Spring
LAWN CARE
By Henry Homeyer
L
awns? My philosophy is this: If it’s green
and you can mow it, it’s a lawn. Dande-
lions? Who cares? Their blossoms are
cheerful. Creeping Charlie, plantain? Pests, but
not awful. And so on. I love a lawn with some
biodiversity. But bare and thin spots I like to fill
in or over-seed. Now is the time to do that.
I recently called Paul Sachs of North Country
Organics, manufacturer of Pro-Gro fertilizer
and more, to talk about spring lawn care using
organic products. Paul explained to me that
all the New England states have laws against
applying phosphate-containing fertilizer on
lawns. Why? To minimize phosphate runoff
into lakes, ponds and streams, thus reducing
the growth of algae and other plants which can
run rampant and diminish water quality.
Mr. Sachs explained that this law makes
it technically illegal to fertilize your lawn —
unless the middle number on your bag of fertil-
izer is “0. ” Farmers who spread manure on the
fields are exempt from this provision, and their
fields are much more likely than your lawn to
cause runoff of phosphates.
There is a loophole to the law, however. Paul
Sachs explained that you are allowed to fertilize
with phosphate-containing fertilizers if you
are also spreading seed. Most lawns have some
thin spots, or bare spots, so adding seed makes
sense. And if you use an organic fertilizer like
Pro-Gro (a 5-3-4 fertilizer) there is very little
soluble phosphate anyway. Its phosphorus
content comes from rock phosphate, bone meal
and bone char — all of which are only mini-
mally soluble, and not normally a problem.
What is involved in over-seeding? Basically,
you need to spread three to five pounds of seed
per 1,000 square feet of lawn (roughly 30 feet by
33 feet). First, cut the lawn a bit shorter than you
“I know that some
gardeners remove
their lawns and put
plants everywhere.
But before you do
that, remember that
lawn is the easiest
of all plantings to
maintain.”
Henry Homeyer
would otherwise. Then rake the lawn to remove
the cut grass and any dead material that is on
the lawn. You want seed to be in contact with
the soil. If you have the time and energy, you can
scuff up the soil in bare spots with a garden rake
before spreading the seed. You can spread seed
with a mechanical seeder, or, for small spots, just
fling it using your hands.
I buy a small truckload of compost each
year for use on my gardens and lawns. It is
loose and fluffy and is easy to distribute. After
spreading some seed, I fling compost with a
shovel over the seed, and then smooth it out
using a lawn rake turned upside down. My
goal is to spread a quarter to a half an inch of
compost on the lawn, at least in the areas that
look the worst.
Compost is not necessarily rich in nitrogen —
the driver of green growth — but it has organic
matter, beneficial microorganisms and micro-
nutrients that would not be found in a chemical
fertilizer. If you are really interested in a deep
green lawn with lush growth, you could not only
spread compost, but also some organic fertilizer.
Mr. Sachs recommends about 20 pounds of Pro-
Gro per 1,000 square feet of lawn.
Almost any store that sells seed will have
something c alled “Conservation Mix. ” That is
what I use. A typical mix might have 35 per-
cent creeping red fescue, 25 percent turf type
tall fescue, 10 percent Kentucky bluegrass, 12
percent turf type perennial ryegrass, 15 percent
annual ryegrass, 3 percent white clover.
A few words about clover. When I was a kid
back in the 1950s, we sometimes spent lazy
afternoons rolling around on the lawn and
looking for four-leaf clovers, said to guarantee
good luck. But since then, chemical compa-
nies have perfected “Weed-n-Feed” products
that provide herbicides along with fertilizers
to “ensure a perfect lawn. ” Those products
LAWN CARE Page 17
Spring Vermont Home, Garden & Auto 2018 • 13