This is a special guest article on organic lawn treatments by my friend Barbara. She is an avid organic home gardener and loves lawn care too!

Organic lawn treatments have gained broader acceptance in recent years and organic lawn fertilizers have become ever more popular as a result. Part of the reason, surely, is attributable to the eco-friendly green movement, but the real scientific benefits, which are hard to dispute, have played an important role as well.
Although slower acting, Organic Lawn Treatments are superior to synthetic lawn fertilizers in a number of important areas.

Organic Lawn Care Treatments: Better Turf Building

Organic lawn treatments have slow release mechanisms “built in” to them. They do not immediately release nitrogen and other nutrients and minerals to the soil. Rather, due to their complex, natural chemical composition, the grass roots themselves “feed” when they are “hungry” from the available nutrients. This results in better, more vital root development and more fibrous roots.

Organic Lawn Treatments: Improved Soil Content and Texture

Organic lawn treatments release live beneficial microbials and bacteria into the soil and areate the soil so that more oxygen is available to plant roots through the soil. Additional root growth (see above) also creates a more varied, healthy soil environment, creating a natural pest and disease resistent soil and roots within that soil.

Low Environmental Impact

The natural, easily assimilated ingredients of organic lawn treatments contain no toxins and will not pollute soil or water. The ingredients are naturally occuring nutrients and minerals and have not been “synthesized” for artificial formulas to feed the grass. The slow release of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium create no biohazards for fish, wildlife or people because they are never present in such concentrations that would make such a harmful result possible.

Organic Lawn Treatments: No Grass Burning

Related to the foregoing, the presence of nitrogen in complex naturally occuring molecules which are only broken down slowly by plant activity (“feeding”), means highly concentrated nitrogen infusions, the chemical reaction which causes “burns,” to the grass are impossible.

No Soil Compaction

The natural ingredients of organic lawn fertilizers come with “husks,” “mucus membranes” and “pellets” which prevent their running together and solidifying in the soil. They have a natural fibrosity and resistence to compaction, unlike synthetic chemical fertilizers, which can pool and solidify into cement-like sections of ground, rendering it, in effect, “poisoned.” Such a deleterious effect is chemically impossible with organic lawn fertilizers.
Use of organic lawn fertilizers is on the rise, dramatically, and it’s easy to see why. As word spreads about their incontrovertible benefits over synthetic fertilizers, gardeners are easily convinced that they are the best choice, not only for their lawn, but also for our green planet.

If you are here and wondering what organic lawn treatments are best, or you want to know when to apply organic lawn fertilizers to the lawn for best results, then get my book on organic lawn care!