How to look after a lawn without harsh chemicals

A lot of people assume a good lawn runs on sprays, and it mostly does not. Thick, well fed grass crowds weeds out on its own, because a weed needs bare ground and light to get started and a dense lawn gives it neither. So most of doing this without chemicals is not about substituting one bottle for another, it is about making the grass strong enough that it does the work.

Which also means it is safe for kids and dogs to be on it the same afternoon, and that is the part that matters to most people who ask me about this.

Feed the soil rather than the leaf

Compost or well aged manure through the lawn does more over a season than anything you spray on it, because it feeds the soil biology as well as the grass. Earthworms turn it through, the structure improves, and the lawn gets better every year instead of needing the same intervention every year.

If you have not got compost, a pelletised organic lawn food does the same job out of a bag. Spread it and water it in.

Water deeply, not often

Shallow daily watering trains the roots to stay at the surface, which makes the lawn completely dependent on you and very fragile in a dry spell. A proper soak once or twice a week sends the roots down.

Early morning, so it gets into the soil rather than evaporating off the top.

Beat weeds with grass, not spray

Mow higher, around 6 to 8cm. Longer grass shades the soil, and weed seed mostly needs light at the soil surface to germinate. That one change does more for weed control than anything else on this list and it costs nothing.

For the ones that still get through, boiling water or household vinegar will knock over an individual weed in a path or a driveway crack. Neither is selective, so they will kill grass just as happily, which makes them a spot treatment rather than a lawn treatment. For a thin patch that keeps growing weeds, oversow it with grass seed and let the grass win.

Keep the soil open

Compacted soil is where a lawn goes downhill, because water runs off instead of soaking in and the roots have nothing to push into. A garden fork pushed in and rocked back every 10cm or so will aerate a normal lawn in an afternoon. We do not hire aerators out, so a big area means a hire place.

Topdressing with compost every few years does the long term version of the same job.

Let the useful things live

Earthworms aerate and break down thatch for free, which is a decent argument on its own for not putting anything harsh on the ground. Ladybirds and spiders deal with aphids. If you are not seeing any of them, planting something flowering near the lawn will bring them in.

Native plants do this best here, and the garden centre carries grevilleas, callistemons and sheoaks, which are all good for it.

Mow so the clippings do some work

A mulching mower chops the clippings fine and drops them back into the lawn, where they break down and return nitrogen to the soil. It is free fertiliser you are currently putting in the green bin.

The rule is to take off no more than a third of the leaf at a time. Take more than that and the clippings sit on top in clumps and smother the grass instead of feeding it.

Shop related products

• Neutrog Sudden Impact for Lawns 10kg. A pelletised organic lawn food, and the easy way in if you are not making compost.
• Neutrog Seamungus Liquid Concentrate 1L. Seaweed and fish based, good for root growth after aerating.
• Neutrog Whoflungdung Mulch 20kg. For topdressing, and it is already composted.
• Seasol Seaweed Concentrate 1L. A tonic rather than a fertiliser, for a lawn under stress.
• Brunnings Tough Lawn Seed 1kg. For oversowing the thin bits so the grass beats the weeds.

The garden centre carries the Brunnings and Neutrog organic range, and the benches change every couple of weeks, so ring us on (08) 8536 4333 to check what natives are in. What is online sits in garden products and Neutrog.

More on lawns

• Topdressing, the quickest way to bring a tired lawn back
• How to keep your lawn green, and what usually goes wrong

I am a big believer in recycling and upcycling generally, and doing the lawn this way is the version of that I actually manage to stick to.

Cheers,
Candeece