Maintaining a Healthy Lawn in Natural Ways
You are considered to be fortunate if you have a yard and in your yard, there is a rolling lawn! When you or any of your guests look at the lush green lawn, you certainly feel soothed, your eyes are pleased and your soul gets an assurance that there is still a lot of beauty in life! But does the lawn do only this? I mean, pleasing everyone with its appearance? No! It does much more than that. It absorbs water, because of which storm runoff minimizes and water quality is improved. Lawn cools you, takes off your stress, offer plenty of oxygen purifying the air around your home, traps dirt and dust, promote the growth of beneficial micro-organisms, prevent erosion, filter contaminants from rainwater and much more.
However, just like all good things, maintaining lawn too comes at a price. Worse even, it comes at a cost to the environment. Lawn consumes high amounts of water and chemical pesticides, contributes on a significant level to the municipal solid waste, and lawn mowers emit 10 to 12 times hydrocarbon as a regular auto, weed eaters emit 21 times and a leaf blower emit 34 times. Pesticides kill 60% to 90% earthworms which are important for the health of soil.
However there is good news! Much of this loss to environment caused by the lawn maintenance can be avoided!
How to Grow Healthy Lawns?
There is only one way with which you can minimize your use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers and it is to develop a healthy lawn. This type of lawn restricts insects, weeds and diseases naturally. If you plan to fertilize your lawn annually for more than once, consider these methods for improving the health of your lawn naturally.
Improvement in Soil: First of all consider testing the pH of the soil which should be between 6.5 and 7.0, i.e. slightly acidic. Too acidic soil will require a sprinkle of lime. And if the soil is not acidic enough, you will have to add sulfur to it. A pH tester is available on the market for around $60. Or you can get the soil tested professionally.
Loamy soils make lawns grow best. Loamy soils have a mixture of silt, clay and sand. If there is too much of clay in the soil, it will become compact and the flow of air and nutrition will be prevented. If your soil is compact, it may need aeration – a method of lifting turf’s small plugs and generate air spaces in the soil. You can also rent an aerator or employ a professional lawn service on the job to get the best results.
Organic matter, like grass clippings and compost benefits any kind of soil. It makes the soil light if it is heavy in clay and builds humus in sandy soil, which helps hold water and nutrients. Some mowers have attachments for mulching which breaks the grass in clippings and go on dispersing them as you mow.
Grow Local Grass: Grasses are of many types. They vary according to climate, water and nutrients, shade tolerance and level of wear they can tolerate. Request the local garden authority to suggest you a grass type that is best acclimatized to your region.
Don’t Mow Too Short: Mowing too short is not good, because that exposes the surface roots, dries out the soil faster and reduces surface aeration. A rule of thumb is not to cut more than 1/3rd of the grass during your one mowing session. Most grass species are the healthiest when they are 2.5” to 3.5” tall.
When the grass has completely grown for the season and stopped growing further, cut it a little shorter to around 2”. This way the risk of mold development in winter will be minimized.
Not Watering Too Often: With thorough watering, your lawn develops deep root systems which makes it tougher and drought-proof. Let it dry out before you water again. As a general rule, its color should look dull and footprints should appear compressed for a few seconds. While watering, place a cup in the sprinkler area; it should be filled at least 2.5 cm (an inch) of water. Healthiest lawns need only 1” of water every week.
Early morning is the best time for watering, because less water is evaporated at that time. Another best trick is to water the first half-inch, wait for a couple of hours and then water the second half-inch.
Check Thatch Buildup: Thatch refers to the accumulation of the above-soil runners, supported by the grass. It should be around 1.25 cm (1/2”) on a healthy lawn and balanced by natural decomposition, microorganisms and earthworms. However, too much of thatch stops nutrients and water from reaching the roots of grass. However before you rent a dethatcher, you should make efforts to improve aeration by controlling thatch buildup. Because of aeration, microorganisms come to the surface and eat most of the thatch. Without aeration, the roots remain close to the surface, helping the development of thatch. If you aerate once in a year, thatch is broken down, enabling the roots to grow deeper in the soil. This causes thicker grass which kills weeds in a natural way. A dethatcher will decrease thatch development, but it can strip the grass and reduces the competition to weeds enabling them to settle easily.
New Sophisticated Mowers: The time of clunky, heavy push mowers is over. Today’s new reel mowers are designed to work much more effectively and easily. They are also good for light exercise and a noiseless and pollution-free lawn care. They offer better cut, no noise and pollution, less effort and low maintenance.
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