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Organic Lawn Fertilizer Overview |
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Ever since the first subdivision popped up in the first American town, homeowners have been vying to have the most beautiful, greenest lawns. Ironically, many of them have become so dependant on chemical fertilizers, they've ended up with brown, barren plots of dry land.
Of course, you probably wish for a healthy lawn that's free of weeds, and one that's relatively easy to maintain. But there is something that's more important than having a prize lawn: protecting our environment. Using chemical fertilizers not only threatens the health of our lawns, but they can also harm our pets and children.
Naturally, organic lawn fertilizer is the sensible choice.
The philosophy behind organic lawn fertilizer is pretty simple. Health plants grow from healthy soil. When we feed life into the soil, the vast populations of busy microorganisms begin to accomplish many of the jobs that would we would otherwise have to do. Those little wonders of nature will in turn feed and protect our plants, saving us time, energy and money. Using chemical compounds can kill microorganisms. Obviously, growing turf with the use of organic lawn fertilizers seems like the best means we have.
How does organic lawn fertilizer keep soil healthy? You're already aware that our earth's soil is a sort of biome -- a place where lots of different organisms live. When you look at soil, you think that it's nothing more than just.. soil. In fact, there's a lot more to it than the eye can see. Average lawn and garden soil is home to thousands of organisms, and the bustling tiny microscopic activity helps keep the soil healthy enough for plants to grow and thrive.
The principal characters in these wee biomes are the soil microorganisms: bacteria, fungus and others. They are organisms that make themselves perfectly at home in your lawn and garden soil. In their natural habitat, these microorganisms play a very important role in lawn gardening, as the activities they participate in help provide the necessary nutrients that your plants need in order to grow. In other words, these microorganisms are the keys to healthy soil and, in turn, a greener lawn.
The microorganisms help to fertilize the soil by taking nitrogen from the air, mineralizing the soil organic nutrient, generating carbon dioxide (the plant's most needed nutrient), and dissolving the mineral nutrients from rock. Some microorganisms also help in de-thatching the lawn by decomposing the thatch and other organic mater into valuable nutrients and humus. This, in turn, increases the water and nutrient holding capacity of the soil. You could add bags and bags of compost and humus to your soil; if there are no microorganisms present to de-thatch these and convert them into nutrients, all of your expensive will be for nothing. Another important function of microorganisms is their ability to aerate the soil, and to control problems caused by insects, disease and plant competition.
These are but a few of the benefits that soil microorganisms can offer. Researchers widely agree that there are many more wonderful things yet to be discovered about soil microorganisms and their abilities to make our plants grow fuller, greener and stronger.
Using organic lawn fertilizers is the best way to encourage the growth of these soil microorganisms. Unlike chemical fertilizers, organic lawn fertilizers do not contain harmful substances that can destroy the microorganisms or render them unable to do their job. While the nutrients contained in organic lawn fertilizers help growing plants to stay healthy, the fertilizer itself is not invasive on the healthy bacterial life in your lawn soil.
If you want the grass to be greener on your side of the fence, start at the ground up. Leave the chemical compounds behind and feed your plants and soil with organic lawn fertilizer.
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