Dear Mr Peter BowdenWife and self look forward to your Fri segment on CBS News 6 Albany. Wife feels cheated if they do not have you on!We have been using a “turf physician” for two and a half years and although our lawn looks better each year it looks no better than many neighbors that do nothing more than mow. We don’t know what the man on his rideon cart applies (in liquid and solid form) but we are concerned that he may be putting down chemicals that should be avoided. We bought some dwarf Jap Maples from you and some ground cover and the staff recommended organic this and that. We liked this approach as we only want to do what is best and we finally have a reliable yard worker that can do whatever we tell him.Kindly advise and thank you in advance.
Thank you for you kind words. Lawn care is pretty simple but is presented as being confusing so you can be sold more products.
The first step in lawn care is to make sure that the soil pH is correct. This is done with a simple pH test and applications of limestone if necessary.
I describe that here:
http://blog.timesunion.com/gardening/the-acid-test/567/
For a healthy lawn a feeding in spring and in fall is all that is necessary. Our Country Estate Lawn food is the best option although not considered “organic”.
If you want to go 100% organic then you should choose the Espoma Organic lawn food that we also sell.
https://www.espoma.com/product-lines/organic-lawn-fertilizers/
The biggest pest for lawns in our area are Japanese Beetle grubs.
The good news is that they can also be controlled organically with Milky Spore.
You can read all about that at the bottom of this blog post:
http://blog.timesunion.com/gardening/you-should-treat-for-lawn-grubs-when-there-are-none/7204/
Low mowing also stresses the lawn especially during hot, dry summer weather. Shallow, frequent is also to be avoided so the roots will grow deep.
More on that here:
http://blog.timesunion.com/gardening/the-long-lawns-of-summer/3655/
That is about it. Pretty simple. If you have more garden questions, feel free to contact me.
Peter Bowden