Lawn Care

Organic lawncare is not only better for the environment it's also better for your lawn! If you've been used to adding chemical fertilisers to your garden, you may not believe this but here's why:

How do chemical fertilisers damage the environment?
Chemical fertilisers are mostly nitrate based and run-off causes a build up of harmful toxins in both ground and drinking water, as well as streams, lakes and even oceans.

How do chemical fertilisers damage my lawn?

Here are some other lawn care tips:

Watering:

It has been estimated that in some areas watering lawns can account for as much as 40-50% of total household water usage in the hottest summer months. In order to be more environmentally friendly we all need to reduce the amount of water we use, but lawns need water to survive. In ideal conditions your lawn should get about 1 inch of water a week, but you can maintain and even strengthen your lawn on smaller amounts of water. A regime of watering less frequently but more deeply encourages deep root growth and as a result fitter, healthier grass that is better able to withstand dry periods.  A couple of other ideas to help reduce your garden water consumption

• Reduce the size of your lawn.
• Plant more drought tolerant alternatives, such as camomile
• Use ground cover plants or chippings around trees and shrubs

Mowing:

• Don't cut your grass too short, especial in dry periods. For most garden seed and turf mixes found in the UK a cut height of between 1.5 and 2.5 inches is ideal. Cutting too short distresses and discourages the grass from putting down the deep root growth vital to overall health and drought survival.
• Mow your lawn more frequently and mulch the cuttings by leaving the grass collector off and allowing the short clippings to fall back into your lawn. These clippings will be decomposed by soil organisms and taken in by the grass root system as a natural fertiliser. Only mulch in this way if you are mowing regularly as large clippings from long grass may smoother your lawn.
• Keep mower blades sharp, clean and properly adjusted. Always mow when the grass is dry to prevent tearing the grass.
• Mow over leaves or use a blower/vac to collect them in Autumn, as leaves left on your lawn will smother the grass and weaken the root systems or even kill the grass. Leaves that have been collected and partially shredded by the mower or blower/vac will also breakdown faster into leafmould.

Aerating:

Aerating is making holes in the lawn to allow water, air and nutrients into the soil. This is best done with a special lawn aerating tool, which removes small 'plugs' (small cores) from the soil and drops them on the surface to break down naturally. This process also prevents soil compaction which can deteriorate growing conditions. You can also use a garden fork to make aeration holes but this is less effective than using a specialist tool. Lawn aerators can be hand tools (most eco-friendly choice) or powered. If you have a large area of lawn and aerate regularly, you can either buy a powered aerator or try your local tool hire centre. Ideally your lawn should be aerated annually.

Fertilising:

Organic fertilisers are better for the environment. Why not try making and using compost tea - click here to find a recipe.

Mulching:  Mulching lawn mowers make use of the nutrients from your grass clippings by finely cutting and re-cutting them within the cutting deck.  These tiny clipping sar ethen allowed to fall into the lawn where they are concealed by the lawn but will wilt and decompose thereby feeding the root systems and helping to retain moisture.  Mulching also saves time as you don't have to contuinually empty your grass bag, so no more bags of clippings, rotting piles of grass or soggy compost heaps (grass clipping sare notorious destroyers of compost heaps).  The result should be a healthier lawn that you can cut in 70% of the time it would take if you were using a conventional mower.  For more follow this LINK to  asite all about mulching