Organic Lawn Tips

Many of us want to balance our desire for a perfect lawn with our recognition that organic gardening is healthier for the environment and the planet - here are some tips to help you find that balance for your lawn:

• Cut your grass to its recommended cutting height. Sounds simple, doesn't it? But different varieties of grass have different recommended heights. These lawns have usually been laid as a seed mix and range from 'luxury' to 'easy care' to 'drought tolerant' - find out the ideal cutting height for your grass type and set your mower to that level.
• Aerate your lawn by making holes in it. You can do this with an aerator - a machine that takes long narrow plugs of soil out of the lawn and deposits them on top of it where they biodegrade back down into the soil in a few weeks - aerating your grass allows it to make better use of water and nutrients and therefore makes it healthier in the long term.
• Leave lawn clippings on the lawn. The grass will benefit from the organic material they supply - if you have a mulching mower, it will do this naturally for you.
• Water less frequently, but more deeply. Most experts agree that an inch of water once a week is about right for most lawns in summer.

Watering your lawn properly can be a contribution to organic gardening. Lawn and hose pipe image courtesy of krikit