Organic Lawn Care

WASHINGTON (WUSA) -- Experts agree that fall is the best time of year to fix up your lawn, and that's what many people are doing now.

One look at Mitch Baker's lawn in Northwest DC and you might think that it takes a lot of chemical fertilizer to keep it this nice, but this lawn is as "green" as they come.

As Mitch says, "No chemicals, no synthetics, no pesticides".

Mitch is a real advocate for organic lawn care. "You can still have a beautiful, green, lush, healthy lawn. A lawn that is safe for our kids and our pets and doesn't pose the same sort of risk to the environment."

Along with a plethora of natural products that are now available for taking care of lawns and gardens, there's a whole lot of science to back it up.

"The organic fertilizers and the results of an organic lawn are based on microbial activity, and the use of synthetic and chemical fertilizers and pesticides for years has basically destroyed all the life in the soil," he explains.

Mitch's lawn has been "organic" for 8 years and while it is lush, there are weeds and clover as well, but Mitch says it's OK.

"We think that a good lawn is a lawn that has no weeds because that is what we have been told a good lawn has to be, but an organic lawn like this still provides the same amount of oxygen, it's still a beautiful buffer to the flower beds behind me. It's a great place for our kids and our pets to play and it doesn't pose the same set of risks to the environment or the (Chesapeake) Bay or our health."

There's an added benefits as well. "If you're doing things right during the year, you're not going to get a buildup of thatch. That microbial activity is going to be breaking that thatch down continuously, that's the idea."

Going organic will cost more initially as you must work to rebuild the microbe levels in your lawn, but in just 2 to 3 seasons, you'll start using less fertilizer and save money.