In article ,
Jim wrote:

Billy wrote:

trader4 wrote:
Jim wrote:
Harry K wrote:
Jim wrote:
symplastless wrote:

To winterize or not to winterize lawn
snip

this is precious, simply precious

Yeah. I have seen that several times over the years and there is so
much truth to it. I see that the annual 'what to use to bag leaves'
threads have started over alt.home.repair. Even after they have been
told the simple way is to mow/mulch em, they still go on about buying
fancy equipment to vacuum them up.

Harry K

http://www.milkyspore.com/

I've been trying to move my customers towards organic methods.
triple shred, putting leaves through the shredder three times
produces some dense mulch. with the new and deeper understanding
acquired recently for how many of the selective herbicides and
insecticides as well as improper or incorrect applications of
nitrogen actually have a great negative impact on the environment
as well as the ground water, I've decided it is now time to make
some changes concerning how the suburbanites acquire and obtain
the lawns they desire.

in short, if the chemical bonds with the soil at the molecular
particle level then that chemical is removed from my list of
what is acceptable to use. the list is getting short.

Jim-


What difference does it make if any particular chemical bonds with the
soil at the molecular level as opposed to just going straight on to
the ground water or into lakes, streams via runoff? I'm not even
aware that chemicals are made to molecularly bond to soil to begin
with.

The ions from chemical fertilizer salts, can be slowed down considerably
as they pass through your soil, by clay. Good garden soil is about 20% -
30% clay. Problem is that these fertilizer salts can harm/kill the micro
flora and fauna in soil. A healthy, diversified population of
micro-organisms will give you a healthy lawn if you feed them with
compost. There is more to it but that is the gist.

organic!

In a word, yes.

My point should have been that the binding of chem ferts (salts) in the
soil is inadvertent and wasn't planed by Monsanto, Dow, et al.. If you
have diversified micro-organisms growing in your soil, they take up
nitrogen compounds (NH4+ and NO3-) during their life cycles and release
it to plants when they die. A little fish emulsion or manure from time
to time should be sufficient. Otherwise the breakdown of carbohydrates
from from lawn clippings or compost will keep the micro-organisms happy
and fed.
--
FB - FFF

Billy

Get up, stand up, stand up for yor rights.
Get up, stand up, Don't give up the fight.
- Bob Marley