How to organically revive your lawn

Our front lawn was apparently neglected before we bought the house. I don’t know if the previous owners dumped too many chemicals on the lawn which stressed it, or simply neglected it but towards the end of last summer the grass was yellow from GRUBS.

In case you don’t know, if these disgusting creatures make an appearance on your lawn, your lawn is unhealthy. The grubs will eat the lawn roots, which results in patches of dead grass. We had grubs and dead patches everywhere.

In order to fix the problem without resorting to harsh chemicals or ripping up our front lawn entirely, this spring we have formulated a 6-part plan to fix our lawn.

1. Rake the thatch. When the days start getting a little warmer in the spring, rake your lawn. If you have an unhealthy lawn like we do, there will be clumps of dead grass stuck together that you can easily rake out of the ground (aka thatch). Rake all of that up and get it off your lawn.

2. Aerate the lawn. You know when you see 4-inch long circular pieces of dirt that look like poo on athletic or school fields? Well that lawn has just been aerated. You can use a manual aerator that you step on to make the holes (if you have a small lawn) or rent a machine (like we did). According to what we read, the shoes that you see in Sky Mall that have the spikes on them don’t really work because they don’t go far enough into the ground.

3. Buy compost to spread over the lawn.

We waited a week between aerating the lawn and having the compost delivered. The dirt that you see in the picture is 9 cubic yards of compost. We called a local landscaping company and ordered the compost to be delivered on Friday afternoon. We tried to get ½ in of compost on top of the grass and added more in some parts (for instance on top of where we had two dead trees taken out last year). Compost will add nutrients back into the soil and fill in the holes from the aerator machine. Surprisingly, it didn’t take us very long to spread the compost- only half a day.

4. Buy grass seed. We went with an organic brand called Jonathan Green. Make sure to grab a bag of a seed that suits YOUR lawn. For instance, in our back yard we used a high traffic seed (because of the dogs) whereas in our front yard we used a full sun seed. Spread the seed over your lawn- you can either use a seed spreader or do it by hand.

5. Buy mulch. We bought six bags of a brand called Mainely Mulch which is like a straw that has no seed in it. We then spread that over the compost and seed to hold the seeds in place and to retain moisture.

6. Water water water. In order to get the seeds to germinate you need to water a lot in the beginning.

Cost:
Aerator rental $ 65
9 cubic yards of compost $ 265
Grass seed (1 25lb bag) $ 50
Mulch (6 bags) $ 120

Total $ 500

Crossing my fingers we have a better looking lawn this year!

How do you take care of your lawn?