Susan Harris
Susan Harris's blog about eco-friendly and urban gardening, plus the adventures of a DC-based garden writer, coach and occasional rabble-rowser.

From the category archives:

Lawn

Best Lawn Care “Tips” Ever

July 29, 2009 · 6 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.

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Eco-friendly lawn care – no fertilizer needed?

April 11, 2009 · 8 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.

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Lawn look like crap? Now’s the time to follow the simple, organic lawn care regimen of a blogreader

March 14, 2009 · 4 comments

I visited a local reader and when he mentioned that he used worm castings on his lawn I asked for more info, please.  So he wrote to tell me exactly what he puts on his good-looking lawn:

  •  "WOW pre-emergence weed control" – this is basically 100% corn gluten with a slow nitrogen release, and I apply it with a hand-cranked hand-held spreader when the forsythia bloom each spring.
  • "100% Pure Earthworm castings" – again, I apply it with a hand-crank, hand-held spreader about a month after I’ve put down the corn gluten.
  • "Gardener’s Gold Premium compost" – goes down at the same time as the worm castings.  (About every three years or so I’ll pick up a small 10-lb. bag of fish emulsion and I’ll mix that into the compost before I spread it onto the lawn).

Then he concluded:  "And that’s it; that’s all I do for lawn care – I don’t apply anything else during the year. As I think I told you, I use no chemicals in this garden at all.  I do mulch the fall leaves into the lawn with a mulching mower.  I hand-weed throughout the growing season when/if necessary (and that’s pretty rare – the corn gluten really does suppress the weeds).  I also keep my lawn high – I let it grow to 5 inches or so and then cut it down to three and a half inches – that keeps the sun off of the soil and helps discourage weed germination as well.  In the hottest part of summer, if we’ve had no rain for 10 days I’ll give it a half inch of water via a sprinkler.

"I’m continuously mystified by the far more complex and expensive lawns regimens that I read and hear about."

And can I just say, his garden looks maaarvelous, and in no small part because he avoids a huge swath of lawn like the one you see here.  His garden is mostly borders, and they’re filled primarily with conifers.  The model of the sustainable garden looks good every day of the year, and costs the gardener very little in time or money.

Photo credit.

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From lawn addiction to anti-lawn activism

June 23, 2008 · 13 comments

Did you know that: 

  • More herbicides per acre are dumped on lawns than on the fields of agribusiness.
  •  In the U.S. an estimated 7 million birds are killed yearly by lawn-care pesticides. 
  • Phosphorus run-off from lawn fertilizer causes algae blooms that suck oxygen out of lakes, asphyxiating fish.
  • A single golf course in Tampa, Florida uses 178,800 gallons of water every day, enough to meet the daily water needs of over 2,200 people.
  • On average, 7,600 Americans are injured every year using lawn mowers, about the same number as  firearms.

I learned all that from American Green: The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Lawn by Ted Steinberg.  Reviewers have aptly compared it to Fast Food Nation - it’s that well written and that important.

Addicted to green

Who’s to blame for all this? The American love of lawns began with the upperclass emulating the landed gentry of England and spread to middle class neighborhoods after World War II, especially in new communities like Levittown, NY, where residents were encouraged to apply fertilizer a remarkable 5 to 6 times a year because super-green lawns "stamp inhabitants as good neighbors, desirable citizens".  The invention of the power mower and advertising for perfect lawns by industry giant Scotts sealed the new ethic of the American lawn for decades to come.  Proof of Scotts’ marketing power (and the malleability of the American consumer) is the fate of clover.  Where previously it had been routinely included in grass seed mixes for its nitrogen-fixing properties, when it was discovered that the new wonder-herbicide 2,4-D killed clover along with crabgrass, Scotts turned on a dime and declared it to be an undesirable weed, and public opinion quickly followed. 

Most worshipers at the Church of the Perfect Lawn are men, and Steinberg thinks it’s because compulsive lawn care gives them a feeling of control – a feeling so often missing on the job.  So ad agencies write copy like: "Show the world who’s boss" and "You’re the boss when you buy a Lawn-Boy," pitches that appeal to notions of manliness, and it works all too well.

[click to continue…]

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Organic Lawn Care on the Radio

April 14, 2008 · 2 comments

 

Listen up!  Kojo Nnamdi’s interview with Safelawns.org crusader Paul Tukey should be required listening for everyone who tends a patch of lawn.  That way, when people ask me about how to have a perfectly good lawn without the use of toxic products or constant watering I can just answer:  "What he said."  Here’s the link. 


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Organic Gardening Mag Editor is High on Grass

March 23, 2008 · 7 comments

 Here’s Organic Gardening editor Scott Meyer in his April 2008 column, titled "High on Grass":

I’m not declaring a War on Lawns.  I have a lawn, and I live in the suburbs, where the most hard-core grass growers congregate.  I don’t even want to get rid of my lawn, because grass is the most reliable and easiest-to-maintain (yes, I mean easiest) groundcover for large sunny areas. Lawns are also the ideal setting for baseball, soccer, tag, and other games that break out where kids gather.  And in the case of my lawn, the clover and onion grass that spring up amid the turfgrass feed fast-growing (and fat-growing) baby bunnies spring to fall. [Bolding added.]

I am, however, advocating an intervention. 

He goes on to enthusiastically endorse the SafeLawns.org campaign, saying you don’t even have to write a check to help.  "You just have to quit using the chemicals.  Go cold turkey."

Well said, Scott!  Now when I tell people that lawns CAN be low-maintenance – if grown organically – and I get the inevitable look, I’ll just quote you.

 

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