When it comes to my lawn, I used to use whatever the latest and greatest chemicals were to keep it looking “green and healthy”. The only problem with this approach is that the lawn looks green, but the chemicals are bad for the health of the soil, water, and most other life that comes into contact with them.
Last year, I stopped using chemicals on my lawn altogether. In fact, as an experiment, I didn’t really do anything with my lawn. I stopped watering it for the summer, so I could see how well it stood up to traffic in its ‘dormant’ state.
As it turns out, it didn’t stand up very well. I have patches in my back yard that never recovered and are now just bare soil, so I am trying to overseed these areas. After experimenting with a couple of small patches, I am now using a combination of compost and peat moss with an overseed grass seed mixed in. As you can see in the photo, I am doing one large area at a time. The fence is to keep the dog and kids out of the overseeded area.
The rest of the lawn isn’t in horrible shape, but still needs some help. The presence of moss indicated a low pH, since moss enjoys acidic conditions for growth. The grass wasn’t growing particularly well either, while clover was thriving, indicating a low nitrogen condition.
To correct these conditions, I first applied some lime to sweeten the soil (I did this back in March), and then a few weeks ago I applied an organic fertilizer. According to the horticulturalist at Cannor Nursery, this will not only help the grass, but will also fix the soil from the damage caused by chemical fertilizers.
It will also help the clover. A true healthy lawn (with healthy soil and organisms under it) should actually contain plants that are commonly considered weeds, such as clover. Some clover here and there, or an occasional dandelion is not a bad thing.
I will post updates on this as things green up.
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