GREENER GRASS CARE
March/April 2008
I want my lawn to look healthy and nice, but am concerned about harming the environment. How can I maintain my lawn in an eco-friendly way?
Start from the ground up. For any plant to be healthy above ground, it needs a healthy root system, so aerate your lawn every year.
Nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium are naturally occurring nutrients needed by all plants. They are commercially available in organic or synthetic forms. The plant can’t tell the difference. Organics are usually more expensive and need to be applied in warmer soil conditions; however, the most important times to fertilize are fall and winter, making synthetics a consistently good choice. If properly done in fall and winter, no spring fertilization is needed.
Water your lawn deeply but infrequently. One inch every seven days will keep grass green. You may allow your lawn to go dormant during water shortages. Healthy lawns can recover well, even after eight weeks or longer of dormancy, until cooler temperatures arrive and rainfall returns.
Weed seeds can remain dormant in the soil for years and can germinate daily. The best control of broadleaf weeds in a lawn is maintaining a thick, healthy tall turf canopy. To promote such growth, mow at the highest mower setting, never removing more than one-third of the total blade length. If hiring out, stipulate that mowing be done as needed, at a raised height, dependent on the lawn’s growth, not the calendar. Most lawns need to be cut nearly every five to seven days early in the season, but can often go weeks without cutting during hot dry periods.
When improving your lawn, use modern improved cultivars of turfgrass seeds that have been developed and tested by nearby land-grant universities for disease and insect resistance, and that will stand up to hot, dry summers. Use modern turf-type tall fescues, tested cultivars of bluegrasses and their mixes.
Reduce the amount of grass clippings being sent to landfills by using a mulching mower. Grass blades are 90 percent water. When mulched, they add nutrients and humus to a lawn, much like getting one free lawn fertilization a year. It’s OK to mulch leaves into the lawn in the fall. By next spring, most leaves will be thoroughly disintegrated.
Lawns do more than add to a home’s aesthetics and allow our children and pets a place to play upon. Grass cools the soil, helps hold moisture, gives off oxygen, collects dust, and effectively filters much of the groundwater. Grass has proved to be a very effective way to filter groundwater.
For more information on effective lawn care, Purdue University offers a Web site that is updated every other week during the growing season with good turfgrass advice: agry.purdue.edu/turf/tips/.
Above: A bobwhite quail whistles "bobwhite" in a Hoosier backyard. Easy grass care tips can improve the health of your lawn and our natural resources. Photo by John Maxwell.
To submit a question, write to Outdoor Indiana, Ask and Expert, 402 W Washington St, Suite W255B, Indianapolis IN 46204 or e-mail to OI@dnr.in.gov.