Environmentally friendly lawns; good for your yard & the planet

According to a March 14, 2007 article in the SF Chronicle, a group called “SafeLawns” is mounting a national campaign this month to push for environmentally friendly lawn care, built around an HGTV host’s book titled ‘The Organic Lawn Care Manual’.

The average private lawn requires hundreds of gallons of water, a very real concern for drought-prone California. We are already behind on our normal rainfall. At one of our Marin County stores we recently had a request for Ammonium sulfate, an old school chemical fertilizer. This high nitrogen fertilizer causes grass to green quickly resulting in a massive growth spurt in a very short time but not encouraging a strong root system. After the first mowing, most of the nutrients have gone and the growth diminishes. Constant use of high nitrogen fertilizer will increase the acidity of the soil, which is not great for soil balance, and all the earthworms will head next door. Broad-spectrum pesticides are thankfully being replaced with safer alternatives for our children, pets, birds and beneficials.

GENERAL LAWN CARE TIPS
Watering - We encourage you to use a sprinkler or irrigation system and aim for slow, deep irrigation, applied as infrequently as possible. This encourages the roots to go deep into the soil for water. After the drought in the 80’s, growers developed sod to grow longer root systems to survive those conditions. Lawns should be watered in the morning after 4am and before 2 pm to avoid fungal problems.

Fertilizing - Use Nature’s Green Lawn Food three times a year. Apply when the soil is moist but the leaf blades are dry. Water in thoroughly after application. This food contains feather meal, blood/bone meal, sulfate of potash, humic acid, mycchorizal fungi, and added soil microbes. The humic acid provides a high carbon diet for those microbes. This helps them propagate and do their job of breaking down the nutrients in the soil. The fungi colonize the roots of the grass and become a natural extension of the root system, enhancing the absorption of many nutrients, as well as promoting drought resistance.

For Weed Control - Apply Concern Weed Prevention Plus (Corn Gluten) at least twice a year, roughly in late April/early May and again in Aug/Sept. Wet down with a fine spray, then keep dry for a few days afterward. This will create a thin barrier for the seeds to land on. The protein fraction of the corn gluten meal inhibits the growth of the tiny feeder roots so the weed seed cannot grow. Assistant Manager Erik at our Pierce St. store says this is the easiest product to use, you just zip open the bottom of the bag and shake over the area you wish to protect. (Existing weeds must be pulled or spot-treated with Burnout II, Bonide Weed Beater, EB Stone Weed & Grass, or Greenlight Bio Spot Weeder - take care not to spray the lawn).

Lawns should be aerated once a year and top-dressed in the fall with Forest Mulch or chicken manure. Spread the top dressing thinly, a quarter inch or less is plenty.
Every year or two the soil pH should be tested, lawns soil should be slightly acidic (6-6.5). For overly acidic lawns (below 5.5) apply Agricultural Lime, then water in well. If soil is too alkaline (over 7) apply Sul-Po-Mag.

Avoid mowing too often and only remove one third of the grass blade each time. Mower height should be adjusted to leave the grass at 2 ½ -3 inches tall. Taller grass will prevent sunlight from reaching those weed seeds.