Everyday Conscious Living
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Your hosts: Kathy and Dennis Lang. Contact them with your opinions at Dennis.Lang@PrudentialNetworkRealty.com |
Organic gardening in our spring landscaping
Spring reminds us of renewal. Having come from the new year with its resolutions and into spring, we continue in the spirit of growth and development. Such it is for our landscape with new growth and blooms welcoming us to the new season.
With our new perspective gained during our conscious living kitchen remodel, we felt drawn to reconsider our approach to landscaping and yard maintenance. For many years, we took a very passive approach to gardening with no consideration of our landscapes importance in the ecosystem or to those around us. We had nice yards but our lifestyle back then did not consider it as a priority. We were in a different consciousness. After we moved to our current home in Atlantic Beach, we had continued with a chemical lawn service and a mowing service. But then last year the lawn caught a gray leaf fungus that almost took out our whole lawn and with no resolution or improvement from the chemical company we were using. In addition, over the last couple years we have heard so much about water use limits, effects of surface water run off, organic gardening, natural fertilizers and pest control that we felt a need to learn more and be active in our landscape. That led to the bold move to fire everyone we had contracted with and take it over ourselves.
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| Lawn before Treatment |
Landscape Resources and Research
Landscape and lawn maintenance are broad topics. Then add to that considerations for the ecosystem, nature habitats for the critters, energy conservation and you quickly realize this all can be overwhelming. Choose your favorite search engine and see how many web hits you get if you type organic gardening, landscaping, natural lawns or pesticides. So we decided to take few practical steps to improve our approach a little bit at a time. Seriously, taking small steps are better than not doing anything.
In simple terms, our yard is a small ecosystem which is part of the local environment. For us, it's Atlantic Beach, FL. Our yard is very established with old oaks, azalea beds and a courtyard with Koi Pond and waterfall which is like a mini Costa Rica. The Koi Pond offers its own unique features and challenges. Aside from the esthetic value, our landscapes offer habitats to many small animals like raccoons, armadillos, frogs, lizards and helpful insects. So it's not just about how green is your lawn. How you manage your landscape effects others, big and small.
Aside from web research background and direction, we consulted our local hardware store's recognized expert and the University of Florida's extension web site. It turns out that the UF extension site is an excellent source of information. The report "Florida Guide to Environmental Landscaping" is very comprehensive but not overwhelming. By the way, a local expert in your local hardware store can be a valuable resource. They live locally and are generally up to date on all the local weather and soil conditions. Based on these sources, we got started.
This episode is the first in a series through the year we will provide as we go through the change of seasons.
Initial Assessment
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| Nature provides us with mulch |
The lawn was our prime concern due to the effect of the fungus from last year. We nearly lost it. So to begin, we deep racked the entire yard and used the thatch and plant materials for mulch throughout in the beds. It turns out, that the old oaks drop so many leaves, that we have a love/hate relationship, but actually, they provide natural mulch for reuse. It's sort of a self mulching approach and is very green in the sense of sustainability. We hope to use our own natural mulch and avoid having to buy commercial mulch locally.
The next step was to measure our soil pH. Soil pH is essential to deciding how to fertilize lawns and shrubs. If the soil is too alkaline, nutrient deficiencies can develop. You can buy a simple test kit at the hardware store or at extemelygreen.com which is a great web site for products and information. Our soil measured about 6.5 which slightly acidic but is normal for our local condition with so many oak trees. For our St. Augustine grass, a pH in the 6.5 to 7.5 range is good.
Proper irrigation is essential. The irrigation system should be checked out quarterly to be sure there are no leaks and that the sprinkler heads are hitting the right places with even distribution and overlaps. Also, check with local guidelines on irrigation water use. It's very easy to over water. Shrub zones should be watered far less than lawn zones and in our area, neither should be watered more that twice a week. Water use in Florida is a major problem. You can spend a lot on automatic controls or you can simply go manual with your system and water as the lawn and shrubs indicate need. A rain detector and automatic shut off valve is a good investment. The natural aquifer system in Florida is running low, surface water run off is increasing pollutants in streams and rivers. As population growth and infrastructure development increase, overall water supply is becoming more and more a limited natural resource.
First Treatment and the First Cut
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| Lawn after Treatment |
After the deep racking we applied a "weed and feed" to the lawn areas. The "Lawn before treatment" photo show bare spots that had spread due to the fungus from last year. The local weed and feed was recommended by the expert at the hardware store specifically for our location and condition. We applied this in early March per the label and waited three weeks for the effect. If there were no improvements then we would need to take more extreme measures to control weeds and enhance growth. Fortunately the lawn condition has improved as the photos indicate.
For our beds we used a locally mixed natural fertilizer. We used a hand held rotary spreader to apply this generously. The plants love it and it's all natural.
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| Plants love natural fertilizers |
In mid-April we made our first cut of the lawn. From a green perspective, we are using hand held trimmers, an electric hedger and a gas powered lawn mower. We looked into push reel mowers but found they are not effective with St. Augustine grass. Per the guidelines of the UF Extension service, we are setting the blades very high and taking only the top third off the grass. By doing this we save money, water, fertilizer and time. We are also not going to bag the clippings as they provide fine mulch and recycle nutrients into the lawn. The "Lawn before treatment" and "Lawn after treatment" shots show improvement of grass color and density. We will track and record our progress.
So that's our first installment of this topic. We will report back in the summer with an update.
Summary
- Set lawn mower blades as high as your grass likes it
- Reduce water used for lawns and shrubs
- Self mulch the grass and plants