Organic lawn care is not catching on with (as a close friend calls) the “grassholes”, I will prefer to use “lawn fanatic.” Despite the fact that organic lawn care is better for the lawn, the pocketbook, the water budget, the homeowner, the lawn recreationalist, the pet and the planet in general. 

    The average lawn fanatic simply wants to buy a petroleum based fertilizer, trucked from the midwest. With easy to read directions and easier to pour into one’s drop spreader, the lawn fanatic can walk straight lines back and forth in trance-like fashion. A mindset possibly brought about by repeated exposures to organophospates and other neurotoxins.

    Harvard Yard (16 acres) is managed organically by Harvard University. In 2008, Harvard studied the impact of organic lawn care on a test plot in the Yard.  To appreciate their study results, visit their web page at:

http://www.uos.harvard.edu/fmo/landscape/

    Since that test plot of 2008, they have converted all of their landscaping to organic methods including Harvard Yard and Arnold Arboretum.  At the Yard, they save 2 million gallons of water annually, use no insecticides, buy no fertilizer except the fish, kelp and molasses to nurture their compost tea operation.  A compost tea vat design is found at: http://www.uos.harvard.edu/fmo/landscape/organiclandscaping/build_tea_brewer.pdf

    The instructions are pretty straight forward although you will need two specialty items: a 400 micron bag and a sizable air pump. The 400 micron mesh bag can be found at: http://www.aquaticeco.com/subcategories/1480/75-micron-x-18    The Air Pump can be purchased at: http://www.aquatictech.com/pumps.html    Scroll down to the Pondmaster Air Pump AP-100 which costs between $130-190 and is the large ticket item to breath life into your compost operation.

    Recipes for tea can be found at the Harvard U. Landscape site. http://www.uos.harvard.edu/fmo/landscape/organiclandscaping/tea_recipes.pdf

Visit local organic experts at: http://www.organicearthcare.com/index.html

Now is a good time to build a compost tea percolator for next Spring’s lawn care.