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Organic Lawn Care

Exploring an organic approach to lawn care using natural products like compost tea, guano and bone meal instead of chemically derived fertilizers. Using biological and mechanical methods of pest control rather than chemical pesticides. A green approach to lawn care.
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1 Subcategories in Organic Lawn Care
41 Articles in: Organic Lawn Care
- photo © flickr user jemsweb
Natural, organic spring lawn care
Organic lawn care in the spring is a little different than conventional lawn care. Crabgrass is not inevitable.
- photo © Rasbak/Wikimedia Commons
4 Steps to an Organic Lawn
Avoid pre-emergent herbicides and take care of crabgrass naturally. Tend to the soil and overseed with quality seed.
Weeds invade grass - Kathleen Groll Connolly
Reduce Turf Weeds: 4 Methods Help Avoid Chemical Herbicides
If you want to eliminate weeds from a lawn, and do it without any chemicals at all, this article discusses non-chemical ways to get weed-free turf.
Shelburne Farms, Lake Champlain, Vermont - Kathleen Groll Connolly
Expert Explains Why Neglected Lawn Is Not an Organic Lawn
A lawn free of pesticides may be better for people and pets, but it is not necessarily a successful organic lawn. Expert Chip Osborne explains the difference.
- photo © Rasbak/Wikimedia Commons
Organic 4-Step Lawn Care - Step 1 -
Organic 4 Step Lawn Care, Step 1, stop using crabgrass control. Pre-emergent herbicide inhibits crabgrass and desirable lawn grass.
- photo © Jamie Burke
4-Step Organic Lawn Care - Step 2
4-Step Organic Lawn Care program with step 2 being the elimination of synthetic fertilizers. Use organic fertilizers to feed the soil and improve long term health.
- photo © Jamie Burke
4-Step Organic Lawn Care - Step 3
4-Step Organic Lawn Care, Step 4, stop using chemical pesticides. Focus on soil biology and healthy grass to prevent pest outbreaks.
- photo © Jamie Burke
4-Step Organic Lawn Care - Step 4
4-Step Organic Lawn Care Program - Step 4, Manage your lawn accordingly. Build a healthy soil to nourish the grass naturally.
- photo © Jamie Burke
3 Reasons To Go Organic
Go organic for your health. If not your health, how about the health of your children, grandchildren or pets? Can conventional products stand up to the precautionary principle?
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Tips for Going Organic
Going organic can be a daunting experience but you don't have to do it alone. Here are some essential tips on going organic.
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What to Expect When Going Organic
Going organic can be a daunting practice especially if one is not prepared for what can happen during the transition.
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How Organic Are You?
Organic standards and best practices should be adhered to in order for the word "organic" to have any real meaning. There are natural methods to maintaining a lawn but should not be considered organic unless working within the standards.
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Mulch your leaves into the lawn - even oak leaves
Do not rake your leaves into bags to be taken away by your trash hauler. Turn leaves into valuable organic matter by mulching them and leaving them right on the lawn. It's easier, cheaper, and better for the environment.
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How a Lawn Care Consultant Can Save Your Lawn
A consultant is not just for the corporate world. A lawn care consultant can help you go organic or just help ease your mind about the actions of your lawn care service.
Don't fall for greenwashing
Greenwashing is a common way to mislead consumers into thinking a product is more pure or natural than it really is.
- photo © flickr user jemsweb
Organic Lawn Care Basics
An introduction to the fundamentals of organic lawn care. Before undergoing the move to organics, it helps to understand the underlying principles.
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Mulch Grass Clippings Back into the Lawn
Recycling grass clippings back into the lawn is an easy and beneficial way to dispose of a product previously thought of as waste. Returning clippings into the lawn saves time, money, and resources and adds nitrogen to the soil.
Organic Lawn Care Myths Exposed! Myth 1 - Organic Lawn Care Is Too Expensive
Shedding light on the myth that organic lawn care is costlier than conventional lawn care.
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Organic Lawn Care Myths Exposed! Myth 2 - You "need" chemicals to control weeds
Exposing the myth that chemical herbicides are necessary for controlling lawn weeds.
The Benefits of Mulching
The benefits of mulching not only grass clippings but leaf material are simply too extensive to ignore. Save time, money, labor and increase the health of your soil by mulching.
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It's All About The Soil
Building the soil is the key to a healthy lawn. A healthy lawn resists weed and pest pressure and is more drought tolerant.
- photo © Jamie Burke
Easy IPM
IPM made easy
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Why You Should Be Topdressing Your Lawn
Topdressing a lawn is the process of adding a thin layer of material over the lawn. Typically 1/4 inch - 1/2 inch of compost or other soil amendment is spread across the lawn with shovels, in a throwing action.
The Precautionary Principle
The precautionary principle is a simple philosophy used as a guide to making decisions involving uncertainty
Female Ichneumon Wasp, Ichneumonidae. Very large family of parasitic wasps. Varies greatly in color & size. The larvae are parasites of a wide variety of other insects & spiders. - M. & C. Photography/Photolibrary/Getty Images
Beneficial Lawn Insects
Lawn insects tend to get lumped into the "pest" category but there are many insects that are not only an integral part of the food web, but actually beneficial to the lawn.
Spring Routines Differ for Organic Lawn Care
Going organic means re-thinking everything you do to your lawn. Routines that are standard with conventional lawn care can be completely different in an organic program
Compost Tea on Lawns
Compost tea is a liquid made from leaching nutrients and extracting bacteria, fungi, nematodes, and protozoa from finished compost. It is sprayed on the lawn as a nutrient supplement, soil amendment, and bacterial inoculant.
Compost for the Lawn
Adding compost to a lawn is one of the best lawn care practices you can do for your grass. Composting improves the soil and provides a healthier lawn.
- Public Domain/Wikimedia Commons
The Food Web
The food web of an organic lawn care program consists of the surface of the lawn as well as the soil beneath it.
- photo © Jamie Burke
Organic Weed Control
organic weed control_part of an organic lawn care program_organic weed killer_organic weed control program_corn gluten
Corn Gluten Meal for Crabgrass and Weed Suppression
Corn gluten meal is sold as an organic pre-emergent weed control alternative to synthetic preemergent chemicals. Success relies on timing.
- photo © Kelly Burke
Green Weed Killers
Using organic products to control weeds instead of chemical herbicides
- Fire Belly Organic Lawn Care
Fire Belly Organic Fertilizer Program Reviewed
There are two Lawn-in-a-Box options available, a four step and a six step program. The four step contains applications for early spring, spring, summer, and early fall. The six step is the same as the four step but with two more applications, a spring and late fall.
Moss ground cover - (c) Kaz Chiba, Getty Images
When Lawn Grasses Refuse to Grow, Encourage a Moss Alternative
Is moss a weed or a natural, organic ground cover? Moss offers at least nine benefits under the right circumstances.
miniclover_OutsidePride.jpg - Photo: OutsidePride.com
Micro clover: Tiny 3-leaf plant packs a free lunch for the lawn
Micro clover is a very small white clover bred to be a perennial nitrogen source in lawns. It can be mowed easily and it helps suppress weeds.
MayBeetle.jpg - Thomas Lohnes, 2014
New Grub Control Product May Change Lawn Care in 2015
Meet a new grub and beetle nemesis that passes academic muster, doesn't harm pollinators, people or pets, and will reach the lawn care market in 2015.
SitePrep_BareSoil_Rake_Getty.jpg - (c) Mark Winwood, Getty Images
Succeed with Site Preparation for New Lawns, Meadows, Ground Covers
Use these top-down weed killing techniques to prepare a new seed bed--whether you plan a conventional lawn, low-mow lawn or meadow.
Dog eating grass. - Alessandro Giorgi Art Photography, Getty Images
7 Ways to Promote Pet Health by Reducing Hazards in the Backyard
Some backyard hazards create emergencies for pets. They may also increase the risk of cancer in dogs and cats. See seven pet-safe yard care ideas.
Plantain lawn weed killed by organic herbicide - Kathleen Groll Connolly
What You Need to Know About Organic Weed Killers for Lawns
More than 30 organic herbicides are available to help grow weed-free turf. Learn how they work and how to take advantage of low-toxicity weed killers.
SitePrep_BareSoil_Rake_Getty.jpg - (c) Mark Winwood, Getty Images
Recycled Cardboard Offers a Lazy Way to Create New Lawn and Garden Beds
Corrugated cardboard can be an effective and nontoxic cover material for smothering weeds.
Cardboard Clears the Way for a New Lawn or Garden Bed
Corrugated cardboard can be an effective and nontoxic cover material for smothering old lawns or areas with unwanted vegetation.
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