Last year, I started using natural lawn care for my yard. Since I was pregnant, I chose to use a service rather than do it myself. The TruNatural service from TruGreen rounds up the usual suspects for organic lawn care: bone meal, feather meal, blood meal, manure, corn gluten and natural minerals.
On the first-page spread of my new book, “Little House in the Suburbs: Backyard Farming and Home Skills for Self-Sufficient Living” (published by F+W Media), you can see a picture of last year’s gorgeous front lawn. I used only organic products on my lawn and kept it mowed at a higher setting as instructed so it wouldn’t stress out. Beautiful.
I can also testify that we had almost no noticeable weeds (except in the one little shady spot where the Bermuda won’t grow). Keeping the grass tall and well fed choked out the uglies. I had the prettiest yard on the block. At the end of the season, we gave it a really short crew cut and put it to bed for the winter.
But now it’s March, and I’m up to my eyeballs in henbit and chickweed.
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Bermuda Grass is the bane of my garden. I’ve been pulling it from my raised beds and my flower beds, and it is a royal pain. A friend of mine chased a Bermuda runner in her garden that ended up being over 5′ long. I’ve declared a truce with henbit because the bees love it. I also have purple deadnettle, which is often confused with henbit. Along with being good for the bees, it has medicinal properties. I’d rather have a flourishing garden than a weed-free lawn, and I don’t have time to do both organically.
Bermuda is the devil. Satan. Not joking.
Keeping the grass longer also keeps your grass greener and slower growing. When it’s cut too short, the grass shoots start freaking out because they’re so short, so they put all their energy into growing taller, meaning you have a brown lawn that you have to mow sooner.