Last Updated on April 16, 2025 by Brian Beck
What is the goal for your lawn, to look good? Does a good looking lawn define health? Is it possible to have a lawn that looks good that is unhealthy on a cellular level? Should a lawn that is healthy use resources in an efficient manner? Is it possible to have a lawn that looks healthy that is using resources in a wasteful manner? Would that be of concern to you? It should because if what I just said is true, it is highly likely that you have a lawn that is wasting you a lot of time and money. Let’s take a look at what may be causing your frustration as it warrants a look into where this waste is coming from.
What are the resources that I am speaking of?
- Water
- Fertilizer
- Mechanical Corrections
- Weed, Insect and Disease Chemicals
Most of these are being wasted and are largely unnecessary.
Water, this is a big one. 30-50% of water is wasted due to improper functioning irrigation systems, bad watering practices and another combination of thick thatch and compacted soils which are a sign of a dysfunctional soil that cannot be solved by mechanical means as the issue lies with the amount of biology in the soil and not a mechanical maneuver.
Synthetic fertilizers, particularly Nitrogen is NOT the solution to all of our problems, contrary to conventional wisdom. Most of the nitrogen that we spread either volatizes into the atmosphere, leaches out of the soil or gets consumed by surface microbes, a lot of which are pathogenic before it ever gets to the roots where it enters the plant through a manipulation of water soluble salts through the tap root rather than the fine feeder roots that makes the plant dependent on human intervention and man-made chemical rather than relying on microbiology that normally manage the resources, or nutrients in the soil, the plant’s resistance to disease, insects and stress. As the soil collapses due to a lack of microbial life the soil loses structure or space and with it the ability to move resources and thus becomes inefficient and dysfunctional.
I have seen literally thousands of lawns that look “good” but are heavily dependent on human and mechanical intervention to prop up a very fragile system. All we need is one bad dry winter and you can be looking at a very expensive replacement or recovery that is largely avoidable in a biological system.
If you want to learn more, read here:
https://www.springslawns.com/how-to-avoid-lawn-problems/