In England’s green and pleasant land…..a famous hymn indeed but I doubt when William Blake wrote ‘Jerusalem’ whether he had to contend with a barrage of pesticides, nitrate fertilisers and chemicals sprinkled on his lawn! Green, yes, but eco-green? Most certainly not.
Modern day lawns, whilst pleasing on the eye, are a toxic morass of modern day chemicals dreamed up in laboratories like Monsanto’s St Louis campus. With these chemicals leaching not only into the soil but also into our blood streams, Active You has been researching how garden lawns can still be maintained properly but in a manner that respects nature and our own physiology.
It’s a complex question, especially as modern life demands quick solutions to our practical problems.
Unfortunately, many people believe that all the chemical fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides are necessary for maintaining a pristine green lawn. But are they? Nature seemed to be doing pretty well with all the lush greenery before we came along.
So what’s the real story? Truth is... you can have a fantastic green lawn the healthy ‘green’ way, without using any toxic chemicals. Here’s a short guide to a real, organic lawn:
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To start off, mow your grass high. Ideally, keep it about 3 inches tall. You can cut it shorter (about 2 inches) twice a year, during spring and in the fall. Set your lawn mower to ‘mulch’; you can put back important nutrients back in the soil by mulching. This way, you don’t need to use inorganic fertilisers.
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Next, make sure you have some diversity. Lawns that have two or more types of grasses are a great deal healthier than those that have only a single variety. A blend of grasses helps create a more resilient, disease-resistant lawn.
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To control weeds, try sprinkling corn gluten meal over the lawn. This is a 100% natural weed-killer, and does not cause harm to the environment like chemical herbicides. A 50:50 mixture of vinegar and water sprayed at the roots is useful for taking care of individual weeds, which you can then pull out. (You can also remove the weeds without killing them, just so long as you take care and pull them out along with the roots.)
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Allow your lawn to breathe. Aerate it a couple of times a year. When the air gets to the roots, it helps to the grass to develop a superior root system.
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Finally, water your lawn more deeply. This way, although you use more water, you also have to water the lawn fewer times each week. If you water your lawn between midnight and 8 in the morning, the water does not stand on the lawn for long, and there’s also enough time for the water to soak in before the sun evaporates it.
That’s about it... This is just a primer to a toxin-free lawn. It requires only a little bit of initiative and care, and soon you’ll be enjoying the beauty of a healthy, green lawn without the guilt of having harmed the environment and your family in the process.
However, for those of you are either too busy, too lazy or both, here’s a cheat solution – go to The Grass Factory where you can purchase artificial grass that is so ‘real’ you’d be hard pressed to tell the difference between it and the real thing.
You might think that’s an outrageous suggestion but given the choice between herbicides, pesticides, weed killers, nitrate fertilisers, and an artificial lawn, I know what I’d prefer to lie on….
