Last Updated on December 23, 2024 by Brian Beck
Objection #1: Lawns are expensive.
Answer – Expense is relative, more specifically most lawns are highly dysfunctional due to a number of problems largely dealing with the soil. Once these problems are fixed the lawns become more efficient. Most lawns are experiencing 50% or better of inefficiency or waste.
Objection #2: I need to aerate my lawn.
Answer – Healthy lawns, more specifically healthy soils aerate themselves. When there are thriving communities of microbes in the soil, mainly fungi and bacteria they create soil aggregates that naturally aerate the soil, thus creating porosity.
Objection #3: I have to water my lawn almost every day of the week to keep it healthy.
Answer – Most soils are carbon deficient. Carbon enables the soil to hold water, approximately 600 gallons per 1000 ft.² for every additional 1% increase specifically. Most people also water in a very shallow matter which contributes to evaporation. The inability of the soil to hold water due to a lack of organic material and shallow watering causes great loss and maintaining a lawn.
Objection #4: I have to get my grass growing extremely fast is that is a sign of health.
Answer – Actually, rapid growing plant life, particularly grass is not healthy and puts a great deal of strain on the cellular tissue of the plant. This is the exact opposite of a healthy plant which grows very gradually.
Objection #5: I need to fertilize my lawn in the spring to get it going.
Answer – A healthy lawn with a balanced soil that is properly hydrated will actually green up by itself once a soil begins to warm up. In a biological system we do not require manual inputs to artificially green a lawn up. This can be achieved by nitrogen fixation, or using microbial life to utilize atmospheric nitrogen.
Objection #6: I need to spray for weeds so I don’t have them.
Answer – The presence of weeds is a sign of a nutritional imbalance. Weeds are an indication of what is occurring in the soil. When you have a balance soil the presence of weeds will be very minimal. There is no such thing as a shortage of pesticide.
Objection #7: I need to bag my grass clippings.
Answer – There is absolutely no reason to bag a lawn. Bagging a lawn is simply an indication that it has not been cut often enough to keep up with the growth. This may require multiple cuttings throughout the week but is not a failure of the mower. Also, collection of the grass clippings will strip a lot of free nutrients out of the lawn that you will have to replace later on.
Objection #8: My lawn only needs to be watered for 10 to 15 minutes.
Answer – Shallow watering is a good recipe for the defeat of a lawn. Not only does this promote a great deal of evaporation but it also creates a shallow root structure. Also, people who tend the water shallow are highly unlikely to water in the winter during dry periods and a shallow root structure is far more susceptible to winter kill. This scenario is completely avoidable. Deep and infrequent watering is superior to shallow and frequent watering which causes many problems.
Objection #9: Thatch is caused by grass clippings.
Answer – Thatch is the dead root structure of the plant that exists on top of the soil and below the crown of the grass. The Thatch and the great grass clippings are two distinct different anatomies of the grass and are not the same material. Excess Thatch is caused by a dead soil that has low microbial life and excess grass clippings are a sign of infrequent mowing or waiting too long between mowing.
Objection #10: My lawn is green therefore it is healthy.
Answer – the most accurate definition of a healthy lawn is determined by how much sugar is in the leaf of the plant, it has very little to do with color. Grass requires at least 21 elements to be healthy. Synthetic fertilizers, at best only have five elements which do not meet the total requirements of the plant. Simply spreading nitrogen or iron is just a fraction of the overall nutritional requirements of the plant.
