SIGN-UP FOR DAILY TIPS

BANG FOR THE BITE

It's definitely a bit more expensive than conventional methods. Still, if 1,000 people switched to natural lawn care for their acre of lawn, we'd decrease pesticide usage by an average of 6,000 pounds per year.

COCKTAIL FACT

George Washington and Thomas Jefferson both used sheep to keep their home lawns "mowed."

SAVE TO MY BITES

FORWARD TO A FRIEND:

RATE THIS TIP:

How useful is this tip to you?
(5 is the highest)

home › tip library › Natural Pesticides

Ready to pull out your hair along with all the weeds in your yard?

The Bite

Get a lovely field of green without using pesticides or chemical fertilizers. Use organic options for weed control and fertilizing. Not enough time to do it yourself? Hire an organic or integrated pest management-focused professional lawn company.

The Benefits

It’s better for you, your family, the water supply, your lawn, and all the critters (including your pets) that live on, in and under your lawn.

Where pesticides are regularly applied, 60 to 90% of earthworms are killed. Earthworms are invaluable for soil health.
60-70 million birds are poisoned each year in the U.S. due to pesticide use.

Personally Speaking

We would rather be in the garden (or doing anything else, really) instead of obsessing over the lawn -- so we hire an organic lawn care company to do it for us.

Wanna Try?

Weed Control: Corn glutton, available at most garden stores, is a natural by-product of corn processing and it acts as a pre-emergent herbicide reducing weed seedlings. Fertilizing: Use compost or organic fertilizers. Read labels carefully because you can have too much of a good thing!

Gardens Alive - full online, natural garden supply store
OrganicGardening.com - check out the list of fertilizers from Organic Gardening Magazine.
Naturalawn of America - let them worry about it for you!

Jun 27,2005

Sponsor

All editorial suggestions in this tip are the result of testing and a preference for the tip topic. No advertiser has paid to have its company referenced in the tip. For more information, please read our Editorial Policy.

SIGN-UP FOR DAILY TIPS

RSS FEED LINKS

Add to My AOL

Add to My Yahoo!

blog RSS feed

RECOMMENDED SITES

Biter Picks:

Founder Faves:

heather

jen

Staff Faves:

toshio

NPR's This American Life

sara

anna

Biter Tee Models

L-A-W-N - A Four Letter Word

Pygmy_goat I have always had “lawn envy” since I lived in cities most of life. Then I moved to Montana, and just got a place of my own. The previous owner (the sweetest guy in the world, Norm) did a lot to make the lawn pretty. Here I thought it was like some cosmic law - that when you have a house, grass will grow in front of it – but it turns out that is not the case. Norm worked like a dog to make the grass the gorgeous sight I inherited with the purchase.

So, when we did the deed transfer, he asked if I wanted to buy his lawn equipment. The riding lawn mower was a no-brainer, even though it didn’t come with a John Deer baseball cap. And then there were all these other things he sold : a backhoe, a tiller, a harrow, and… a ton of herbicide (gasp) to kill the raging knapweed, which infests more than 10,000 acres in Montana.

So, I am torn… knapweed invasion is associated with reductions in biodiversity, wildlife and livestock forage, and increased soil erosion. There are even nonprofits in the valley with the sole purpose of eradicating these noxious weeds. (I went to their WEED Festival… believe me – it wasn’t as fun as the name implies.) Anywhoo, I eventually did some research on natural removal of the stuff, and it turns out that knapweed is a plant that lives to flower and set seed. The plants will fight you every step of the way. In effect, everything I read just said "Good luck with natural options, this thing is a beast."

So, instead of introducing biological controls (ie: beetles and flies – bugs aren’t my thing) if Cricket doesn’t mind sharing the stage, I think I am going to get a goat. They have shown a propensity to graze vast amounts of noxious weeds, including the knapster. And one source told me that the droppings from goats do not spread the weeds or seeds - oh joy. Plus, they can be damn cute (the goats, not the droppings). One of my new neighbors just happens to be moving and looking for a home for her pygmy goat, so I might just add her to my menagerie.

So, wish me luck eradicating the baaaaaaad weeds. (Okay, that was a really baaaad joke).
Baaahhhaa bye (I just can’t stop!)– Jen

Biter Comments...

LAWN is a four letter word, and, in my experience, is usually accompanied by other 4-letter words when lawn maintenance is involved. When we moved into our house, some 6-7 years ago, the former owner had thoroughly treated it with chemicals. No bugs, no birds, just green kentucky blue grass. After about 3 years of no chemicals, the bugs and birds came back--it was truly awesome to see it happen. The sad thing is hearing from our neighbors that they have no worms. I think they're all in our yard. ;-) We live on a busy street, so a couple of years ago we removed the front lawn and converted it into usable garden space. Good south exposure, and we've had excellent vegetables. Along with this came a significant drop in water usage (good thing, here in the desert). My advice--if you don't use the lawn, lose it. Grow some vegetables instead. --jon

Posted by: Jon | June 27, 2005 at 08:15 PM

Ok...one more lawn story. After a few years, I was finally able to convince my folks to start cutting back on the chemicals, xeriscape part of their bluegrass, etc. They were shocked to find worms & other bugs starting to come back. I think my folks were living the motto, "better living through chemistry." --jon

Posted by: Jon | June 27, 2005 at 08:19 PM

I believe the word is spelled Corn GLUTEN, not glutton.

Posted by: Elaine | May 08, 2006 at 11:48 AM

I have planted a small segment of an "eco-lawn" mix in my backyard and have been very happy with it. Once it is established, it requires no fertilizer, very little water (none, where I live, zone 8), and I only mow it three times a year. I take care of weeds by either pulling them or using a pinpoint sprayer. These mixtures work because: 1. The grass is slow-growing 2. The mix includes nitrogen-fixing plants In the spring and summer it looks like a meadow, very pretty. In the winter it stays much more green than our regular lawn, due to the yarrow foilage. I plan to do my whole backyard with this. And perhaps someday, the front yard. I also convinced the city to use it in a new park in our neighborhood. I used the "northern ecology mix" from here: http://www.nicholsgardennursery.com/store/dept.asp?dept%5Fid=80 In the park, they used the "Fleur de Lawn" mix: http://www.protimelawnseed.com/fleur_de_lawn.htm

Posted by: Dave | June 19, 2006 at 03:37 PM

Wow, it's been a while since anyone posted to this string... Hmm. I'll give it a shot. I want to know how to deal with grubs in a responsible fashion. They turned my backyard into a dirt yard, and now that it's a seeding time, I want to get my ducks in a row... I hate like hell to throw poisons down there because there are tons of birds in the neighborhood that could accumulate the toxins (aka biological magnification, or accumulation (depending on where you went to school)). We also have a pretty good worm density, so I'd hate to kill off the good little buggers inadvertantly. However, as much good as nemotodes do to controlling smaller microbe populations, I'm willing to lose some to get the peace of mind that the grubs wont be coming back to destroy all the seeding work I did this spring. Anybody got a clue? It's a treat to hear about hybrids. Let me post a clip from my favorite authority on hybrids, Mr Carl Spackler: "This is a hybrid. This is a cross, ah, of Bluegrass, Kentucky Bluegrass, Featherbed Bent, and Northern California Sensemilia. The amazing stuff about this is, that you can play 36 holes on it in the afternoon, take it home and just get stoned to the bejeezus-belt that night on this stuff."

Posted by: Jordan | April 02, 2007 at 04:42 PM