Principia, Inc.

Lawns - we love them, however…

Our Mid Atlantic region provides ideal water and temperature conditions to support for lawns. Lawns provide a neutral, usable surface that stands in contrast to herbaceous and shrubbery boarders. Lawns like all planted surfaces consume carbon, cool the environment and support good drainage.

The problem is not lawn per se, but rather they way we maintain them and aesthetic expectations that create environment problems and degrade soil.

Our recommendations are not only sound environment stewardship, they also improve soil, which in turn reduces maintenance requirements and will save you money. Over time your lawn will crowd out most weeds and become more tolerant of drought.

• Eliminate pesticides, herbicides and non-organic fertilizer.
• Replace chemical or synthetic fertilizers with organic. Apply early spring and around Labor Day.
• Use organically sanctioned pesticides sparingly.
• Water sparingly, and when you do, soak lawn at dawn with equivalent of no less than ½ inch or rain, prior to 8:00 AM.
• Replace synthetic weed control with organic corn based weed suppressant in early spring (doubles as Nitrogen fertilzer) and fall. See http://www.hort.iastate.edu/gluten/? for more details.
• Mow lawn with mulching lawn mower (most are these days) to leave grass clippings on lawn (free fertilizer). 
• Aerate lawn in the spring.
• Mow leaves into soil in the fall.
• Get your soil tested for mineral and PH levels. Correct with organic fertilizer and/or lime as needed.  Knowing soil conditions helps to avoid mineral and fertilizer over use. Rutgers Agriculture Extension provides testing service http://njaes.rutgers.edu/soiltestinglab/
• Tolerate a few weeds. Some of them are beneficial. Beneficial weeds include wild strawberries, violets, crocus and clover.