Organic Lawn Care Tips | How to Do it Effectively

Are you planning to switch to organic lawn care due to the numerous benefits that it has? Did you know that you can do it on your own? Get to know how to effectively implement organic lawn care by reading the information below.

Lawn owners are used to infusing their lawn with fertilizers, and they usually water their lawn frequently. These things can only make their lawns not to tolerate pests and drought.

This is the reason why more and more people are switching to organic lawn care. It will not only protect your lawn but is also known as eco-friendly.

If you are one of the many people who is wondering how to do an effective natural lawn care, then you will surely find the information below beneficial.

Organic Lawn Care Tips

1. Think of Your Soil as if it is Alive

One of the first things that you need to do when it comes to natural lawn care is to think of your soil differently. This means that you need to think of your soil as if it is alive, just like you, wherein it also needs to breathe, eat, drink, digest, and as well as excrete.

If you keep your soil healthy and if you continue feeding it with materials that are natural and not ones that are compacted, it will allow growth and as well as fertilization to happen.

Always remember that feeding your lawn grass with organic lawn fertilizer will help nourish all of the beneficial organism that it needs. This will also assist the plants in your lawn to be healthy and will also make them resistant to diseases and drought tolerant. 

Here’s why you should use organic lawn fertilizers:

Most fertilizers focus on growth. Plants don’t use up all of the energy they gather from nutrients and photosynthesis. Instead, they store plenty of it away.

When the right time comes, your grass will reach out to its energy reserves and distribute the needed amounts for different tasks. One of these tasks is growth. But another very important one is fighting disease and pests.

Non-organic fertilizers “force” the grass to use its energy to grow, neglecting the savings for battling pests. This results in fast growing, beautiful at first sight grass, that soon gets easily defeated by a disease.

Organic fertilizers will fortify your grass in natural ways, that will not use up unnecessary energy. Most important, home appraisals look for a garden that's well kept so having healthy, strong grass is the first step towards a good impression.

2. Get to Know and Test Your Soil

Before purchasing anything for your soil, it would be best to test it first, for you to ensure that you will be buying something that is ideal for your soil. You can get results of your soil from all of the offices of Cooperative Extension from across the US.

They will let you know how much nitrogen, phosphorus, or potassium your soil needs. They will also let you know if you need to add nutrients, including sulfur and lime to your soil.

This is important because if you just guess the needs of your soil, you might end up harming it and the as well as the plant in it.

3. Grow the Right Type of Grass

Some people may say that they can grow whatever type of grass that they want, but you need to choose the right type of grass that can resist certain diseases. The reason behind this is because it will lessen the need for you to use pesticides. It will also help reduce the need of mowing and watering your lawn.

Always remember that the less trimming and cutting are always better. The reason behind this is because 10% of lawn mowers are contributing air pollution during the summer season.

You can check the best grasses for the area that you have in your local gardening stores.

To have a beautiful lawn, maintaining your lawn is so important. The best rated lawn fertilizer spreaders on the market will help you to add grass seeds every year to make sure your lawn is not splotchy and brown since it fills gaps where the grass is dead.

4. Making Your Own Compost

Using yard and kitchen waste is ideal because they will provide the needed nutrients. More and more gardeners are making their compost using these wastes since they can easily be found in your yard and kitchen. But of course, this does not mean that you can just get whatever is in there.

If you are unsure on how to make your compost, then you can find it at a transfer station in your town. Just make sure that no sewage sludge or grass are laced with herbicide.

5. Dig into Why You Have Weeds in Your Lawn

If there are weeds present in your lawn, this just means that there is something wrong with your lawn. Some gardeners may only kill these weeds by using boiling water, blowtorch, or even by using a chemical.

But if the main problem is still there, the weeds will only end up growing back again. Be sure to check our definitive guide to controlling weeds in your garden.

Typically if your lawn is growing too much plantain, this just means that you have a lawn with clay soil that is compacted. (Learn how to improve clay soil here.)

If there are dandelions, then your soil needs more calcium and only a little magnesium.

6. Use Natural Solutions to Get Rid of Pests

Not all pests can cause damage to your soil, in fact, it is the other way around. Using insecticides to kill these pests will only cause impacts that are negative on your children’s health and to the overall planet.

But if you want to avoid these pests from invading your lawn strongly, you can, of course, use alternative solutions, such as avoiding fertilizers that are synthetic, since it will only make the pests attack your plants.

Tip: If you happen to have a vegetable or a flower garden near or on your lawn you might be in luck. Some great ways to reduce pest damage significantly are crop rotation and companion planting.

When done in conjunction, with proper execution these two single organic hacks will reduce your pest control efforts to zero. Some companies are using materials that are food grade, which can help eliminate pests.

These materials are then safe around your children and pets. There are a lot of natural solutions today, and all you have to do is to look for them to help get rid of your pests problem.

7. Use Grass Clippings Instead of Lawn Thatch

Grass clippings are better for your grass because a big portion of the lawn that is mowed is 90% water. This means that they will start decomposing immediately once they hit the ground.

If you leave them on the ground, they will bring nutrient to your soil. Best practice here is to use a rake and spread them evenly after proper mowing is done.

Note that if you’re mowing after rain the clippings will form soggy clumps. If left on the lawn these clumps will kill patches of it. Wet grass is sticky and the clumps will not break down evenly, resulting in sunlight blockage for the lawn grass underneath them.

“If there’s a prolonged rainy period where you live, you’d have no choice but to cut the wet grass eventually. In the long run leaving it to become overgrown is worse for its health. In this case mow at least twice, making sure to break any clumps that had formed.

Sharpen your mower’s blades and periodically check the underside for clogging.” advise UK-based grass cutting professionals (Fantastic Services).

Using lawn thatch will only block the nutrients, air, and water from reaching the plant’s roots and will only create a place where disease and insects can nest. 

Here’s a common scenario: gardeners use thatch from questionable origins, only to find out that it had introduced a fungal disease to their lawn.

You can also collect grass after cutting to make compost and use it for a variety of purposes. The nice thing about natural organic lawn care is that you are actually confident in knowing what you’re throwing in the compost bin.

Choose the best lawn sweeper on market to collect grass clippings, rubbish, dried leaves, twigs debris, pines, and sticks.

8. Watering Your Lawn Wisely

For people who don’t know, lawns are known to be guzzlers of water, which means that they require at least an inch of water every week for them to be able to remind vibrant and green.

Other regions in the country do not get too much rainfall, and there are certain municipalities that have a certain restriction on how much water you can apply to your lawn.

Now, for you to be able to water conservatively and for you to be able to get the best possible results for your shrubs, trees, garden, and lawn. You need always to water them in the morning, and you need to do this infrequently but deeply.

If you are going away for a while, it would be best to use a sprinkler that has an automatic shut off to help the watering be controlled.

Of course, not everyone has enough budget to build a sprinkler automatic system, so there is a saving solution for you that's an expandable hose. You can refer to our review of the best expandable hose for 2023.

9. Provide Solutions to Bare Spots in Your Lawn

It can be frustrating to see bare spots in your lawn, and this can also cause problems, wherein other plants, including crabgrass, chickweed, plantain, and dandelions may start to appear.

Remember that the only way that grass can start filling the bare areas is by spreading the roots underground. The best that you can do is to keep the grass seeds that you have in a cold, dark and dry area.

Once you see some of the bare spots, you can spread the seeds and make sure to cover them with compost. The next thing that you need to do is to maintain the moisture of the seed until it starts to germinate. 

Another good thing about this is that it will outcompete all of the weeds that are trying to grow in your lawn.

10. Create a Healthy Living Soil

Always remember that living organisms in your soil also need to breathe, drink, eat, digest and as well as excrete the food that you feed them. They will be able to achieve this by providing them with air pockets efficiently.

You can start cutting the cores out of your soil suing a hand tool or a specialized machine. This will then create holes where fertilizer, water, and air can enter.

Your lawn will look like that of a Swiss cheese for a while, but it will surely enjoy the long term benefits.

11. Mowing Your Lawn Wisely

Another natural organic lawn care tip that you can do is to mow your lawn wisely. When mowing your lawn, you need to make sure that your blades are sharp enough to improve its efficiency.

You should also not cut more than 1/3 off the grass’ length, but of course, you also need to avoid cutting them too short. Now, if it will rain, it would be best to avoid mowing your grass, unless it’s raining for too long.

Lastly, to cut down or air pollution, it would be best to use a push mower or an electric mower. Should you decide to go for the latter, see our buying guide for the best electric lawn mowers for 2023. 

12. Use Organic Lawn Fertilizer

As mentioned above, you can create your organic lawn fertilizer through composting. It is always best to use an organic one since your soil will be at its healthiest, which means that your plants will all be healthy as well. Here are the best organic fertilizers we can find online. 

13. Avoid Using Pesticides in Your Lawn

There may be pests in your lawn, and you may be having problems with them. The first thing that will come to your mind is to get rid of them using pesticides.

These products are using certain chemicals, which will not only harm your lawn but as well as the people around it. This is also the reason why more and more regions in the US are banning pesticides in gardens and lawns.

You can instead use natural and organic products for your lawn care to get rid of these pests, including animals that can eat them or scare the away or plants that can act as a repellent.

These are all the tips on how to do an natural organic lawn care to ensure that your lawn will maintain its green and lushes look. But you may be wondering about the other benefits of switching to an organic lawn care. 

Find out what the benefits are by reading the information below.

Benefits of Organic Lawn Care

1. Root Growth Will Improve

Treatments from organic lawn care will help release the needed nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium in a very slow way, while the roots of the grass will absorb them in small doses.

This will, in turn, make the roots to grow stronger and better. It will also make them fibrous, which will make the turf to look better.

2. Improved Health of the Soil

Taking care of your lawn in an organic way will help with the soil’s overall health, including retaining the moisture longer, better soil aeration, improved soil texture, and as well as enrich the soil. It also helps the soil to get loose, crumbly, and porous.

3. Improves the Quality of the Grass

One of the most obvious signs that your grass is being fed by an organic material is because of the thick, green, and lush look that it has. It also can strengthen all the defense functions that it needs, to reduce its vulnerability to diseases and pests.

4. Safe Around Humans and Pets

There will have no harmful side effects of using an organic treatment for your lawn. This means that upon application, you, your kids, and the pets that you have can immediately use the lawn without worrying about anything.

5. Reduced Pollution of Water and Soil

Using organic manure is not harmful to wildlife, fish, and any other animals. The reason behind this is because there aren't any excretion of nitrogen that is concentrated, which is known to be hazardous to the fish, wildlife, and overall animals.

6. Safe for the Soil's Ecology

Another good thing about organic care is that it won’t destroy the lawn's microbes and any other types of organism that is already in your soil.

Another good thing about it is that it won’t hurt any fungi, earthworm, and any other good bacteria which is beneficial for your soil, grass, and plants for you.

Wrapping Up Our Organic Lawn Care Tips

These are just some of the benefits of doing an organic lawn care. If you want your grass to be healthy, keeping it away from pests and diseases, then doing the above tips on how to do an effective organic lawn care is essential. You will not only maintain a beautiful and healthy lawn, but you will also make it healthy for the environment.