Underhill's Organic Lawn Care Tips

Soil is the critical foundation upon which all turfgrass depends. Nearly everything that enters the grass plant is either produced in, or moves through the soil. Ideally, lawns are grown in deep topsoil that is high in organic matter and teeming with life. Unfortunately, many home lawn soils are far from ideal.

"Living Soil" is a term that describes soil in which microbes and larger organisms, like earthworms, are constantly processing and converting organic matter (including grass clippings and thatch) into humus. The amount of organic matter, or humus, in your soil affects its ability to support beneficial plant, animal, insect and bacterial life.

Enriched Organic based fertilizers stimulate the soil by adding millions of friendly, beneficial bacteria that immediately begins to improve the soil. This activity starts with a single application and continues as long as organic components remain part of the lawn's regular diet.

Recent studies at the University of Guelph Turfgrass Research Institute have shown that the increase in soil microbial activity as a result of organic based nutrients significantly reduces stress placed on grass plants by drought and heat, aids in thatch reduction, speeds turf recovery, and suppresses the effects of a large number of turfgrass disease pathogens.

Regular granular fertilizers (and some liquid fertilizers) contain the three basic nutrients turfgrass requires for healthy growth:

Nitrogen - Which encourages green leafy top growth.
Phosphorous - Which encourages strong root systems.
Potassium - Which encourages over all plant strength, disease resistance, and plant hardiness.

Our Organic Fertilizer contains a balanced mix of each of these basic nutrients plus additional micronutrients not normally found in regular fertilizer mixes such as sulphur, magnesium, manganese, and iron to provide extra "multi-vitamin" like feeding for your turf. The extra iron really helps to promote that deep, green color our Organic Lawn Care customers have come to enjoy. The nutrients in this product are derived from Sustane, which is a mix of composted turkey litter, bonemeal, bloodmeal, and other Vitorganic sources. We experimented with a number of organic fertilizers over the years, and for the past seven seasons have settled on this product manufactured by Nutrite. The turf color and growth is fantastic, and the enhancement of microbial activity has been quite noticeably beneficial for disease reduction in problem lawns.

We have been quite happy with the success of our Organic Lawn Plans over the years. With our Organic Supreme program, we fertilize your lawn three times throughout the season to maintain strong healthy turf growth. We Aerate your lawn in the spring to encourage deep grass roots and to promote thatch reduction. We apply Lime Soil Conditioner twice throughout the season to give your lawn an added boost for healthier growth. We have found that this program by itself keeps a lawn growing so thick and healthy, that any weeds get "choked out", reducing or eliminating need for a typical herbicide to kill out the weeds. Most Organic customers order a separate weed spray only once every two or three years - if at all! Furthermore, we monitor your lawn on every visit to check for any potential insect or disease problems, and let you know about it before problems get too severe - giving you the choice to order a corrective service, or to accept the problem and let nature takes it's course. Either way, you are informed along the way.