ANTC™ All Natural Turf Care Clippings

As part of any turf program, regardless of whether or not it is an organic program, one should over-seed at the appropriate time of the season. Given that we approaching the end of May the first window for over-seeding is quickly closing is the northeast.
The approach we take in our all natural turf care program is different in the spring than it is in the fall. On residential properties the goal is to establish turf coverage anywhere you have bare soil. The best way we have found to do this is to top-dress and over-seed. The easiest and most successful way is to incorporate the grass seed and a loam/compost mix in a wheelbarrow and then use the mixture to make your repairs.
On athletic fields our approach is a little different in that we generally aerate, if the field is compacted, and broadcast the seed at a heavy rate. If turf conditions are really poor especially around the goal mouths on sports field like lacrosse you may need to do additional remediation.

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The importance of mowing high in an all natural turf care program cannot be stressed enough. Applying the proper organic and all natural materials while important cannot make up for improper mowing.
I was recently called in to look at a sports field where the trustees wanted to go organic. They were concerned that the field was not responding. What I saw was a bluegrass sod field that was infected with leaf spot. I believe the major contributor to this condition was the fact that the field had been cut at 1 ½ inches.
The fellow that mows the property says that his equipment cannot cut the field that short. Yet he has never checked to see at what height the blades are off the ground on his mower deck. Do not rely on the markings on the mower. An easy gauge for cutting at 3 inches is as simple as nailing two pieces of 2 x 4 together and slipping them under the blades. Tip them on their side and you have a gauge for a 3 ½ inch cut. I must also make the important point: PLEASE DO NOT DO THIS WITH YOUR EQUIPMENT RUNNING.
Improper tire inflation can also affect the height of cut. Routinely check tire inflation and also the dolly wheels on the mower deck. More than once I have seen fields scalped for lack of proper inflation or a missing roller on a deck. The operator blithely went on mowing without ever looking to see the results of his efforts.
Leaving the clippings is also important. It has been our experience that clients that routinely had their mowing service provider routinely remove clippings the level of organic matter in the soil also went down year after year to the point that the soil conditions would not support desirable soil biology. Earthworms love clippings and are ten times better than any mechanical means for aerating the soil. Water absorption, both speed and amount, is directly related to the number of earthworms living in the soil.

The dandelion, taraxacum officinale, by any other name is still readily recognized by children and adult alike.  Their yellow heads have been popping up in lawns in the area over the last week.  If you’re taking an all natural organic approach to your lawn it is important to look at weeds for what they are telling you about the soil conditions rather than the more common approach as something that needs to be nuked.

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Spring is the time to make certain that bare and thin spots are top-dressed and over-seeded in the Northeast. In an all natural organic turf care approach a dense stand of turf grass is the best defense against weeds. This is especially true when trying to make improvements to the underlying soil conditions. As such I strongly discourage trying to establish a new lawn or perform major lawn renovations in the spring.
Bare soil = Weeds. The faster you can fill in your turf the better off you will be. For that reason I recommend over-seeding those bare spots with perennial ryegrass. Perennial ryegrass will germinate in approximately three to ten days. Kentucky bluegrass can easily take twice as long if not longer; germinating in six to twenty-eight days. As such Kentucky bluegrass will not be established soon enough to provide us with the desired weed protection.
Keep in mind that soil temperature affects seed germination. Seeds will not germinate until the soil temperature reaches 50⁰ or greater. Soil temperatures tend to be roughly 10⁰ lower than the air temperature.

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