Yard Care Tips for an Environmentally Friendly Lawn

In order for your lawn to thrive, it's important to choose the right grass for your climate. Choosing the right grass for your lawn depends on the region in which you live. A great choice of grass for the cool humid North is fescue. If you live in the warm humid South the best choices for grass to plant on your lawn are zoysia, Bermuda, or St. Augustine. In the cool semi-arid Plains area the best grass choice is Buffalo grass. Grass choices for those in the cool humid Pacific Northwest are fescue or Kentucky bluegrass. If you live in the warm arid Southwest the best grass choices are Bermuda, zoysia, or St. Augustine.

The best way to have a healthy lawn is to start with a foundation of nutrient rich healthy soil. Use organic fertilizers to build up your soil instead of synthetic fertilizer. It may take longer using organic products, but the payoff is worth it because we are doing less harm to the environment.

When you choose to fertilize your grass and you use organic products this enriches the lawn. Just remember that using any type of fertilizer on your lawn poses a risk of water pollution, regardless of whether the fertilizer is organic or non-organic. One way to help reduce the risk of polluting waterways is to sweep the fertilizers off the sidewalks and driveways back on to your lawn after you are finished.

Keeping your lawn healthy also helps to make your grass much less susceptible to pests, lowering or eliminating the need for toxic pesticides. When you do need to use eco-friendly pest control products on your yard always follow the instructions as they are written. Following the directions properly will not only rid your yard of the pests but the environment will be protected too. Just don't over spray your yard when using pesticides. If you do not want to use any type of pesticides on your lawn you can always use the traditional and environmentally safe way to get rid of weeds - get down on your hands and knees and start pulling those weeds!

Going organic for your lawn care is more expensive at first, but in the long run the up front cost pays for itself. Synthetic lawn care products only work for short periods but going all natural for lawn care will help make the soil much richer and the soil will build up stronger and last longer. When you use organic fertilizers and lawn care products they are more expensive but remember that you will be saving money too by not have to spend a lot of money to rid your lawn of pests so the cost evens itself out.

Another eco-friendly way to keep your lawn healthy is to use a mulch mower which recycles the grass back into your yard. The mulch not only provides your lawn with organic materials but it also provides rich beneficial nutrients which your lawn needs.

When you trim hedges and mow your lawn toss away all of the gas powered trimmers, hedgers and mowers that pollute our air. A better eco-friendly choice would be electric or battery powered lawn care tools. If you have a small lawn you could even use a manual push mower which would protect our environment even more.

There's no need to waste water by over watering your lawn. Grass does need water to grow but you can water just enough to keep the grass in your yard green and not on the soggy side. Watering during the early morning hours will provide your lawn with a better watering than waiting to water your yard in the afternoon when the hot steaming sun will only cause evaporation and will suck up all of the water from your lawn and may cause the grass in some areas to become brown.

A smaller lawn is less destructive on the environment than a larger size lawn. There is less grass to mow, fertilize, and water. If you have a large lawn, you might consider building a gazebo in the backyard or putting in a covered patio and let these take the place of grass in your yard. Just leave enough grass in your yard to play on.

Keeping the grass on your lawn trimmed to two-three inches high will help the grass to overcome any weeds and weeds will pop up less often.

A healthy lawn is a happy lawn!

Sources:
yardener.com
www.richsoil.com/lawn-care.jsp