Go Organic!

A beautiful organic lawn

 
Healthy Lawns

Our image of the typical, suburban home includes a lawn of green grass — providing a play area for children, adults, and pets. The lawn is the visual base for the flowers, trees, landscaping, and the house itself. We expect the lawn to be weed-free and green all summer long.

In the past, many homeowners created a green lawn with the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Fortunately, with the new Ontario law banning pesticides, we will ALL be managing our lawns using holistic, earth-friendly practices.

Grass lawns are challenging to maintain because they are essentially a densely-planted, mono-culture of plants that are not native to this area. Because of this, disease and insect infestations spread easily, and grass plants compete with each other for space, moisture, and nutrients. Over time, a grass lawn draws down the nutrient content of the soil. As the soil declines, soil erosion and soil compaction increase, causing further problems for the grass plants.

In organic gardening, the basis of a healthy lawn is the soil which provides nutrients and moisture to the grass plants. Unhealthy lawns are often the result of degraded soil. With organic lawn care, we must learn about soil and restore its health.

Tips to Grow a Healthy Lawn

Watering

Your lawn requires approximately one inch of water a week from either rain or sprinkler irrigation. To determine how much water your grass receives place a shallow tin can on the lawn to catch the rain. This will indicate whether you need to irrigate. It is best to water your lawn in the early morning to reduce evaporation.

Mowing

Regular and frequent mowing is best. You should ensure that the blades of the lawnmower are sharp, so that the grass plants are cut, not torn. When the grass blade is not cleanly cut, the plant is damaged, which in turn encourages disease. It is best to keep the lawn approximately 2 inches high, so that the grass plants help to shade the soil and reduce weeds (since weed seeds need warmth to germinate).

Leave short grass clippings on the lawn to provide food for earthworms and to create a mulch that will eventually decompose. Long grass clippings do not easily decompose and can contribute to thatch buildup.

Avoid Compaction

Avoid walking or operating machinery on your lawn when it is wet. Walking on wet grass compacts the soil. When the soil is compacted, the air spaces between the soil particles are reduced and the roots have difficulty obtaining oxygen, water, and the nutrients dissolved in the water.

Aeration and Top-dressing

Aerate your lawn to improve compacted soil so that water and oxygen can reach the grass roots. The soil should be top dressed after aeration, otherwise the holes dry out damaging the surrounding grass roots.

About once a year, cover your lawn with about a ¼ inch of organic matter, such as composted manure. This top dressing improves soil structure for both sandy and clay soils.

Problems

Thatch problems can be reduced with top dressing. Thatch is the build up of dead grass on the soil. Excessive thatch can result in increased insect, disease, and drought problems. If the thatch is covered with a top-dressing amendment, the thatch will decompose releasing nutrients back into the soil.

Reseed bare patches using seed types suitable to our growing conditions. A knowledgeable nursery will be able to recommend a brand of grass seed. Adding clover seed to the grass seed mix is beneficial. Clover plants fix nitrogen and increase the soil fertility.

Lawns in the Ottawa area suffer from grub infestations. To find out how to deal with a grub problem visit www.ottawa.ca./residents/healthy_lawns or www.uoguelph.ca .

For good information about weeds and pests including photographs, visit www.lawncare.net

Useful sites

• Make it Green is a local nursery that has actively promoted organic lawn care for many years. The store is located at Eagleson and Flewellyn and the staff is very helpful. www.makeitgreen.ca

• The City of Ottawa provides good information about lawn care and a list of resources. www.ottawa.ca./residents/healthy_lawns

• More detailed information is available at the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs www.omafra.gov.on.ca. For information about lawn rejuvenation, visit www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/crops/facts

• If you have any bottles and bags of unused pesticides in your garage, you must take care to properly dispose them. These products contaminate soils and water, and they must not be poured down the drain or put out with your garbage. For a list of the City of Ottawa's Household Hazardous Waste drop off days, visit www.ottawa.ca/residents/recycling_garbage.

• Find out about alternatives to pesticides here.
• Learn how to pick an environmentally friendly lawn care company here.
• For more information about the health effects of pesticides, visit Coalition for a Healthy Ottawa.