People are becoming more interested in using landscape techniques that won’t harm the earth. Organic landscaping, in addition to being great for the environment, provides benefits for your your health. Pesticides and fertilizers can harm adults, children and animals.
It’s an alarming thought, but illness can result not only from the improper use of pesticides, but also from the so-called proper use of these chemicals.
In addition to our health, another benefit of organic gardening can also be felt in the wallet. By making use of the resources that you already have on hand, you can save money with do-it-yourself organic landscaping, rather than paying money for chemicals to unnaturally enhance your plants.
Native Plants
One of the best ways to practice organic landscape is to make use of native plants. Bringing in exotic plants or non-native plants from areas with very different conditions only results in frustration and the possible reliance on chemicals to help you take care of them.
It is so much easier to naturally promote the health of your landscape when the plants you use thrive in your area. They thrive because they have built up defenses over time against their local enemies. If you want to keep a landscape that works with the natural setting, native plants, or plants from areas with similar conditions, can help you accomplish this.
Healthy Lawns
The most obvious part of a landscape is usually the lawn. Many people seem to think it is necessary to use a great deal of chemicals to keep pests from ruining the lawn or to help the lawn grow well. However, the truth of the matter is that by actively caring for the soil under your grass, you can create a healthier lawn. A beautiful lawn can be achieved in many ways that do not involve harmful chemicals.
Organic Fertilizers
The composition of organic fertilizer is made entirely of organic materials. Although initially more expensive, if used regularly, the long-term costs will be reduced because organics decrease the need for later expensive chemicals. Over-all the costs even out because synthetic fertilizers need to be applied more frequently.
Aeration
The use of aeration is another way to take care of the lawn that promotes healthy soil and better grass roots. Aerating your lawn relieves soil compaction by punching holes in the ground and helps make the soil easier for grass roots to penetrate.
This allows the roots have more room to go deeper, and organisms, like earthworms, that actually help the health of your lawn, have more room to move about and make their homes. This will result in a naturally healthy lawn ecosystem that can withstand pests and keep weeds out on its own.
Over Seeding And Top Dressing
Other organic practices that improve the health of the lawn are over seeding and top dressing. Over seeding makes use of more than the recommended amount of grass seed – about one and a half times more than the recommended amount.
Over seeding promotes quicker germination and that results in a thicker lawn that really fights the weeds!
Top dressing is the act of taking composted organic matter and mixing it with sand 50-50. A thin layer is then spread over the lawn. This improves the lawn rooting, creating healthier, hardier grass, without fertilizer.
Common Sense Gardening
If you practice common sense in using gardening techniques, fertilizer (organic or otherwise) may not even be necessary. Create your own compost and mulch by using grass clippings from the lawn mower and leftovers from the garden. Also add in raked leaves, pine needles and (parradoxically) weeds.
Left to decompose, this creates nutrient-rich organic matter that can be used to improve the health of all the plants in your landscape, not just grass.
When you do it yourself, organic gardening can be a very rewarding and money saving effort.