Today is the first day of spring. Despite that it’s snowing outside at the moment, it’s time to start thinking about gardening and lawn care. To that end, I’ve compiled a short list of natural lawn care ideas.
Mowing
Mowing stimulates fast re-growth that requires watering much more frequency than a normal plants need. So set your mower to cut at 3 inches. A higher setting reduces moisture loss and encourages deep root growth.
Keep mower blades sharpand clean, and mow when the grass is dry.
In the market for a new mower? Consider electric or hand pushed model. Reel lawn mowers have come a long way and many are quite easy to use.
Grasscycling
Mulch the clippings right onto the lawn “grasscycling” helps develop soil nutrients by keeping nitrogen in place, increases moisture retention and soil fertility. Grasscycling provides about 2 pounds of nitrogen per 1,000 square feet of lawn per year. In some cases, grasscycling can completely eliminate the need for synthetic lawn fertilizers. (clover is a sign of low nitrogen)
Natural Fertilizing
To thicken a lawn, overseed at the beginning of autumn, with enough time for watering and growth before the leaves fall.
Fertilize with an organic fertilizer in the fall and spring. Your soil has a balance of nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorous. Different products can treat particular needs. For example, Bloodmeal is a high nitrogen fertilizer, organic composted manure offers many nutrients, calcium carbonate neutralizes acid soil.
Have the pH of your soil professionally tested (see CCE information below). Add lime if it is below 6.0 and gardener's sulfur if it is above 7.0. (Dandelions love a pH above 7 and are a sign that your soil is too alkaline)
A thick layer of topsoil is best.
Not using fertilizer also reduces a plant’s water needs and the chance of pest infestation (pests love to feed on fast fertilizer-induced growth).
Watering your lawn
As the soil dries out, grass will start to curl and then turn brown. Water when it starts to curl. Water in the evenings and water deeply. Consider doing the watering in two sessions. If you use a sprinkler, you can measure your sprinkler application, place an empty 6-ounce tuna can on your lawn. You've watered 1 inch when it is full.
Xenoscaping
Native plants are the best choice for trouble-free gardening. They need less water and fertilizer, and have fewer pest problems than plants imported from other areas.
Weeds
If you don’t like to weed, use newspaper to keeps weeds at bay for the seasn. After that the paper and its covering will decompose to become topsoil.
Blanket the soil with newspaper or cardboard, overlapping the pieces like roofing shingles. Water the paper so the pieces stick together. Cover the paper with 2-4 inches of compost or mulch.
Water only as needed and at night .
A great local resource!
For about $10 per sample, Cornell cooperative extension (CCE) of Monroe County offers soil testing and pest/weed diagnostics. For information, see their webpage: http://counties.cce.cornell.edu/monroe/horticulture/consumer.html.
