We have lived in one of those ranch home plans for over five years now, and over the years our grass has gotten worse and worse. It used to be so green and luscious. Now it is yellow and dead looking. With summer finally here, I’m embarrassed to have people over because of our terrible lawn. My kids don’t even want to play in the yard because of the grass. So pretty much my grass needs some major help. I decided to go talk to my neighbor because he always has great grass. He tells me that he takes care of his lawn organically. After my talk with him, I decided to research organic lawn care some more.
Our lawn problems have probably stemmed from treating it with chemicals, cutting it too short, not watering it properly or a combination of all of that. So, the first thing my neighbor recommends I do is schedule a pH test for my soil. All of my research has told me I want my pH between 6.5 and 7. Having healthy soil will help grow healthy grass. Furthermore, the reason our grass is so yellow and not green anymore is because the lawn is lacking nitrogen. Nitrogen helps build chlorophyll proteins that will give my grass that green color. The next order of business in developing my lawns health is figuring out how to increase my lawn’s nitrogen.
Most fertilizers provide nitrogen to the grass. Sticking to my neighbor’s organic lawn methods, I have chosen an organic, slow-releasing fertilizer that will feed my lawn and soil over a longer period of time. I need to go above and beyond just using a fertilizer with nitrogen in it though. There are other organic methods that I found to try, like leaving grass clippings on the lawn after we mow. Corn gluten, soybean meal and composted organic materials can also be used to introduce nitrates into the soil. Who knew these kitchen items could help my lawn?
Our grass cutting and watering habits need to change as well if we want healthy grass back. Cutting too much off the blades of grass can really affect the lawn more than I thought. We shouldn’t be cutting more than one-third off the grass blades and we have definitely been cutting more than that off. The combination of cutting our grass way too short and then proceeding to not water it enough has damaged our grass the last few years. I always see our neighbor out watering and caring for his lawn. So, from now on I will be out there right with him giving my lawn that inch of water per week it requires.
After a few months of taking good care and treating our grass well with organic materials, we should have our beautiful green grass back. The kids are very excited to be able to go in the backyard of our ranch home and play around without being humiliated by our lawn condition!
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