First of all, take a quick trip to your garage or shed and read the back of your fertilizer and pest control bags. Do they say: “Chemical, Caution, Danger” or “Do not inhale” or “Rinse thoroughly if you come into contact with this product” or “Toxic to pets?”

Here are a few tips to keep your lawn in good shape – naturally. I’m going to try to sneak this by my friends who love to turn lawns into a totally edible landscape. For those of you with lawns buy a push mower to be totally eco-friendly. It’s good exercise and doesn’t need gas or oil.

Broadleaf weeds: EEKS the dandelions struck again. Dig them out with a weed digger. Then raid your kitchen drawers for your food baster and grab the food grade distilled white vinegar from the shelf. Use the baster and pull some vinegar into it then squirt just a bit down into the hole after you dig the weed. Vinegar will kill the remaining root and about 4 weeks later, the earth will fill in the hole. Don’t put too much vinegar down the hole because it also kills the surrounding grass.

According to Iowa State University Horticulture Guide, there are excellent alternatives to commercial lawn fertilizers that will not damage marine life when they flow into the streams and rivers. Their first suggestion is to mow your lawn with a mulching lawn mower and leave the grass clippings on the yard. They are an excellent source of nitrogen.

For fertilizer they suggest the following: “Organic fertilizers derived from fish emulsion, seaweed, dried sewage sludge, corn by-products, and poultry and cow manure are excellent lawn nutrient sources. Organic fertilizers are unlikely to cause a flush of growth or burn leaf blades. They provide a slow release of nitrogen and build soil structure. Organic fertilizers especially are useful where lawns are grown on sub soils, with little or no topsoil.” Just don’t expect them to immediately green your lawn. It takes a bit of time for them to work.

Tired of all the time and money you spend on your lawn? Try planting Dutch White Clover instead of grass. It’s drought resistant, needs no watering and no mowing. It’s not as hardy if you walk on it a lot but the seed is cheap $16 and will seed a 6000 square foot area. It’s good at keeping out the weeds too. Put in stepping stones to those areas of your yard you walk the most and turn your yard into a flowering clover field.

The Northwest Coalition for Alternatives for pesticides has a wonderful resource guide for natural ways to get rid of a host of pests. http://www.pesticide.org/factsheets.html#alternatives.