Last Updated on May 11, 2024 by Brian Beck
2017 I had an awakening after witnessing people struggle with their lawns for the better part of 20 years.
I saw people giving up on their lawns because they could not get solutions and answers. I was a part of the problem because I subscribed to conventional wisdom. I was doing what everyone else was doing, that was the right thing to do right? Have you ever been told that elementary school lesson about jumping off of bridge just because your friend did? Lawn care is a lot like that. Everyone is doing what everyone else is doing which is herd mentality and we all know where the herd ends up and where the lone critical thinker ends up that peels away from the herd. J. Paul Getty, America’s first billionaire once told us, “Observe the masses and do the opposite”. I knew something was wrong but I did not know where to turn to get answers.
In the Fall of 2017 I met a person that forever changed my perspective on lawn care. He introduced me to the Biological Method. What is the Biological Method? There are two schools of thought with soil fertility, The Synthetic Method which uses inorganic (without DNA) chemistry to force feed plants, much like steroids and methamphetamines, which have side effects. Then there is the other path, the Biological Method with uses organic nutrition (with DNA) that uses microbiology to cycle nutrients from both the sky and the soil into the plant, just as it does in nature.
Most of the things that people associate with lawn care, aeration, power raking, weed control, diseases, lawn repair and high water bills are actually symptoms of a dysfunctional soil. Why are soils dysfunctional?
Synthetic fertilizers kill of biology in the soil due to their inorganic salts. There is a reason salt is used to preserve things. It removes water and kills of microbes that cause problems.
We researched this extensively, so much so that we found out that most people are wasting anywhere from 20% to as much as 50% (maybe even more) in unneeded procedures, treatments, work and of course water, mainly water.
Here is what Synthetic Fertilizers do once they kill of the microbes in the soil that are friendly:
Compact the soil- Microbes in healthy populations will naturally aerate the soil. Compacted soil will have great difficulty
Advance the loss of Carbon in the soil- Carbon is the energy source of the soil, just like a battery for the microbiology and Carbon is what enables a soil to hold more water. For every 1% increase in soil Carbon the soil will hold an extra 600 gallons for every 1000ft². Got high water bills? This is a big reason why.
Promote lateral root growth- Combined with poor (shallow) watering habits aggravates thatch levels. As there in not enough microbial activity in the soil to digest the thatch (normal levels are at or below 1/2″) the soil becomes anaerobic and triggers disease and wastes a lot of water along the way. When you fertilize during this condition ALL of the nutrients that you apply are turned into toxic gasses that can kill off the lawn rather than help it.
Promote weeds- Weeds are indications of what is occurring in the soil. Different plants will push and pull different nutrients in the soil through diversity. If you ignore these signs you will drive weed growth with synthetic fertilizers which only contain a handful of elements (N, P, K, Fe, S. etc.). Grass needs about 21 elements to be truly healthy. Organic fertilizers provide the right nutrients to fill these voids in the soil.
Drives disease- Beneficial microbes provide disease resistance (an immune system) for plants. Along with a highly oxygenated soil that comes from aeration (microbes) that discourages pathogenic microbes which love anaerobic conditions.
Improves Water Carrying Capacity- As photosynthesis increases in plants they give off simple sugars that provide food for microbes. This is eventually turned into Carbon which advances the health of the soil and its ability to hold water. The more microbes are in the soil, the healthier the soil is and the better it functions.
The focus of the Biological program is to : Repair the damage caused by synthetic fertilizers, provide full spectrum nutrition that the plant needs and reestablish a healthy microbial population that will use the available resources to fix the soil, provide for the plant root.
The cost of the Synthetic system is more in the long run as it causes problems that have a direct cost. They are just hidden as “normal” issues.
The Biological system long term costs less money as it is solving problems up front that you will not have to pay for later.
Proper (Intelligent) lawn care is NOT an event but a process. If you are an event rather than a results based (proved with soil tests, not guessing) person you will be doomed to a perpetual game of waiting on a destination that will NEVER arrive and you will be bled of your money along the way.
Here is the recipe for a healthy lawn:
-a pH at 6.5 (allows nutrients to enter the plant efficiently)
-an Organic content (Carbon) above 3% (serves as energy for the soil and improves water carrying capacity)
-a thatch level below 1/2″ (allows air, water and nutrients into the soil)
-a soil that is highly porous (looks like cottage cheese, which is a sign of healthy microbial activity and aerates the soil)
-a soil that is about 30% or higher in water content (if there is no water there is no movement of nutrients into and through the plant)
We can sum up our Program in this statement: We are attempting to remove as many roadblocks that prevent the uptake of nutrients into the plant and develop and accelerate the relationship between the soil and the root via biology in a well hydrated environment.
There are 5 basic elements to the equation of a great looking lawn. They are:
-Sunlight (This is never going to change and is fixed)
-Air (atmosphere) (This sis also fixed and will never change)
-The soil, for better or for worse. (This can be fixed but is a preexisting condition that affects everything else)
-The watering habits of the lawn owner (These can be immediately changed is one is willing. Without proper hydration our program will not work. We can provide instruction but we cannot force watering)
– The nutrients that we bring to the table. Once your soil is corrected and proper watering is practiced and the RELATIONSHIP, not the ACT (EVENT) of application is made strong, the lawn will act and
behave the way it was designed to do so. The grass and the biology have DNA, let’s let them do their job without our interference huh?
