Improve your Soil and Save the Chesapeake Bay

I just read in the Kiplinger Letter a clip about efforts to clean up the Chesapeake Bay. They say there will be regulations put in place in 2010. One of the issues is pollutants from ground water run off. Earth & Turf Products has been talking about this for some time now. The building contractors have taken too much of the topsoil out of subdivisions when they build them and then put back the remaining topsoil poorly resulting in home owners trying to grow grass on subsoil which does not work well. In addition the soil is not very permeable due to lack of organic matter and good macro pore spaces. Because of this lack of permeability when lawn care companies come in and spray chemicals on the lawns to kill weeds or insects and a rain comes along guess where the chemicals go? They go with the rain water runoff into the local stream which flows into a larger stream or river and on down to the good old Chesapeake Bay. No wonder the Bay is polluted and all kinds of bacteria are present in the water.
Hopefully we will begin to see the light, I guess after regulations are forced on us, to do the correct things with our soils to reduce the runoff and pollution.
Aerating and topdressing with good quality compost each year for three years can positively impact the soil, increase permeability and reduce runoff, plus help bring beneficial insects back into the lawn. This with other organic practices will improve your soil which in turn will improve you lawn and help save the Bay.

Fall Seeding and Topdressing

Well it is that time of year again where aerating, seeding and topdressing are in order. This is the best time to establish a good base that will make the lawn look great next spring and give the grass a jump on the weeds. Topdressing is very important in soils that lack adequate organic matter as well as lawns that need to reduce thatch. The combination of topdressing, mechanical aeration and seeding followed by dragging with a mat will really improve the soil which in turns supports good turf growth. Have a great fall season.

Saving Irrigation Water

I just got done reading an article about new technology to improve irrigation practices. It was amazing to me that there was no mention of having a good permeable soil with organic matter in it to retain the water. If a lawn or turf area has poor soil to start with you must use more water to sustain it simply because the water just lays on the top of the ground and evaporates. This can also lead to a shallow root system that is dependent on that surface water. Just stop irrigating for a couple of weeks and see what happens. Most likely it will be brown grass. Any plant whether it is turf or tomatoes needs good living soil to survive and produce. Topressing with compost or compost blends and proper aeration are the key to good soils.

Organic Lawns Have a Large Work Force

Organic lawns are lawns that the grass grows because of a healthy soil base not because it has been treated with tons of chemicals. In organic lawns there are thousands upon thousands of workers making sure the soil nutrients are available. These workers a come in the form of beneficial microbes, fungi, earth worms and beneficial insects. So if you are growing your lawn organically you have a huge work force taking care of your soil and feeding your grass even while you sleep. Nature is totally amazing and works well when we work with it.