An organic yard?

It's spring and I need to feed my lawn. Normally I just head to the depot and get whatever sounds good or is on sale, take it home and give it to my lawn crew to spread. I do this twice a year. I am never sure how much to buy or use, but I guess, and the landscape guys never complain.

So what's the problem you ask? Organic. The word that means simple is no longer acceptable. We must somehow "care" for our lawn differently.

First I call my neighbor who I know has had organic lawn care on and off over the years. (My yard looks better than hers). We discuss the merits of the service and a general idea of cost. After that discussion I begin to try and learn what I can (curious mind) about organic yard care.

The real difference, as far as I can tell is that organic tries to grow happy plants that are well adjusted and play well with others. Non-organic does that cheaper and faster.

But, in all fairness, it's a little more complex than that. Your landscape exists primarily on nitrogen, carbon dioxide, water and sun. The carbon dioxide is in the air, the sun is pretty reliable, so it really comes down to us providing water and nitrogen (fertilizer).

Nitrogen is either supplied "organically" (poop etc.) or through a miracle of science that figured out how to synthesize nitrogen. The world's crop yields owe a huge debt to this discovery. Now, having said that, there is very little, if any, evidence that organic -vs- synthesized nitrogen make any difference to your plants, soil etc. So what is the difference?

First, organic fertilizers aren't as concentrated as the synthetic ones. Check out your depot, you can see that a synthetic bag is about half the size of an organic one. This means that it's more convenient and efficient for the world's farmers, and possibly you, to use synthetics.

Also, synthetic nitrogen is made using natural gas (uh oh). Apparently, synthesizing nitrogen by making ammonia nitrate uses a lot of gas. Burning the fossil fuel makes CO2...(you already know where this goes). The good news is we have plenty of natural gas here in the US so we aren't subsidizing any Saudi Bentleys.

Organic however is made from lots of different sources including chicken byproducts, bat poop, fish "emulsion" (fish parts), compost squeezins etc. This is nature's way.

Bottom Line # 1 - I can't find any evidence that one or the other is better for your plants, lawn, soil, worms etc. Your choice should be based on other reasons. Those other reason include using nature's waste products instead of them going to waste, and, minimizing CO2.

Ignore anyone who tells you that you should be concerned about run-off with synthetics. It's all nitrogen and that is bad for our watersheds etc. The key is to use the right amount and minimize run-off, whichever product you choose.

By the way, there are two other components of fertilizer, they are phosphorous and potassium. NPK, or Nitrogen, Phosphorous, and Potassium, are the three numbers on the bag, ie 10-10-10 is 10% of each. (I don't think we have figured out how to make the last two using fossil fuels, yet.)

But there is more to yard care than fertilizer. There are pesticides, and herbicides. And, there is compelling information for using organic products when fighting weeds and pests. Mainly because the non-organic chemical compounds developed for that purpose are some scary stuff. Just read the label...but whatever you do don't touch them, don't breathe them, don't get them on you, or your pets, and wash thoroughly after visiting that aisle at the depot.

Good watering, mulch, and regular fertilizer will go a long way towards fighting pests and weeds. Organic products are available for all your landscape maladies, but it's way too complex for me to figure out how to be successful with them.

So, I use Roundup for my driveway weeds, It's a little toxic when wet but once it dries it's safe (so they say, would Monsanto lie?). They actually use a form of it on pond weeds without harm to the two headed fish.

I don't use any pesticides because I like lizards. If bugs attack something, first I feel sorry for it, then I feed it, and let the winner live on! If it dies or keeps getting bugs I will put in something more resilient or adapted to my yard.

Bottom Line #2 - Organic weed and pest solutions are available to those that want a hobby. Or, get someone to do this for you who knows what they are doing. Chemical pesticides and herbicides are generally bad for your soil, bad for the environment and bad for you and Rover. You don't want any run-off with these products, ever.

In the end, I bought the Scotts brand organic fertilizer for about 20% more than the regular Scotts turf builder. Is it worth it? I doubt it, but it's made from chicken feathers and that's easier than plucking them yourself. I spread it on everything, got a little exercise and communed with nature. Then I had a cocktail, no pun intended.

My yard waste - no verde!

I am talking about grass clippings and leaves, along with weeds, dead annuals, etc etc.

When I embarked on my composting project, I didn't really realize that the largest amount of organic waste was from my yard. But because my office looks out into our street, I see everyone's huge piles of bags for the bulk pickup, including my own.

Having your yard waste hauled away to the dump is a bad idea. It takes up a huge amount of landfill space and quickly begins to ferment into methane, a very potent greenhouse gas.

So what can we do to make this a little easier on the environment? Move into an apartment of course. Yards are a bourgeois relic left over from ancient times. I have a huge one!

Joking aside, it is a pretty serious problem. Yard waste is a huge part of our waste stream. My half acre lot produces more than average so I felt compelled to do something.

My first thought was to just add all this to my new compost pile. I can gather it up, shred it (mulch it?) and throw it on the pile. But why? Why am I once again interrupting natures cycle? Let's talk leaves...

Mother Nature (Mom) fashioned an environment that takes care of itself. Leaves are Mom's fertilizer, mulch, bug food etc etc. When they drop from our deciduous trees we gather them up and put them in non-biodegradable bags...we are interrupting the cycle and adding some nasty plastic to the mix. (But those OPEC nations who sell us the petroleum to make those bags appreciate your business).

So if leaves are supposed to be on the ground why not just leave them? Well, our society doesn't appreciate the mess. Your neighbors will actually end up with your wind blown leaves. I have seen some yards, usually the xeriscape offenders, who just let the leaves lay. A pox on their home.

I have 14 deciduous trees. So here is what I do...

Bottom Line #1 - Have the lawn service...or you do it your-selfers, blow all the leaves from the beds into the grass and/or driveway. Then run over them a couple times with a non-bagging mower. Viola' mulched leaves! In my yard these small bits just filter into the grass. If I have too many I have them bag them and deposit them on my beds that usually take mulch! I have even taken my neighbors bags and dumped them in my driveway, had them mulch them up, and put them on my azalea beds...nothing is sweeter than stolen mulch!

So what I get is a natural fertilizer, moisture retention product and some shredded material for my compost pile just for fun. I buy, and have trucked, mulch and soil amendment to my property every year. Its expensive and the truck isn't very environmentally sound. This year I am hoping to do without most of that expense.

Bottom Line #2 - The leaves make a great looking and functional mulch that stays where it should. I no longer send any bags to the landfill. Once the grass starts growing we will (and always have) just mulch the cuttings into the yard. Any extra will be added to the compost pile.

Didn't cost me a dime by the way. Just had to educate the landscape crew a little bit. "No mas plastico baggarinos por favor." (I apologize to all my Spanish speaking readers).