I hope by now you guys have learned that organic lawns look better and are healthier in the long run. Of course, part of the equation goes into getting your organic lawn treatments to work better when you apply them. That is what I am talking about today.
Organic Lawn Applications Need Help
I say they need help because when we apply an organic fertilizer such as Milorganite or Ringer Lawn Restore, the nutrients found in those “pellets” are not released so easily. Keep in mind that most of your regular synthetic fertilizers you get at the store (Scott’s 4-step stuff) let their nutrients out in the form of dissolving in water. That is why we tell you to “water them in.”
However, with organics, water is NOT what makes the nutrients hit the soil, rather natural breakdown from heat. In addition, the smaller the pieces, the quicker the heat action can break them down. The reason we want to help this process is because we don’t want the pellets to wash away in a rain storm while we are patiently waiting for the nutrients to “decay” in the lawn.
Make Your Organic Stick In The Lawn
The very best way to ensure your organics “stick” in the lawn long enough to deliver maximum nutrient benefit is to help them along by sticking them into the soil. There are two ways I recommend you do this:
1) Apply sand to the yard – yep, good old play sand you can get at the local home and garden store. Now, this only applies if you live in an area of the country with clay-based soil which is a lot of the south and most of the Midwest. The sand has a way of “roughing” into the clay and it will drag down your organic fertilizer with it, effectively embedding it into the hard clay. You should apply the fertilizer first and the sand immediately after. Apply the sand at about 1lb of sand per 1,000 square feet. In other words, you don’t need a lot of sand. This also acts as an overall soil conditioner for hard clay lawn soils.
2) Aerate first – I talk a lot about lawn aeration as a pivotal part of your overall organic lawn care program, but it is never anymore important then when we are trying to get the lawn some good, soil-enriching organic nutrients. The sand I mention above helps keep 
the organics in the lawn, but aeration REALLY helps. As you know, when you aerate you are removing soil plugs from the lawn. This leaves thousands of holes and makes a great chance for you and me to apply natural fertilizers to the lawn that will effectively fall into or wash into those holes where they will remain feeding the lawn for weeks or even months.
Keep in mind that organics are usually applied very heavily (14 pounds per 1,000 sq feet or Milorganite) and that is a lot of product to fill into those holes and break down over time!
For all intensive purposes, you should be applying organics in the spring and fall in conjunction with your aeration, and using sand in the summer to rough into the hard clay. This is exactly how you get the most from your organic lawn care products and has been done on green-conscious golf courses and sports fields for years.
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