Composting Tips

Compost is decomposed organic matter that is rich in nutrients that are good for your lawn and other plants in your yard. Making your own compost saves landfill space and makes great natural food for your lawn at the same time. Composting can be as simple as making a pile of a mix of leaves, twigs, bark, grass, and food waste and letting it sit for between 6 months to a year. A turning unit with multiple bins can speed things up, but requires more work.

Adding a top dressing of compost to your lawn in the spring or fall is a great way to improve soil quality. Another option is to make a compost tea and spray it on your lawn. Compost tea allows the grass to access the nutrients quicker than dry compost and has been shown to help make your lawn more disease and insect resistant.

Many types of yard and food wastes can be composted, such as leaves, grass, bark, and twigs. If you do decide to build a turning unit or have one made, the process can be complete between 6 to 10 weeks. You want to have at least a 2 to 1 ratio of carbon rich wastes, called “browns” such as leaves, twigs and bark, to nitrogen rich wastes, called “greens”, like grass, weeds and food waste. Keeping the compost slightly moist and aerated will help decomposition.  After you put the wastes into the first bin,  at first the temperature should start to rise, as the microorganisms reproduce and start breaking down the material.  Once the temperature starts to fall, you turn the compost into the next bin.  After repeating this a few times,  the temperature will level off and you will be left with a mature compost that is great for your lawn.

Overseeding Your Lawn

At Savannah Eco Mowing, we like to avoid using chemical herbicides as part of our lawn care service. Instead, we focus on creating healthy lawns using a variety of techniques that are better for you, your lawn and the environment. A lawn that has thick, healthy grass, with deep healthy roots naturally has fewer weed problems, reducing the need for herbicides of any kind.

Many people do not realize that even healthy grass that is well maintained will tend to thin over time. To keep your lawn nice and thick, overseeding should be done every 4 or 5 years. In Savannah, GA there are many lawn care services you can hire to overseed your lawn, or you can do it yourself. Savannah Eco Mowing will, of course, be happy to help you overseed, but whatever you decide to do, here are some of the basics you should know.

Before putting down seed, you need to mow the lawn very low. The seed needs to make it down to the soil to germinate, and the new grass will need sunlight to grow. Aerating is also helpful, and going over the soil with a stiff rake, or putting down a thin layer of compost will help the seed germinate better. When choosing your seed, the lower the amount of weed seed the better.

You will need to water lightly and frequently until the new grass starts sprouting up. Ideally the soil would be slightly moist at all times. Once the grass starts coming up, you can water longer and less often.

Although overseeding your lawn does not need to be done very often, and isn’t the first thing you think of when considering a lawn care service, it will help you maintain a thick beautiful lawn, with fewer weeds and less need for herbicides.

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.