Fall Gardening and Organic Lawn Care

Fall Gardening and Organic Lawn Care

©2014 Organic Edible Gardens LLC

 

Fall, in general, is the best time of the year for planting. With temperatures slowly cooling down and an increase in precipitation, newly installed plants have a good opportunity to establish themselves. Fall is the best time of year to plant cold hardy perennials, trees and shrubs. They will set their roots over the winter and come back strong in the spring. When it comes to the month of September specifically, this is a good time for planting cool weather vegetables like lettuces, arugula, spinach, beets and carrots. It is also the best time of year to perform a lawn renovation.

 

Here at Organic Edible Gardens we perform this lawn renovation organically. First we control weeds without the use of chemical herbicides. An organically fertile soil requires organic matter; it is the food that the microbes eat in order to produce nutrients for the plants. Most lawn soils, especially chemically treated ones have low percentages of organic matter. In order to improve this, we apply a top-dressing of well matured compost. We follow this with an aeration in order to improve soil porosity, work the compost into the soil and to provide a good seed bed for the grass seed. Seed selection is important as certain varieties are best adapted to our climate. Finally we apply organic fertilizers whose composition and quantity is determined by a soil test. A short time later, after a little help from Mother Nature in the form of rain, you can have a more drought tolerant, lush green lawn for your children to play in without the health risks of synthetic pesticides or contamination of the watershed.