Green Lawn Care–make it green by going green

Landscaping is another one of those springtime realities. Some hillsides, parks, backyards and frontyards produce their own beautiful green grass without a lot of maintenance. But a hands-free, work-free gorgeous green lawn is a rare occurrence. So while you are making that switch from a dry winter brown grass to a springtime, life-filled green grass, consider your environment.

• AllAboutLawns.com gives a few easy tips to make your lawn care green. Organic lawns are easy to care for and better for your family and the environment.  One of my favorite tips is watch the water-to conserve this valuable resource water your lawn in the early morning hours or at night when the roots can soak up the water without a lot of evaporation caused by the sunshine. Another great tip for an organic, healthy lawn is to create a homemade topdressing compost for your lawn. Use kitchen scraps, old grass clippings, leaves, fruit peels and other organic material to fertilize every few months.
• Another easy way to go green for your lawn is to slowly eliminate harsh chemicals from your lawn care regiment. Metronews.ca, a large news source in Canada put out an article encouraging people to give up lawn chemicals completely. Other alternatives suggested to replace the use of toxic chemicals include raking your lawn to “dethatch” unwanted debris and overseeding by two to two-and-a-half inches to make it hard for weeds to destroy the grass.
• For those of you who like to keep an organized schedule for your lawn care throughout the season, the Healthy Communities Project has a calendar for a natural, environment-friendly lawn. The calendar gives the lawn-carer specific instructions from mid-April all the way through mid-October. The recommended care for mid-April (right now) is to rake all winter debris off the lawn and apply corn gluten meal with a quarter-inch of water and let it dry for a few days. This will act as a preparation fertilizer to start off your lawn season healthy and green.

Good luck with your springtime lawn care and landscaping! Let us know which organic lawn care tips are your favorite while using your new found green thumb.