Lawn Detox: Kick the Chemical Habit Without Breaking Your Back or the Bank

Organic lawn care can be simple and rewarding. With a little knowledge and effort, you can have a lush lawn without using toxic chemicals. The best part? Your yard will be as safe and healthy as it is beautiful.

Use corn gluten in late March to prevent the germination of early annual spring weed seeds such as clover, purslane, thistle, crabgrass and dandelion. Apply it to your lawn with a drop spreader at one pound per fifty square feet. Not only will the gluten keep noxious annual weeds at bay, it will also add a slight nutritive value. Since corn gluten is nontoxic, it is safe to use around children and pets.

Aerate your soil to prevent thatch and to inhibit grubs and other lawn insects. In mid-April plug-aerate your lawn to bring up beneficial soil-borne microbes that eat dead leaves and grass and produce nutrients for your lawn. If you don't aerate, at least spread some worms from your compost pile around your lawn. Worms aerate the soil while leaving their fertilizing castings wherever they go.

Apply boron to inhibit creeping Charlie (ground ivy) when it's most vulnerable: when it blooms in late April and again in early September. Ground ivy does not like alkaline soil, so alter the pH of the soil by diluting one part 20 Mule Team Borox to 320 parts water (1 ounce borox per 1.25 gallons of water) and apply the solution to the affected areas. In a day or two, the creeping Charlie should die back. Don't worry when the grass wilts a little; it will recover on its own. Rake out the dead material and compost the waste.

Super-seed your lawn in late April or early May (a week after you apply the boron) to encourage lush lawn growth and fill bare spots. Pay special attention to areas that are or were weed patches; you want to replace the weeds with grass. (Don't worry about the corn gluten keeping your grass seed from sprouting. It's served its purpose and became inert after three to four weeks. So has the boron.)

Choose the right seed for the right place. In the shadow of your house or trees, use a shade mix with more fescue. In the sun, use a mix with more Kentucky bluegrass (often called "parks mix") to promote more vigorous growth.

Don't scalp your lawn. When your grass is four inches tall, mow only one inch. You'll mow more often in May and June, but the taller grasses shade out the weeds.

Repeat the gluten boron and super-seeding regimen again beginning in late August. First apply the gluten. Then in late September go after the creeping Charlie with the boron. Super-seed the entire lawn, and pay attention to any patches. And don't wait until it's too late: Grass seeds need about a straight week of temperatures in the seventies to germinate.

Most of the work that goes into an organic lawn happens in the spring and fall; from mid-May through mid-August, all you need to worry about is mowing. That's what teenagers are for.