We can start thinking about our fall organic lawn care regarding mowing, watering, and fertilizing, now that the heat of a long hot summer is almost gone. Now that autumn has approached and we can start breathing cooler air, Halloween will hit us along with Thanksgiving and then Christmas. So I guess we had better start our fall organic lawn care - mowing, watering, fertilizing as soon as we can.

Mowing High
One thing that is a must is to set your lawn mower to the highest level it can go, probably 3 to 4 inches. This is going to be a competition game between the grass and the weeds. You want to make things easy for the grass and not for the weeds; what you really want is the grass to choke out the weeds. There will be a fight for the sun and if the grass is tall it will shade out the weed, but if it is short the weed will shade the grass. The sun is actually food for strength and life. The shade is for disease, weakness, and death. Therefore, the taller the grass the less sun will get to the weeds and they won't have a chance.

I am sure some of you remember the old saying "If I mow short, it will be longar until I have to mow again." Well, that is a false myth because the grass needs blades to convert sunshine into sugar in order to feed the roots. When we cut those blades too short, the grass has to work that much harder to make sugar and then it grows fast. The fast growing grass will now use up whatever sugars it already had stored, and weaken the plant and make it susceptible to pests and disease. Tall grass is much healthier and can now use the extra sugar to make more grass plants. Have you ever noticed lawns riddled with dead brown patches in the summer; that is because the grass was cut too short?

If your lawn has a serious weed problem, think about mowing high more frequently. The sensitive growing area for the grass is close to the soil level and the growing area for the weeds is near the top of the plant. This way you will be cutting the heads off the weeds and just giving the grass a trim.

When you mow be sure to leave the grass clippings on the lawn; this will add the nutrients and some organic matter back to the soil. If you throw away the grass clippings your soil will start looking like just plain dirt and not soil. Eventually it will become so hard that nothing will grow in it. If you mow too short or not often enough you may end up with clumping. Mowing higher gives you a few advantages: more shade gets to the soil leads which means less watering; deeper grass roots leads to less watering; thicker grass will lead to less weeds; and slower growing grass means less mowing.

Infrequent Watering
Watering less frequently will make the roots of your grass go deeper into the soil, much deeper than roots of most weeds. When the top few inches of your soil become dry, the weeds and seedlings will die, and the grass will still enjoy the deeper moisture. Shallow, frequent watering will encourage "thatch". Since the roots of the weeds and weed seedlings are in the top inch or so of the soil, they love a daily watering.

There are two methods to tell if your lawn needs water: the blades of grass start curling before turning brown; now it is time to water. Anything beyond curling calls for vigorous watering care, which is to water half an inch and then water another inch after a three hour wait; The other method is by keeping the sun on your left or right, take a shovel and go down about six inches, now push the handle forward and check for moisture. If there is moisture you don't need to water, but if it is dry please water. Remember, every time you water your lawn you are washing away the soil nutrients, the less watering the more fertile the soil.

Fertilizing
If your lawn needs fertilizing, sprinkle some organic lawn fertilizer in the spring and fall. If it is in need of serious fertilizing, only use about one third of what the package recommends roughly evey few weeks in the fall and spring, or use half of recommended dose at the beginning of fall and spring. If your soil seems like cement or just dirt, you need to add about an inch of compost early in the fall. Store bought composts that contain wood products will only feed you lawn for a week or so and then begin absorbing the nitrogen back out of your soil.

Using organic fertilizer is very beneficial to your lawn for a couple of reasons:
 

• Many centuries ago people salted the land so nothing would grow. Most all chemical fertilizers are a salt and yearly uses will make your soil very poor.

• A healthy soil is crowded with tons of microbial and macrobial life and most of them work hard for your lawn and they don't like salt.

This is the reason why organic fertilizers are a strong recommendation for your lawn.

Fall organic lawn care - mowing, watering, and fertilizing are just a few of the things we need to perform for our lawns before winter comes upon us.