Organic Lawn Care - Soil is Key to a Healthy Lawn
by John Yazo
Natural or organic, more home owners want to practice environment friendly lawn care. It is all about soil, and how to benefit from the natural biology of the soil to produce healthy plant life. Let nature do it's work for you and provide you with a healthy soil structure that will benefit your lawn, feed the soil and not your lawn.
Once you have decided that this is the method of lawncare you want, it is time to put together a plan. The main part of the plan is about the soil your lawn is growing on and it's natural biological activity. The reason I say it's natural, is because if your lawn has been treated with pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilizers for a long period of time, the chances are that the living organisms in the soil have been harmed if not extinct, and they are needed, along being healthy to benefit the soil naturally.
A natural organic soils biology is made up of a large complex community of microbial and faunal activity, along with the ecology in soil. Included in this community are organisms like, earthworms, nematodes, protozoa, fungi, bacteria and different arthropods. The soils biological activity plays a vital role in determining many soil characteristics, and when keep healthy, it can provide many benefits that plant life will benefit from.
A healthy organic soil contains the nutrition and moisture that is needed to grow a healthy plant life, along with other benefits like, disease and pest control, water conservation and weed suppression. Testing the soil is the first step when converting to organic lawncare. The results of your test will give you needed information to amend your soil back into a natural and healthy organic soil structure.
To make a quick assessment of how good or bad the soil your lawn is growing on is, you can preform a simple test yourself. Using a trowel or a small shovel, dig out a small piece of the existing sod, about 4" deep. Take a close look and examine what is both above and below the soil. Observe if the grass is dense and healthy, is the soil soft and crumbly, and if there is any sign of earthworm activity. These are all good signs of a healthy lawn and soil.
The use of a natural soil conditioner and compost is the best way to start to revive the life that once lived in your lawns soil naturally, and to use as a part of your soil management plan to keep the soil healthy naturally.
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