Popular Mechanics - USA (2019-07-Special)

YOUR

NATURAL

LAWN’S

FIRST

YEAR

Aerate the soil. Rent a cor-

ing machine for the day or

hire a lawn-maintenance

company—you’ll likely only

need to do this once, maybe

twice (spring and fall),

depending on the level of

compaction.

Inoculate the soil with

mycorrhizae, fungi that will

forge a symbiotic relation-

ship with your grass and

improve soil nutrient effi-

ciency and build soil carbon.

Find a local distributor at

mycorrhizae.com

Seed some white clover

throughout so that it makes

up 5 to 10 percent of the

lawn. (About four pounds

per 1,000 square feet.) Clo-

ver is a nitrogen fixer and

will act as a living fertilizer

for the grass. Add grass

seed where you notice bare

or weedy patches.

Spread the lawn with

¼ to ½ inch of compost.

Feather it with a rake to

prevent smothering. You

should be able to see the

grass poking out. Organic

matter, like compost, stabi-

lizes pH, but if your soil test

comes back below 6.2 or

above 7.2, you’ll need to add

calcium limestone to raise

the pH or sulfur to lower it.

(Add 20 pounds per 1,000

square feet.)

You can do this treat-

ment in the spring, but

you’ll have more success

in the fall when there are

fewer weed seeds. An aver-

age third-acre lawn should

take no more than a day of

labor.

THE

FOLLOWING

YEARS

Spread ½-inch compost on

lawn once in spring and/

or fall. Test annually until

you reach 5 to 7 percent

organic matter and a pH

between 6.5 and 7. Once

you have established

the right soil conditions,

there’s little to no need

for inputs. Just take note

of what weeds appear in

your yard—they are clues

for what’s going on in your

soil—nutrient deficiencies,

etc. Plantain, for example,

indicates soil compaction.

Bonus: Soils under good

organic management

ultimately have better

water-holding capacity

than conventional soils,

upping your lawn’s resil-

ience in drought and flood.

—Advice from Paul Tukey, chief

sustainability officer at the

Glenstone Museum in Potomac,

Maryland, and author of The

Organic Lawn Care Manual.

STEP 4 :

Maintain

It

Give it time to

become established

The establishment phase

is about two years. “In the

early stages, you’re sorting

out what you’re going to al-

low to become dominant,”

says Weaner. So think of

those first few years as a

continuation of the design

process. You help your

plants beat out the weeds,

but you also help them find

balance with one another.

If one grows slowly com-

pared to another, you may

need to cut the faster plant

back the first few years so

the other can survive.

Long-term

Instead of weekly mainte-

nance, you’ll transition to

seasonal projects like dead-

heading a shrub for more

blooms or cutting back

perennial grasses—practic-

es to help the plants be the

best versions of themselves.

Weeds will still arrive from

time to time. Spot-treat by

cutting down at the base.

Shaded by groundcover,

they won’t be able to com-

pete with your plants.

Mow your lawn high

Learn the appropriate

mowing height for your

grass—it’s different depend-

ing on the varietal. And

never remove more than

one-third of the blade.

Cutting low decreases

the plant’s rooting, which

inhibits water and nutrient

uptake. Clippings recycle

as much as 50 percent of

the nitrogen that grass

needs back into the soil. If

you mow a quarter acre or

less, consider switching

FOR THE LAWN YOU

KEEP, FIX THE DIRT

The

Nutrient-

Efficient

Lawn

A fertil-

izer-free

lawn gets

its nutri-

ents from:

50%

GRASS

CLIPPINGS

25%

CLOVER

25%

MYCORRHIZAE

(^78) July/August 2019 _ PopularMechanics.com