 comments }

Here’s an update after a whirlwind week of launching the Lawn Reform Coalition with my 8 co-conspirators, complete with much blogging, status-updating, press-release-pushing and lobbying of friends.  It’s filling a small void in our website – what the heck we recommend by way of taking care of lawns as we know them.  Sure, books can be written about lawn care, but everyone’s busy so let’s just cut to the chase in a few bullet points.  Lots more resources on all these subjects are listed here. 

Thanks to everyone for the links and miscellaneous suggestions you’ve sent us about the campaign and the website, and keep ‘em coming.  On the subject of lawn care, we’re looking for links to articles and websites that recommend the following basic practices because too much information, especially if it contradicts itself, isn’t much help to the reader.

Weigh In

So what do you think of these?  What would you add, delete, amend, or throw a shoe at?  Let us know in a comment or directly to me.

Fertilizers

• We recommend against using synthetic fertilizers because they kill the soil and are far more likely to run off and pollute our waterways.
• Turfgrasses can receive all the fertilizer they need from a combination of: leaving grass clippings on the lawn, adding clover, and applying a layer of compost.  Also, any of those can be used in combination with a slow-acting, organic fertilizer product, applied in the fall only. 
• Spring feeding?  Only if it’s organic and if there’s a particular need; e.g., to restore a neglected lawn.  Once it’s healthy, spring feeding shouldn’t be needed. 

Pesticides

• We recommend against using insecticides and fungicides as a group, especially the synthetic ones, because of multiple environmental problems with their use.  We are also concerned about their toxicity for humans and pets, not only via direct exposure but as they infiltrate into our drinking water.

Weeds

• The best way to keep weeds down in a lawn is to have a thick, healthy lawn by overseeding in the fall, and by fertilizing as outlined above.
• For preventing broadleaf weeds we like corn gluten applied in late winter when the forsythias bloom.  In the recommended dose, it also provides significant nitrogen.
• We recommend against synthetic weedkillers for the lawn, especially the ones in the common weed-and-feed products.
• And two plants considered weeds for decades are making a comeback – and for good reason.  Clover is a nitrogen-fixing natural fertilizer and great for the pollinators.  Dandelions are lovely in bloom and edible, too.

Water

• We disagree with the old, water-wasting advice to give lawns an inch of water every week.  Rather, lawns should be allowed to go dormant in the summer and in the winter.  Healthy turfgrass grown naturally is pretty, though in a different way than the drug-addicted green perfection we’re told to emulate.
• We recommend more drought-tolerant species of turfgrass, where possible.  They include Buffalograss, mixes of fine fescues, Bahia grass in parts of Florida, sedges in wooded areas, and so on – whatever is best for your region.
• And if you irrigate, use an efficient system.  Install a smart controller that automatically adjusts irrigation schedules based on environmental factors and replace traditional spray heads with matched precipitation, low infiltration heads such as MP Rotators.

Mowing, Blowing and Discarding

• We agree with the universal recommendation that lawns be mowed high, to at least 3". 
• Gas-powered mowers and blowers are the worst offenders in the categories of air pollution, noise pollution and, obviously, the use of a fossil fuel.  Electric mowers are far preferable, and push mowers are everyone’s ideal.
• Grass clippings are best left on the lawn to provide nitrogen, not sent to the dump.

Less Lawn

• Here’s where we put in a plug for reducing or eliminating turfgrasses when they’re not needed for their toughness.  "Lawns" could be composed of more sustainable  groundcovers, or converted to something totally different - ornamental grasses, flowering perennials, shrubs, small trees, pervious patios, edibles, even a small meadow.  

Photo by Digimist.

{ 43 comments }

Over on The Daily Green, organic-lawn-care crusader Paul Tukey has provided some great lawn care advice and made his case in a very readable, approachable way. (Maybe that’s why the American Hort Society named him Garden Communicator of the Year in ‘06.) 

Now The Daily Green may call refer to Paul’s 21 points as "tips," but we know better – they’re waaay more substantive than that overused and dismissive word conveys.  AND most of them link to full details on each point – a handy feature that’s one of the coolest things about writing online, among many cool things.

Here are the topics Paul covers.  Each entry is nice and short for online audiences.

1. Testing the soil.  Here I can’t resist saying that maybe most Extension Services do soil tests but not the ones in Maryland or DC, so the DC Urban Gardeners recommend the University of Massachusetts, which costs only $12 and I used it myself with good results.

2.  "Grow the right grass."  YES!  With links to Seedland.com. 

3.  How to reduce watering, with a link to his longer piece about  saving water.

4. "Think of your soil as alive" is a terrific statement of the difference between chemical treatments and organic maintenance, and wouldn’t we all prefer healthier plants that need less maintenance?  With links to a host of videos.

5. "How to mow" includes ‘Don’t mow unless rain is in the forecast," which I’d never heard before.  Added to the complexities of trying to mow often enough but not too often, and waiting for the grass to dry off after rains or dew, I’m sure glad I don’t mow anymore because having to factor in future rain would send me into spasms of gardener anxiety.  Oy.

6. "Know your organic fertilizer" links to The Best Way to Fertilize Your Lawn.

7. "Fertilize your lawn with kitchen and yard waste" might add another smidgen of anxiety for me if it didn’t blessedly include other options, like getting compost from your city.  It links to How to make and use compost.

8.  Listen to Nature’s messages connects dandelions and plaintain to soil deficiencies and links to a cool book that’s out of print.

9.  "Try a Kinder, Gentler Aprpoach to Pests" is wise and links to a pest ID site and where to buy good organic products.

10.  "What do do about bare spots" urges people to do what almost nobody who takes care of their own lawn does – reseed bare patches as needed.  I’ll add that overseeding thin lawns in the fall is something else that almost nobody does, but should.

11.  Paul’s suggestions for other solutions where lawns don’t do well includes a link to the groundcover company JeepersCreepers, which I’ll be exploring.

12.  "Invite clover, Mother Nature’s fertilizer factory" is music to my ears and links to Six Reasons that Clovers is NOt a Weed.  We have 50 years of clover-bashing to counter, but it’s time we start trying. 

13.  Is a sober warning about using products on our lawns that over the long term are toxic to children.  Really, is a perfect-looking lawn is worth risking our kids?  Sheesh.

14.  This item gives the good news about moves in Canada and even in the US to ban lawn pesticides, and links to What we can learn from Canada and Connecticut.

15.  "Get your town to just say no" tells the story of a small town in Massachusetts that took action and encourages us to follow their lead.

16.  Interesting item about lawns and their connection with games, including links to some surprising info about lawn games.

17.  This one covers the benefits of aerating our lawns, but the good news that if you maintain it organically, you’ll never have to!

18.  A brief introduction to grass clippings versus thatch includes more good news – that you won’t have to worry about thatch if you maintain your lawn organically.

19.  This "tip" covers acidic soils and the addition of lime and the best way to do it.  Again soil tests are key and this time there’s a link to a soil-tester.

20.  Is the good news that a golf course CAN be managed organically, like this one on Martha’s Vineyard.

21.  Finally, a little about seed versus sod, and a link for sod.

Thanks a bunch, Paul, and keep up the good work!  

Identification of plants in the collage coming soon.

{ 6 comments }

Well, this is interesting.  Huffingpost has some "green" lawn care tips, and they actually say NOT to fertilize your lawn.  Now everything I’ve ever read has said that turgrasses – not sustainable plants, mind you – need 2 pounds of nitrogen per 1,000 square feet every year or they’ll turn sparse, thin and patchy, and weeds will take over.  If grass clippings are allowed to stay on the lawn (called "grasscycling") that contributes about a half pound of nitrogen per year, but that’s not enough.  If the writer had recommended adding clover – THEN there might just be enough nitrogen to create a full, weed-preventing lawn.  (Here’s my ode to clover.)

 Here’s a reputable source of advice about lawns and the need to feed them.   The HuffPost blogger quotes two writers whose expertise includes energy, water, and the greening of offices, but there’s no mention of plants.

Photo by Selva.

{ 8 comments }