Picture a sunny weekend on your lush, green lawn that is the envy of your neighbors. The lawn doesn’t have to cost you a ton of money and time. Eco-friendly lawn care is beneficial for your pocket, the environment, and the people and pets who use it. Green and sustainable methods of caring for your lawn are not only cheaper but they are also low maintenance.
Leave the Grass Cuttings
Don’t go to the trouble of raking your lawn after mowing. Leave the grass cuttings to mulch. They are rich in nitrogen and contain more than 75 percent water. They will keep the lawn moist. They also give back plenty of nutrients. Alternatively, if you find the cuttings unsightly, compost them.
Kitchen Compost and Yard Waste As Fertilizer
Quick-release fertilizers and herbicides found in your local hardware store strip and damage your soils and make your lawn dependent on these same chemicals to survive. Runoff from your chemically fertilized lawn can also pollute the water system. Organic waste from the kitchen and yard is a great solution to the fertilizer issue.
Start a compost bin in your kitchen for food scraps. Add these and yard cuttings to an outdoor compost pile. Turn and mix the compost pile every few days and you’ll have a good quality fertilizer that is eco-friendly for no cost.
Be Bug Friendly
Soil is alive and requires aeration to thrive. Worms are great for this. They add oxygen to the soil and their waste matter puts nutrients back into the soil. Ants do a good job of pollinating flowers, distributing seeds, and eating other harmful insects. Leave them to thrive in your garden if you don’t have an indoor infestation.
Other bugs that are great to have around are praying mantises, lacewings, and ladybugs which eat aphids, mites, and other destructive bugs.
Apply Natural Pest Control and Herbicides
Pesticides have been proven to be harmful to both the environment and our health. Avoid these harmful chemicals and use natural pest predators, manual removal of weeds, and natural insecticides.
Garlic spray, neem oil, soap spray, and diatomaceous earth are examples of natural insecticides that will not kill all the bugs in your garden, just the troublesome ones.
Do you have a billbug problem? We’ve got the solution for that! For more information on how to control billbugs in the lawn read our blog post.
Rain Water and Efficient Watering Systems
Harvesting rainwater for your lawn is a great way to reduce the amount of water your use from the mains. You can use rain barrels, cisterns, and rain chains to store and direct the water as needed.
The traditional grassy lawn guzzles a lot of water. This is why an efficient watering system is necessary. Set your system to water in the evening or at night when the air has cooled down and there is less evaporation. It is also better to give the lawn a good soak at once rather than frequent light sprinkles. Your lawn needs about 1 inch of water a week to thrive. Consider using a drip system that is much more water-efficient.
Diversify Your Plant Selection
Grassy lawns use plenty of water. A great hack around this is to plant ground cover instead of grass in some areas. It will hug the ground and is very low maintenance.
Choose native plants that are already adapted to the local climate. You can go a step further and look for the ones that are naturally resistant to bugs.
Looking for Lawn Maintenance in Cumming?
If you’re still confused about environmentally friendly lawn care, give us a call. We offer common lawn maintenance services such as plant health care, spring/fall clean up, pruning/hedging, and irrigation systems. We can guide you in how to repair & restore a damaged lawn & also implementing and maintaining an eco-friendly lawn.