Lawns: Organic Lawn Care for the Cheap and Lazy

Must do:

• Set your mower as high as it will go (3 to 4 inches).
• Water only when your grass shows signs of drought stress and then water deeply. (Put a cup in your sprinkler zone and give your grass about 1" inch of water.)

Optional:

• Fertilize with an organic fertilizer or top dress with 1/4 inch of organic compost in the fall and spring.
• Have the pH of your soil professionally tested. Add lime if it is below 6.0 and gardener's sulfur if it is above 7.0.
• How much top soil do you have? See how deep a shovel will go into the soil. If you have less than four inches of soil, you must add topsoil.
• Overseed bare spots in spring and fall.

Adapted from Paul Wheaton. More details and fun reading on basic organic lawn care can be found at: www.richsoil.com/lawn/