In This Article >  Step 1 >  Step 2 >  Step 3 >  Step 4 >  Step 5     Related Articles >  Great Grasses We Love >  Lawn Alternatives >  Cover Crop Basics Products >  Rodale's Home Garden Solutions

Step 1

Kick the fertilizer habit.
If your lawn is already in decent shape—no big bare patches, less than 20 percent weeds—you can make it organic without adding any new clover or grasses. Conversion is not so much what you do as what you stop doing. In other words, throw out your fertilizer. Most commercial synthetic versions are loaded with nitrogen (represented by the first of three numbers in the analysis on the package).

But turf needs a lot less nitrogen than people think. Though you'll see figures as high as 30 percent, it's better to use a less concentrated nitrogen source that lasts longer. So try an organic lawn-food blend such as Concern or Espoma, cottonseed meal, or dried poultry waste. Most of the nitrogen in these is water-insoluble; it stays put and is released over a month or more, providing nutrition to the plant in small doses. Apply it at a rate of one pound actual nitrogen per 1,000 square feet in midspring and again in autumn. (The percentage of nitrogen lawn food varies, so you'll have to do some calculations to figure out how much to apply.)

Granted, your lawn might not turn emerald-green overnight, but you'll find it retains a uniform color through the season. Best of all, it will grow slowly and steadily, loosening those chains that bind you to the mower.

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