Garden Smart, Not Hard.
Feeding Your Lawn/Garden
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a healthy organism starts with a healthy diet, lifestyle and environment
Nature provides plants with nutrients from numerous sources, in the form of minerals and organic matter, and the same goes for us. If you compared plant's nutritional requirements to ours, you would be surprised to find many similar nutrients in different quantities. Potassium, magnesium and iron are a few examples.
Plants namely get their 'vitamins and minerals' through minerals derived from rocks and sediment, and organic matter. Organic matter is any organic compound that comes from something that was once alive. This could be a banana peel, cow manure, a dead mouse or a pile of rotting leaves. All of these break down into useable nutrients by other organisms.
In the natural world, there is a constant breakdown and buildup of nutrients during the cycle of life and death. Quite often, human beings interrupt this cycle at one or more points and must then compensate for the disrupted balance. A perfect example of this is seen with the lawn and how we force ourselves to maintain it.
If a lawn was left to grow organically, with no added or removed nutrients and cultured by mother nature, it would be totally sustainable on its own. Expansive prairies and grasslands have proven how successful grass really is when left to its own devices. When we cut the lawn and remove the grass clippings, we are removing organic matter and nutrients which, if not replaced, will become depleted over time. This results in problems down the line and creates a need for added fertilizer and care by us. Essentially, we've taken something predominantly self-maintaining, and created work for ourselves and overhead, unnecessary cost.
Now, we could add nutrients in the form of organic matter, which would be the natural way, and what the lawn is used to. But, the availability, inexpensiveness and ease of use with chemical fertilizers makes this most people's first choice. Not to mention, the numerous marketing adds and suggestions in conventional gardening. Marketing ads pretty much
tell you what your problem is, and the solution. We buy that, and assume it's the only way, but it's not. They only give you
one possible 'solution', and that solution is their product. Modern marketing, for the most part, is selling us quick fixes that don't really solve the underlying issue, and only put a bandaid on certain symptoms. Without treating the root cause (pardon the plant pun), the problem persists, and you continue buying their product and treating the symptom. It's a perfect plan to keep customers coming back, and an even better marking ploy when your product facilitates other problems for which you have the "remedy".
No matter the merchandise, most conventional products are bandaids, not solutions.
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| Soil is more than just 'dirt'. |
When you add organic matter, you are not
just feeding your plants, you are feeding an entirely balanced and self-maintaining process in your soil. The plants you grow are a product of the quality of your soil, and if there are problems here, you will inevitably have problems with your plants. By adding, say, a thin layer of well-rotted compost to your lawn (topdressing), you are adding material that will incorporate itself into the soil
over time. Nature is naturally
slow-release everything. The compost will be further broken down by microbes, beneficial bacteria, insects and other organisms in the soil. This process is somewhat similar to the beneficial bacteria found in our intestines, known as 'gut flora', which help break down our food into usable material for our bodies. A soil with a wealth of healthy microbes is a much healthier lawn than one without. This is sort of the 'top of the food pyramid' in healthy soil. From here, we get into bigger and bigger organisms that really make the soil an entire ecosystem of its own. Worms are a very crucial critter that does wonders for all plants. They break down organic matter and aerate the soil at the same time. By burrowing into the lawn, they create air pockets that help water penetrate the soil, as well as keep air around the roots of plants (which is fundamental for plant growth). Soil compaction is actually the number one killer of urban plants, believe it or not. There many,
many other insects, and even small mammals that live in your lawn, some beneficial, others not, but it is the cycle of life, death and rebirth that really makes it a functioning ecosystem. If we can just put the balance in the favour of the good guys, rather than try to control everything on our own, we can create a
super lawn, one far healthier than a chemically treated, aerated, pesticide- and herbicide-laden lawn.
A monoculture is an environment that supports one type of life. Your lawn should
never be a monoculture. Pesticides and herbicides exist solely to create this weak structure. Chemicals don't discriminate, and what kills the bad guys will surely kill the good guys too. Eventually, you've got grass and dirt, and you need to fill in all the missing pieces which is a lot of time and money lost for you.
So, what happens when someone decides to dose their lawn with some chemical fertilizer, to "green it up" overnight? They destroy those microbes and weaken the whole system. You get quick results that the companies like to market, but you've destroyed your lawn's health in so many other ways, meaning you will need to buy more of that 'great' product you just used when it wears off in two weeks . . .
Money in their pocket. Not only that, but when you get all those other associated problems, you will need to look to their line of other lawn care products: insecticides, pesticides, re-seeding supplies, and of course, more fertilizer.
Fertilizer is toxic to animals, and it is to plants too, in excessive doses. There are numerous reports and studies that have made the public and governments aware of the toxicity of herbicides. Even minimal exposure over a period of time can change the human body in ways that last a lifetime. Most notably, pesticides and herbicides have been found to mimic hormones in the human body, throwing our body chemistry out of whack and causing premature puberty and other hormonal changes. The persistence of these chemicals is also very concerning. If a cow ate from a field treated with pesticides, the chemical would persist in their body long after, and when we eventually ate that cow, we would absorb those chemicals second-hand from the meat. These chemicals become
part of us, sometimes forever and can even pass on to your children. There is so much evidence to support the immense health risk of exposure to chemicals, that countries such as Canada, have put out strict legislation banning the sale and use of synthetic, chemical pesticides and herbicides. When this legislation came into effect, the response was a bit panicked as people thought, "what do we do now"? The market had only educated the public enough to know that their product was the only solution, but there were other ways. Suddenly, people were finding new, organic ways to do things and the market changed too. Suddenly, companies were being forced to find a new product, a 'green' product, and many became available, and then even better ones followed. A decade later and the market is completely transformed. Innovation often only occurs out of necessity.
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This pie chart shows a fairly typical soil that will
successfully support healthy growth. |
We know that a human being who eats a healthy, balanced diet is far stronger than a person who eats a poor diet and loads up on vitamins and supplements. The same goes for plants. When you add chemical fertilizers to your lawn, you are killing off those microbes and beneficial bacteria that support your plant's health, strength and self-sufficiency. If they don't die that way, they'll die from starvation - lack of organic matter. When the top of the pyramid dies, the disruption flows downhill and the balance is disrupted on many levels. Now that your soil cannot support healthy life on a microbial level, it depends on you to make up for it. Every two weeks, if not more, you will need to supplement your plant's diet in order to have a living, green lawn.
But the problems don't stop there. As the soil becomes depleted and the remaining organic matter is used up, you eventually have a soil medium that is nutrient-void and developing other issues. A healthy foundation creates a sound home, and the same goes for people and plants. Once the foundation starts to crack, problems start showing up everywhere, as everything is connected. Watering problems often accompany a poor soil, as organic matter helps hold water and releases it over time, creating a 'spongier' soil. Lack of worms and other burrowing creatures means we now need to aerate mechanically. Everything nature did must now be done by or supplemented by us. The plant's natural defences suffer, and because so many of the beneficial microbes and bacteria are gone, it opens up an opportunity for the non-beneficial, malicious ones that harm your plants. Just like a human being with a healthy diet and lifestyle, plants with a healthy diet and environment are much more capable of fending of stress, disease and death.
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A particle of soil is a healthy composition of many things
that work in conjunction with each other to keep your
lawn/garden healthy and strong. |
Your lawn now depends on you to compensate for the problems, and we have been driven to compensate with quick fixes that really don't contribute to the health or longevity of your plants (lawn) at all. The solutions are really only bandaids, and the original problems are never addressed. We end up putting so much work into having a beautiful lawn, which ultimately becomes very synthetic. It has become an unstable environment in which to grown things, and we are accountable for the success and failure of it. There's a thin line drawn between the two if all depends on you. "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts" -
Gestalt theory. Basically, it's saying a that two people can accomplish the work of three if they work together, but alone, they can only accomplish what two individuals can. If your lawn has an army of life supporting it, and you're the commander and chief, the potential for success is far greater than if it were you and a bag of fertilizer.
So many people think that the key to a healthy, lush, green lawn
is fertilizer. And, of course, the name-brand fertilizer companies want you to believe that's exactly true, but it's not,
at all. You would have a far healthier lawn if you applied a non-chemical, natural fertilizer, or top dressed with manure of compost. You would actually have a healthier lawn if you didn't use
any fertilizer at all and just left your lawn completely alone, as opposed to using a chemical fertilizer. If you
supported the life in the soil, you would find no need to aerate for the most part, or apply fertilizer every other week, or water every day. You would find that your lawn got fewer diseases and infestations, and that it was much more self-maintaining overall. Consider yourself the boss of billions of organisms supporting your lawn -- the best bosses are the ones that support their workers, provide direction and tools to work smart, not hard, and encourage a positive end through positive means. Not the ones that try to do everything themselves or micromanage everyone so no one functions as part of the whole any longer.
If you fertilized with a pelleted organic fertilizer, and for some reason missed a dosing, you probably wouldn't notice a difference in your lawn right away. Weeks could go by without any major change. The same situation with a chemical fertilizer would yield visible deterioration within days. Once a chemical fertilizer runs out, it's 100% done feeding your lawn and you are the only one that can replace those nutrients. An organic lawn with a healthy soil will continue to break down organic matter which is very hard to deplete in a healthy lawn. The things is, you can't really have too much organic matter. It sits and waits to be broken down by microbes and other natural processes and slowly released to the soil and plants. When you are dosing a lawn with an organic fertilizer, you are not replenishing a depleted soil, you are contributing to an already healthy and functioning system and keeping everything topped up. The cycle never stops completely the way chemicals stop working, and the process is ongoing with or without you, totally unlike chemical fertilizers and synthetic processes that we provide.
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Nature's fertilizer, and all your plants will ever need for
optimal health. |
Don't remove what nature is trying to recycle. The clippings from your lawn mowing will dry and decompose within a few days, returning to the soil and feeding your plants. Not to mention, supporting the soil life and overall health of the entire system. If microbes can't feed, they die. It's free food for you plants, and less work for you. Fallen leaves in autumn are one of nature's greatest food sources. Leaves are a very nutrient-rich food source when they begin to compost, so much so that without them, forests would die of starvation if this process didn't exist for them annually. If you have fallen leaves, run them over with the lawnmower and let the decompose into free, premium plant food.
Water
- the number one way to keep your lawn green
Your lawn is programmed, through years of evolution, to expect a certain amount and schedule of water. It isn't like clockwork, but it is relatively consistent. Most regions that support a lengthy growing season of many months will see rain at least a couple of times per week.
Often, we think 'more is more' when it comes to watering your lawn, and more often too. Sprinkler systems are often set to run every night for a half an our or so. This is so unnecessary and detrimental to your lawn's growth.
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When there is always water at the surface, roots don't
need to search for water below and remain short.
When water is allowed to deplete to lower levels, the
root system becomes longer and stronger and more
capable of finding water during a draught. |
When you water a plant every day, the plant learns to expect that there is always water at the soil surface. Because this is where most of the water is, the roots never go in search of water and remain where the water is. Lawns with daily watering schedules rarely grow root systems more than a couple of inches deep.
In nature, grass plants grow root systems about six inches long. This is because of their need to search for water, and soil dries quickly from the top down. In spring, when grass plants are small (and their root systems are smaller as well), it often rains more frequently and tapers off as hot, dry summers approach. The abundance of water early on keeps short root systems well-watered. As the rain becomes less frequent, the soil dries from the top downwards and the roots are forced to stretch deeper to find ground water below. By the time a summer draught hits, the plants have developed a strong, lengthy root system that can still find subterranean water when the top of the soil is parched. This long roots system is the difference between life and death in a severe draught.
Your lawn, in the same situation, is destined to go dormant (dry and brown, what many people think is dead), for weeks or months, even with daily watering. The reason being, in extremely hot temperatures, the top couple of inches of soil can dry out in a matter of a day. It only takes one severe dehydration for a plant to cause shrivelled, dead leaves, and ultimately a dormant or even dead lawn. A short root system just can't find water in dry times because it's inches below where the plant never had to go before.
The golden rule of lawn/garden watering
Two to three times per week, water a lot at once to fully saturate the soil about six inches down, not just the top layer. This is in accordance with nature too - if she's watering well, then you don't need to.
A newly seeded lawn will require daily watering that tapers off over a month or two so you are only watering two to three times per week.
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This is an add for a fertilizer brand. A fertilizer simply
cannot make this happen. A brown, dormant lawn would
need water to break dormancy. Because fertilizers can only be
absorbed by plants dissolved in water, the owner of this lawn,
no doubt, watered their lawn more frequently as suggested
by the fertilizer package directions, resulting in new,
green growth. |
***Note: Most fertilizers companies have lead us all to believe that nitrogen, the first number on the bag (i.e., a 21-7-7 fertilizer has 21 parts nitrogen, 7 parts phosphorous, and 7 parts potassium) is the sole contributer to a green lawn. But a brown lawn will never turn green again without water, it's dead or dormant (which means the top is dead and the roots are waiting to sprout new green leaves when the time is right). Though nitrogen will make your lawn greener
, it will not make a brown lawn green again.
The marketing of nitrogen has gotten so out of control, so much so that the majority of the nitrogen in a leading brand's bag of fertilizer leaches away into the groundwater and only a small portion is actually used. People have been convinced that more is more, but at a certain point more is just useless, wasteful and eventually harmful. Plants can only take up so much at a time, the rest sits in the soil and washes away with the next watering. You would find that watering with a 20-20-20 fertilizer would yield results close to or exactly the same as a brand-name fertilizer, and an organic lawn, even better results still.
Combatting Weeds
- An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure
The best way to combat weeds is to
outcompete them. A healthy lawn with strong, dominant grass will outcompete other plants if given a chance.
Don't cut your lawn unnecessarily short. The more soil that is exposed, the more places there are for weed seeds to land and start to grow. Exposed soil means access to sun for new plants, and if there's a patch of soil with sun and no plant, don't expect it to stay that way for long. Cut your lawn so the blades of grass are as long as possible.
Removing more than one third of a plant at any point in its life will stress it, halt growth and weaken it. Try never to cut your more than one third off of the blade of grass. Keep your lawn healthy, long and strong.
Lastly,
over-seed. This is such a great way to prevent weeds. If there are weed seeds waiting to germinate, and there most certainly are, they will sprout the second they have soil, moisture and sun. Grass seeds will remain dormant right alongside weed seeds, waiting for the right time to sprout, so fill those spaces in with grass instead of weeds!
Why create more work for yourself?
- Go organic. Chemicals are synthetic, synthetic things don't last and only make more work as time goes on
- Let your lawn fertilize itself, slowly, over time with organic matter added every month or so
- Don't remove any organic matter and then replace it with chemicals. It's like removing fruits and vegetables from your diet and taking vitamins - not the route to health. Leave grass clippings and leaves to decompose and feed your plants naturally
- Foster a healthy ecosystem of functional, beneficial life in your lawn so your lawn/garden will take care of itself and depend less on you
- Water two to three times per week, a lot at once rather than a little bit often. Less is more!
- Don't expose soil if you don't want weeds to grow there. Mulch is a great way to prevent this in flower/vegetable gardens, as it breaks down to provide organic matter while preventing seeds from sprouting in exposed soil.
- Don't cut your lawn too short or dormant seeds will sprout in exposed soil
- Don't remove more than one third of your plants if you don't have to
- Over-seed your lawn to create a thick, impenetrable lawn with nowhere for impostors to take hold
When I worked in garden centres, one of the most frequent questions I got was, "What fertilizer can I use to get my plants to flower?"
Let's go inside the 'mind' (or logic rather) of a plant for a minute. The purpose of life is to reproduce, and everything you do is geared towards that moment. You grow, vegetatively, for a while, maybe an entire season, maybe for fifty years, and reach sexual maturity eventually. You're now strong enough to put your energy into creating new life. Of course, you want everything to be just right in your environment so your offspring have the best chance for survival, and you want to ensure that you are at your peak of physical strength.
A flowering fertilizer has a larger quantity of phosphorous, the middle number (30) in a 10-30-10 for example. Phosphorous is used by plants in larger quantities to produce flowering and reproductive tissues (as well as by the roots). So, providing a flowering fertilizer (or a transplant fertilizer, as they both have high phosphorous content, just a different label) will help your plants produce more flowers, and bigger flowers, but only if there are deficiencies of phosphorous within your soil to begin with. In no way, whatsoever, will fertilizer make your plants start popping out flowers.
Most of my plants flower around Christmas time. My African Violets flower from about December to February, my Aloe has flowered each winter, along with most other cacti, and many others just pump out the blossoms when the days get short, about 10 or 11 hours short. My plants are exposed to a full day of sun in the south-facing sunroom, so their exposure is very natural. In the home or office, with artificial lighting, blinds, curtains, walls and other obstructions, many plants get little, erratic or no changing photoperiod, making flowering unlikely or random.
