Grass Roots: Easy Organic Lawn Care

by Catherine Zandonella, M.P.H

When my husband and I exchanged two decades of urban existence for suburban life, I didn't know a rhododendron from a Rototiller. We did know that we wanted to forgo the "weed 'n' feed" approach to lawn care and build a safe yard where our kids could poke around in the dirt without us worrying about their health. To our pleasant surprise, organic yard care is simple once you go through the steps of disconnecting your lawn from its chemical life-support system.

Curing this chemical dependency has its environmental benefits. One 40-pound bag of synthetic fertilizer contains the fossil-fuel equivalent of approximately 2.5 gallons of gasoline, and mowing for one hour with a gasoline-powered mower generates the same amount of pollution as driving a car for 20 miles, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). To keep lawns green, we apply about 10,000 gallons of water, which leads to fungal diseases and weeds that attract pests, so we douse our coveted green patches with approximately 67 million pounds a year of synthetic pesticides.

All this activity takes its toll. Nitrates and phosphates from synthetic fertilizers run into streams, where they kill aquatic life. Numerous studies have linked common household herbicides and pesticides to asthma, cancer, reduced fertility and neurological harm to fetuses, infants and children. In a February 2006 Occupational and Environmental Health study, home and garden insecticide use during pregnancy and childhood was associated with an increased risk of childhood leukemia. Homeowners often apply chemicals and then track them indoors, where long-term exposures to children and pets are likely. The popular herbicide 2,4-D, a suspected hormone disruptor, was found on tables, windowsills, floors and in the air of homes shortly after the chemical was applied outside homes, according to a study in Environmental Health Perspectives in 2001.

It's getting easier to avoid these harmful chemicals, thanks to increasing resources and the availability of least-toxic products. "The shift to organic lawn care reflects a broader awareness of the dangers of pesticides to both the environment and our health," says Eileen Gunn, project director for the advocacy group Beyond Pesticides.

As in any detoxification program, the first step is admitting that you have a problem, says Paul Tukey, author of The Organic Lawn Care Manual (Storey, 2007, $19.95). "The organic lawn is not a ton of work—it really isn't—but it requires more understanding."

Start with the Soil
"Everything is as healthy as the soil it grows in," says Harmen Vos, president of the Organicdutchman lawn service in New Jersey. Healthy soil contains naturally occurring potassium, nitrogen and phosphorus as well as billions of beneficial microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi and protozoa and larger creatures like earthworms that build soil structure. Chemically treated grass, in contrast, has very little life because, over time, the fertilizers and pesticides kill or slow down these helpful bugs.

To aid your organic conversion, many university cooperative extension offices will test your existing soil for organic matter, nutrients and pH for a small fee. Once you know what's in your soil, you can begin to bring it back to life. Lawns prefer slightly acidic soils with a pH range of 6.5 to 7, but flowers, shrubs and trees vary in their pH preferences. Lime helps balance acidic soil, while sulfur helps with alkaline. Other soil improvers such as worm castings, kelp, fish wastes and decomposed organic matter called humates add nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.

Compost or "compost tea"—liquid compost that more readily penetrates soil—can help restore beneficial microbial life. You can have it applied by an expert in organic lawn care, or purchase organic compost, such as Intervale ($15/20 qts.; www.gardeners.com, 888-833-1412) or Vermont Compost Plus ($12/20 qts.; www.fedcoseeds.com, 207-873-7333). Bill Duesing, contributor to The NOFA Organic Lawn and Turf Handbook, a publication of the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA, 2007, $25), suggests that you make your own compost using lawn clippings, food scraps and fall leaves.

Go Native
The amount of shade and rainfall, soil type and temperature ranges, as well as how much time your family will spend on the lawn, have an impact on your lawn's health, so choose a grass that can tolerate those things. Native grasses tend to be easier to maintain, since they are adapted to local conditions. For instance, seashore paspalum, native to the Southeastern U.S. coast, is so salt-tolerant that it can be watered with seawater, although this is not recommended because seawater will degrade soil quality.

Your grass of choice will also determine how much to take off the top when mowing. Cutting too short creates stress and weakens the plant. To reduce greenhouse gas emissions, try a manual push mower like the Scotts Classic reel mower ($129.99; www.cleanairgardening.com). They are surprisingly easy to push, and you'll wonder why they were abandoned for the far more dangerous and polluting power mowers. Keep the mower blades sharpened and leave clipped blades on the grass as compost; they recycle nitrogen.

Read The Weeds
Weeds are messengers that tell you what's wrong with your soil, says Tukey. "You can kill the messenger all day long," he says, "but it doesn't kill the message." For example, dandelions indicate that soil is too low in calcium, too high in potassium and too acidic.

However, not all "weeds" are bad. Clover is drought tolerant, stays green all winter and converts nitrogen into a form usable by other plants. A lawn that contains about 5 percent clover can create enough usable nitrogen to make fertilizing unnecessary if clippings are left on the lawn.

Detrimental weeds, especially those with deep root systems, can be removed using a long, forked "dandelion weeder" or spot-sprayed with vinegar. Corn gluten applied early in spring is another chemical-free alternative to pre-emergent herbicides, like 2,4-D, that kill germinating weed seeds.

Chopping up weeds in your mower might spread the seeds, causing a bigger problem. Instead, bury them in the compost pile, where internal heat generated by beneficial bacteria kills seeds.

Water, Water—But Not Everywhere
Cities nationwide are facing water shortages (see "American Waters"), so reduce and reuse what you can.

Healthy grasses will sink deeper roots and won't need as much water as over-fertilized grasses. Instead of following a set schedule, water only when needed. How will you know? The grass starts to look a little wilted and gray and doesn't spring back as quickly when stepped on.

Water in the morning so that evaporation is minimal and because leaving grass wet at night encourages fungal diseases. Water should soak six inches or more into the soil to reach the roots. Set a cake pan near your sprinkler, and when it's roughly full, you'll have watered sufficiently. To avoid waste, stop when you see runoff down the driveway, and resume after the soil has absorbed what's already there. If you cannot deliver the entire inch in one session, water in alternating sections. Keeping a layer of mulch over your flowerbeds and vegetable garden will trap moisture and reduce evaporation from those areas.

Cut down on consumption by harvesting rain in rain barrels ($134; www.gaiam.com, 877-989-6321). Or be creative: George Spalek, a homeowner in Santa Fe, N.M., collects rain in five cattle-feeding troughs, purchased from a farm-supply store, that he paints and covers with a mesh screen to keep out mosquitoes and dirt.

Also, match your plants with your locale, says Douglas F. Welsh, Ph.D., professor and extension horticulturist at Texas A&M University. "It is as inappropriate to have a cactus in Newark, New Jersey, as it is to have azaleas in El Paso, Texas." He prefers Xeriscaping, landscaping practices that reduce water waste through an equal mix of adaptable plants, decks, walkways and smaller lawns. "People have a mental image of drought-tolerant landscapes as wagon wheels, animal skulls and a few cacti," says Welsh, but "we can have high-quality landscapes that are in harmony with the environment we live in."

With blooming crocuses and other signs of spring in my neighborhood comes a proliferation of small yellow flags warning children to stay off pesticide-treated lawns. As my chemical-free lawn flourishes and more organic products and services become available, I hope that those yellow flags will become a thing of the past.

Resources
* Lawn Care Product Report
* "Detoxing Green Velvet"
* "Green Peace: Quiet Mowers"
* NOFA, www.nofa.org
* Organic Dutchman, www.organicdutchman.com
* Pesticide Action Network, www.panna.org
* Native Plants, www.drosera-x.com
* Xeriscape Plant Guide by Denver Water and Rob Proctor (Fulcrum Publishing, 1999, $27.95)
* Organic-lawn service providers: www.safelawns.org/resource_directory.php, www.beyondpesticides.org/infoservices/pcos/findapco.htm

Suburban Planner