Create a gorgeous lawn that is free of harsh chemicals. This comprehensive guide covers everything you need to know to grow and maintain a thriving lawn using organic gardening methods. With expert advice on planting the best grass varieties, nourishing the soil, watering, fighting weeds, and sustainable maintenance, Paul Tukey helps you create a luscious and inviting lawn that is pesticide-free and safe for your children and pets.

This book was written with these things in mind, I guiding every lawn care enthusiast through the steps needed to continue caring for a lawn without letting the concerns that develop because of unnatural products overwhelm you or your lawn. The keys to organic lawn care, starting with how to create a low-maintenance lawn, are laid out in great detail in this book, providing the essential information you need to enjoy your yard while not endangering the environment, your pets, or your children. You will learn how to keep your lawn healthy with the right soil, seed, sod, and feed without using any chemically enhanced products and how you can start caring for your lawn by mowing, watering, fertilizing, edging, and trimming with organic fertilizers and tools. Finally, learn how to change your existing lawn so that it is both environmentally sound and just as beautiful as it has always been. The final step in the process will show you how to deal with pests, disease, and weeds in your lawn organically. --Book Jacket.

A renowned landscape gardener’s guide to less expensive, less water-intensive lawns, whether it’s a front yard or a fairway. A lush green lawn is one of the great pleasures of the natural world, whether it’s outside your front door or on a majestic fairway at a legendary golf course. But anyone who’s tried to grow the perfect lawn the conventional way knows it requires an endless cycle of watering and applying synthetic fertilizers and toxic chemical pesticides that costs a lot of money and kills all the life in the soil, on the surface, and on the grass. Fortunately, there’s a better way. Organic lawn care is not only healthier for the environment, it’s actually cheaper and less water-intensive, whether you’re managing a small yard or acres of turf. In this book, Howard Garrett, the renowned “Dirt Doctor,” takes you step-by-step through creating and maintaining turf organically. He begins with the soil, showing you how to establish a healthy habitat for grass. Then he discusses a variety of turfgrasses, including Bermudagrass, bluegrass, buffalo grass, fescue, ryegrass, St. Augustine, and zoysia. He explains in detail planting, mowing, watering, fertilizing, composting, and managing weeds and pests. And he offers alternatives to lawn grasses and turf, describing the situations in which they might be your best choice.

Included are chapters on mowing, watering, fertilizing, soil building, equipment selection, seeding, weed control, diseases and insects, ground covers, and mulches.

"Environmentalist and physician Dr. Diane Lewis describes in cogent, accessible terms how we are polluting our drinking water, how this polluted water puts our families at high risk for disease, and what we can do to minimize risk. One of the biggest gifts we can our children clean water. Diane Lewis shows us how"--Page 4 of cover.

A guide to lawn care provides tips, techniques, and advice for an attractive yard, covering such topics as mowing, weeding, fertilizing, and getting rid of pests.

A colorful guide covering the basics of replacing a traditional lawn with a wide variety of easy-care, no-mow, drought-tolerant, money-saving options that will appeal to today's busy, eco-conscious homeowner. Americans pour 300 million gallons of gas and 1 billion hours every year into mowing their lawns, not to mention 70 million pounds of pesticides and $40 billion for lawn upkeep. No Wonder the anti-lawn movement is thriving, as today's eco-conscious consumers realize that their traditional lawns are water-hogging, chemical-ridden, maintenance-intensive burdens. Lawn Gone!, from award-winning gardening blogger Pam Penick, is the first basic introduction to low-water, easy-care lawn alternatives for beginning gardeners, written in a friendly style with an approachable package. It covers all the available time-saving options: alternative grasses, ground cover plants, artificial turf, hardscaping, mulch, and more. In addition, it includes step-by-step lawn-removal methods, strategies for dealing with neighbors and homeowner associations, and how to minimize your lawn if you're not ready to go all the way.