Archives for December 2011

Why aerating is good for your lawn

Savannah Eco Mowing strives to offer a variety of lawn care services that will help make your lawn healthier and lower maintenance, while being safe for the environment. Aeration fits right in with this ideal as it very seldomly needs to be done, and benefits your lawn with very little environmental impact.

Aeration involves removing small cores of soil throughout the lawn, allowing water, air, and nutrients to fill the holes and get into the soil and root system more easily, reduces compaction, and encourages root growth. Aeration also helps drainage, reducing runoff and puddling. Basically, Aeration is an aspect of organic lawn care and landscaping that will help your lawn become healthier and hardier.

It is only necessary to aerate your lawn every other year, and you can rent an aerator and do it yourself, or hire a professional lawn care service such as Savannah Eco Mowing to do it for you. Aeration should be done just before that growing season for the grass, which in Savannah, GA where warm season grasses are common, is in the Spring.

Lawn Mowing with Battery Power

In the past, maintaining your lawn meant noisy, smelly, polluting gas mowers. Fortunately, there are a variety of cordless battery powered mowers on the market today that will do a good job mowing your lawn. With these rechargeable mowers you’ll spend less money on lawn care over time. No need to buy gas, oil, or spark plugs and electric mowers don’t require yearly tune ups. The cost of recharging the batteries is negligible compared to the cost of gas. They also start more reliably and with a push of a button, as opposed to yanking a cord over and over just trying to start your mower so you can mow the lawn. They are also much quieter than gas mowers, which is one reason people like lawn care services that use electric equipment, such as Savannah Eco Mowing.

Although many people might not realize it, lawn care is a significant contributor to air pollution, especially in cities. According to the EPA, emissions from lawn mowers contribute almost one third of the total air pollution in metropolitan areas such as Savannah, and five to ten percent overall. While the batteries still require electricity, they create significantly less pollution overall. If you have a small lawn you could also consider a reel mower, which create no emissions at all. Whether you want to do it yourself, or hire a professional lawn care service, battery powered mowers are a quiet, eco friendly way to mow your lawn.

Benefits Of Organic Fertilizer

An important aspect of lawn care is deciding how to fertilize your lawn. Fertilizing lawns organically, like we do at Savannah Eco Mowing, requires a different approach and a different set of expectations than a chemical treatment program. This is not to say that organic fertilizers do not work as well, in fact in many ways they work better, but that organic fertilizers function differently than chemical fertilizers.

Organic fertilization can include grass clippings left on the lawn when mowing, mulched leaves, or organic fertilizer products. The organic material gets broken down by microorganisms in the soil which then release nutrients that the grass needs. Chemical fertilizers on the other hand supply the lawn directly with the nutrients.

As you might expect, lawns respond to a chemical fertilizer application occur more quickly than an organic fertilizer. The down side is that this makes the lawn grow very fast, requiring more watering, and more mowing. The nutrients are also used up more quickly, meaning your lawn will need more frequent applications. Over time soil treated with chemical fertilizers can become depleted of organic matter and beneficial microorganisms, which play an important role in developing a truly healthy lawn. A chemically treated lawn that lacks organic matter and microorganisms can become more compacted and less able to hold nutrients, making environmentally dangerous run-off from chemical treatment more likely.

The process that happens when a lawn is treated with organic fertilizer is a little different. As the microorganisms break down the organic material from the fertilizer, they release nutrients into the soil, supplying the lawn with a slow, steady supply of the things it needs to grow. Over time the soil will have a higher and healthier level of microorganisms. This soil that is rich in organic matter and microorganisms is able to hold more water and nutrients in the soil, and the roots of your lawn will become deeper and healthier. The end result is a lawn that is healthier and more drought resistant, requires fewer fertilizer treatments, needs less mowing, and looks great.

Although chemical fertilizers have been commonly used in lawn care for a long time and have the advantage of producing almost immediate results, with a little patience and knowledge about how organic fertilizers work, organic lawns can actually be healthier and easier to maintain. It also doesn’t hurt that they are safe for kids and pets, and won’t harm the environment.

Mowing Height

Following these tips will help your lawn become healthier and more sustainable:

Different types of grass have different optimal heights, but you should generally mow high. This means 3-3.5 inches for many types of grass. This allows for more root growth and also helps shade out weeds.

Only cut 1/3 of the length at a time. Cutting more than this will unnecessarily stress the grass. If the grass is allowed to grow to 6 inches, you should cut it down to 4 inches, and then wait a few days before cutting it to its regular height.

How and When to Water

Watering your lawn correctly is an important part of sustainable lawn care. You can conserve water and make your lawn more drought resistant by following these tips.

It is best to water in the early morning. This will conserve water as more will to go into the soil without evaporating.

Watering your lawn deeply and infrequently will help the roots to grow deeper into the soil, making your lawn more drought resistant. You do not need to water every day, just when you see the first signs of wilting or footprints. When you do water you should give it about an inch of water, without letting it puddle in certain places.