Hi there: I'm Fern Bradley, one of the editors of Reader's Digest All-New Guide to Gardening. In the next few weeks, I'll be adding several posts about organic gardening here in the Living Healthy blog. And today I'll start with some thoughts on organic lawn care.

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Lawns are a great place for children and pets to play, but lawns can also be a health hazard. More and more people are concerned about exposure to synthetic pesticides applied to lawns, and some states are even passing regulations to ban pesticide use on playing fields at public schools.Many people fear their lawns will die or become weed-ridden if they stop using chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides, but it’s just not so, as an experiment at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. has shown. The organic lawn planted there in the Fall of 2007 is doing great! Realistically, you probably can’t start with a from-the-roots-up renovation like they did on the National Mall, so you may see some changes in your lawn as you switch to organic. For example, it may not instantly “green up” in the spring like it did when you applied synthetic fertilizer. Be patient though, and stick with it. Your lawn will revive once it kicks the chemical habit. Here are six tips for caring for your lawn the organic way: 

1. Leave it long to prosper. One of the simplest changes is to start letting your grass grow longer—3 inches long—before you mow it. And when you do mow, never remove more than one-third of the height at one time. This stresses the grass less, and the longer lawn naturally shades out weeds.

2. Stop bagging the clippings. Grass clippings are natural fertilizer. Leave them in place each time your mow, and in the course of a year, they’ll add roughly 2 pounds of nitrogen per 1,000 square feet to your lawn.

3. Spread compost. Stop applying chemical fertilizer and substitute compost instead. Apply screened compost at least once a year, spreading a layer that’s no more than 1/4-inch thick. You can do the job by hand with a rake or use a drop spreader.

4. Water deeply. If you must irrigate your lawn, be prepared to soak it thoroughly. This will encourage roots to grow deeper into the soil, and that strengthens your lawn over time.

5. Overseed for a lusher lawn. If your lawn seems sparse, perhaps it just needs more grass plants! You can apply more grass seed right to your existing lawn. It may help to aerate or dethatch your lawn before you spread the seed. Fall is the right time to overseed cool-season grasses; spring for warm-season grasses.

6. Diagnose problems before you treat. If your lawn is looking sickly with patches of dying or dead grass or other unusual symptoms, make sure you diagnose the problem properly before you try to treat it. Gardening reference books like the All-New Illustrated Guide to Gardening include charts of lawn pest and disease symptoms and treatments, or try taking a digital photo of the problem and e-mail it to your local cooperative extension service for a diagnosis.


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Best of luck as you transform your lawn to organic. Spring is a great time to start the transition. Spring is also a great time to take steps to feed your soil—a process that’s at the heart of organic gardening. In my blog posts next week, I’ll focus on several techniques you can use to boost your soil’s health by feeding it with compost, cover crops, and organic mulches.

P.S. Would you like to win an edible garden for your community or local school? If so, check out the contest that Reader’s Digest is offering in conjunction with Share our Strength and the Food Network. They’re giving away five great gardens, and you could be one of the winners!