If you want to be successful as a natural, organic gardener — or grow a healthy, organic lawn — you may need to think differently about your soil.
Organisms in the soil have the same needs we do: to drink, breathe, eat, digest and excrete. When the soil is healthy, fed with natural materials and not compacted, those natural processes allow fertilization and growth to happen the way Mother Nature intended. Organic fertilizer is actually soil food that nourishes the organisms, whereas chemical fertilizer feeds plants directly — but much of the chemical fertilizer runs off into lakes, oceans, rivers and groundwater. Growing grasses and other plants in healthy, living soil will make the plants more drought-tolerant, disease-resistant and maintenance-free.
For a video illustrating the difference between chemical soil treatments and organic soil management, check out “Organic Lawn Management, The Overview,” at safelawns.org/video.cfm.