Natural Lawn Care

With recent increasing interest in environmental activism, land stewardship, and caring for the environment, many Americans are interested in learning how to go as green as possible in all areas of their life. Caring for your lawn is no exception. As a matter of fact, lawn care is one of the major sources of water pollution as well as a huge waste of municipal water.

Choosing environmentally friendly lawn care will not only help the environment, it will make your lawn healthier, easier to care for, and save you a lot of time and money in the long run. Try some of these tips in caring for your lawn and you might just find that you have the most beautiful lawn on the block.

When selecting a mower, choose the type that is best for your grass. If you have a lawn that is not so large that it requires a ride-on mower, choose a reel mower. These old-fashioned types have a bad (and completely false) reputation for being difficult to use. As a matter of fact, a reel mower is just as easy or easier to push because it is much lighter than a mower with a gas or electric motor. If you have many shedding types of trees, such as pecan however, the large number of sticks in the yard may make mowing more difficult. Large sticks can jam some reel mowers.

Reel mowers are far less expensive and average about $100 for a decent inexpensive mower. They require less care than a motorized mower and are very quiet. They create a pleasant swishing sound much like the sound of scissors snipping. Reel mowers are excellent at cutting grass uniformly and do not leave striped lanes on lawns.

The real benefit of reel mowers is how healthy they leave your grass. Motorized mowers cut grass by ripping and tearing the tops off of the grass, leaving jagged edges that dry out, turn brown, and become scratchy feeling. Grass also loses more moisture from these jagged edges and the ripped open tips invite disease. Reel mowers cleanly snip and slice the tops of the grass away leaving straight edges that have been pressed and sheared off. This keeps moisture in the grass as well as preventing the smoothly cut tips from browning.

When mowing your grass, always set your mower blades on high. This will keep your grass greener and healthier. You may be tempted to set the blades low so that you won't have to mow as often, but grass, like all plants, is a living thing. Cutting it short will reduce its chances of survival and will weaken it to disease and pests as well as dry conditions. It can also create brown spots in your lawn. For dense, lush green grass, the optimal height to set your blades is three inches or more.

Always leave the clippings on your lawn. If you cut your lawn short or if you use a motorized mower, the clippings may sit on top of your lawn. If you are using a reel mower and have the blades set high, however, the clippings will fall between the grass blades and disappear, adding rich nutrients back into the soil. Grass also loves dry leaves, so instead of raking your leaves in autumn, mow through them so that they will mulch and disappear into the grass creating good healthy soil rich in organic matter that will help to retain moisture.

When watering your lawn, less really is more. Don't be tempted to water your lawn often or during the day. You won't be doing your grass a favor. Not only that, but watering often and during the day is bad for the environment and a real waste of water and money. Watering during the day causes most of the water to evaporate and very little will get to your grass roots.

Instead, water in the evening just after dark. Watering just after dark allows the water to sink into the soil all night long and the grass will be able to soak up a large amount by morning. You will lose much less water to evaporation this way.

Watering often is also unhealthy for lawns. Grass accustoms itself to the type of care it receives. If you water often, it will expect to be watered often. The roots will grow shallowly near the surface of the soil and forgetting to water or going through a dry spell will cause your grass to die out and turn brown.

Be sure to water heavily and rarely. This causes the grass roots to grow deeply which means that the grass will be able to pull water from down where there is always moisture. This will mean that you will have to water your lawn less often or not at all. When we lived in Texas, we never had to water our lawn once, though the neighbors were forced to water their drying lawns every other day. Our lawn was healthier and greener by far.

Some companies advertise products for aerating your lawn. Soil aeration is absolutely not necessary and may be harmful to your lawn. It can dry out the soil faster as well as damage your grass roots. Nature does not rely on people walking around with spikes on their shoes, so why would your lawn? Instead, do not use chemicals on your lawn. This will allow worms which do a much better job of soil care, to thrive and do their job.

When feeding your lawn, skip chemical fertilizers which are mainly nitrogen with little or no nutrients at all and are made from petroleum. Chemical fertilizers can harm beneficial creatures on your lawn as well as your children, pets, and the environment. Buy or make your own compost and either sprinkle compost on your lawn periodically, or soak the compost in buckets of water to make compost tea. Apply this nutrient-rich tea to your lawn.

Grubs can cause all kinds of damage, so be sure to take care of the problem if it starts to become apparent. Nematodes are tiny parasites which feed on and kill grubs and can be purchased at your local garden center. Apply the nematodes to your lawn as necessary to control the grub population and keep your grass looking great.

With the amount of water and chemicals commonly applied to lawns these days, just growing grass has had a hugely negative impact on local ecosystems as well as on our personal health and the health of our pets and our families. By taking just these simple steps to care for your lawn, you can help do your part to preserve our environment.