Natural Lawn Care for a Healthier Lawn

I don't personally care for lawns, and I'm in favor of digging them up to plant gardens wherever possible! But many people do have lawns, and the health of your lawn can actually affect the health of your garden (and your family) - especially if you treat it with dangerous chemicals. Some people garden organically, but don't think about the harmful effects of the chemicals used on the nearby lawn, which actually could be contaminating your garden. Natural lawn care is actually not difficult, and can lead to a prettier and healthier lawn - if that's your thing.

As well as drainage and irrigation there are other considerations that can enhance your lawn and make it look more beautiful and more enjoyable. Regular mowing, catching of the grass clippings (which you can use as mulch in your garden, or add to your compost) and also rolling will help to maintain the condition of your lawn.

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There are people who believe that cutting the lawn at particular phases of the moon can slow it's growth and increase the time between mowing. There doesn't appear to be any evidence to support this but there is no harm in trying. If you are interested in experimenting on your own lawn try mowing during the waxing or full moon. Just don't do it while the neighbors are sleeping. :-)

Getting rid of insects in the lawn will help with its condition and this can be achieved with the use of insecticides that are commonly sold through garden stores or - preferably - with the use of natural methods.

Using natural methods is the healthiest solution as it won't affect children and pets, and more often than not the natural methods work better for longer than the insecticides as well. Without the toxic contents that are used in the commercial insecticides you will be happier to walk on the lawn and know that you won't be putting any of the toxic residues into your system. You'll also keep the harmful residues out of your garden, where if used they often can drift in through the air, or be tracked in on your shoes - and then end up in your food!

Some people still use soap as a natural insecticide in the garden but you need to be careful that you are using the correct soap, as some household soaps can be harmful to plants. Obviously you won't want to be flooding your lawn with soapy water and in fact this is banned in many areas where soap can cause problems if it enters in to the waterways.

More and more insecticides are also getting banned so it makes sense to look at the natural lawn care alternatives that are available.