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The Truth About Organic Lawn Care
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These days, it seems like many people want to have a nice, green weed-free lawn, but they also want to make sure they are not harming our delicate environment or eco-systems. Is it possible to have the best of both worlds in lawn care? Can you have a green, thick, weed free lawn while not having a major impact on our environment? The answer is “yes.”
But before you can have an eco-friendly and healthy lawn, you need to understand a few key points.
1) First off, there is no such thing as “organic weed control.” I don’t care what is being sold out there on the internet, there is not such thing as an all natural weed killer. You can buy those products all day long but all you will do is waste your money because they do not work. With that in mind, we need to find a viable alternative to blanketing our lawns with
harsh chemical sprays.
2) Since we now understand that weeds will not die from an organic pseudo-insecticide, we need to figure out what we can do. The answer is to spot spray. That means spraying the weeds directly and using as little pesticide as possible to provide for minimal impact on the environment. In doing so, you will still be able to knock out the weeds, but you won’t be throwing pesticides all over the place where they are not needed. Remember, the key is to “spot spray!”
3) Now that we are understanding how to knock out the weeds, we need to get the lawn thicker. The ultimate goal here is to be able to completely eliminate the use of pesticides and the best way to prevent future weed pressure is to thicken up the turf as much as possible. The way we do this is to feed the lawn with balanced nutrients that will support photosynthesis. It is best to start out your lawn treatment regimen with synthetic fertilizers that are released when moisture is present. The best blend of thickening fertilizer will contain potassium and phosphorus with a bit of nitrogen. A good starting point would be a rating of 20-20-10.
4) Finally, you must be ready to roll up your sleeves get dirty and the dirtiest and most time consuming part of the organic equation is the lawn aeration. Aerating the lawn is a mechanical process whereby a machine is taken across the lawn that pulls plugs of soil. These plugs help to relieve compaction in the lawn as well as break down heavy thatch layers that hamper nutrient and moisture penetration. Aerating is very organic because it requires no chemicals and it works every single time. You should aerate your organically treated lawn every single spring and fall.
Now that you have down the basics, the future is bright. Once you are able to eliminate most of the weeds with spot spraying and thicken up the lawn with a combination of synthetic fertilizers and aeration, then you will be ready to move to the organic treatments that will maintain your lawn in good shape for years to come!
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