Organic Lawn Maintenance

Greener by Design is an organic landscape maintenance and lawn care company. Your lawns soil acts as the digestive system for your plants, using micro-organisms and fungii to breakdown food for plants much as the intestines do in animals. We brew our own compost tea in house in carefully heated and controlled environments, monitoring it with samples and microscopes so that we give your soil the most active tea possible. This enhances your soils ability to feed and nurture the lawn and plants it supports. All our applications are organic and only applied after soil testing so that we only put in what your plants need.

We take care to protect your property, family, pets and the environment. The result is a high quality turfgrass which resists harmful diseases and insects. Our programs address your turfgrass nutrient needs (nitrogen, phosphorus, & potassium) as well as the control of weed populations.

SOIL TESTING & FERTILIZATION get to know your soil. We offer a range of convenient soil tests from simple pH Cornell Test kit to sending the sample out to a lab for in depth analysis. You’ll get an informative report and recommendations for your soil. We recommend the simple Cornell pH test as a starting point. Often simply correcting the acid level of your lawn will achieve satisfactory results. For troubled lawns we recommend in depth analysis to obtain information about the soil such as acidity (pH), the presence of main nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium), micronutrients and organic matter. It’ll point out any important deficiencies, which we can then take steps to correct. We base our corrective actions on informed scientific information rather then anecdote. A fertilization program makes more sense with test results because it allows us to know exactly what needs to be input in order to solve problems.

FERTILIZATION Lawns do not occur in nature. Grass plants are crowded together and compete with each other, neighboring trees and shrubs for water and nutrients. This competition is why turf grass needs fertilizer; the soil needs a constant source of food to supply the plants. When properly fertilized, lawns maintain good color, density and vigor. Healthy fertilized lawns are less susceptible to insects, weeds and diseases. A well-planned fertilization program is a basic aspect of proper lawn maintenance. Without testing your lawn and arming ourselves with important facts solving problems is like shooting in the dark. We provide your lawn with the nutrients it needs for optimum growth. The goal of our program is to produce a reasonable amount of top growth without adversely affecting root growth. We avoid excessive top growth by using slow release fertilizers. Slow release fertilizers help give the lawn a continuous feeding. Our fertilizer program addresses your lawn starting in May and ending in November. We only use golf course grade fertilizers and control products.

TURFGRASS MAINTENANCE includes, lawn mowing, string trimming, edging when needed, and clean-up of debris. We cut to a uniform blade height in all lawn areas to give a well manicured look. Trimming and or edging along home foundation, fence lines, trees, flower beds, sidewalks and curbs will accomplish this uniformity. Frequent mowing helps your lawn resist weeds, insects and disease. Infrequent mowing causes too much grass to be removed at one time which causes stress to the turf. It also contributes to a lawn that looks thin, spotty or burned. As a general rule we never cut more than one-third of the length of your grass at a time. Mowing height – most Long Island lawns are comprised of bluegrass or fescues, the recommended cutting height for these are 3 inches.

For zoysia grass the height can be reduced to 2 or 2 ½ inches. We generally cut at 3 inches because at this height there is more benefit in establishing deeper root systems, therefore allowing the grass to resist weed and disease problems. Mowing Duration – weekly mowing begins in early April and usually ends the last week in October.

CORE AERATION done in spring or fall. Mechanical core removal is simply a method of punching holes into the turf to allow moisture, oxygen, and nutrients to penetrate the soil reaching the root zone of turf grass more easily. That’s why it works so well. Aeration reduces soil compaction, enhances thatch breakdown, improves water infiltration, improves the response to fertilizer, improves soil composition, maximizes turfgrass rooting, and most importantly makes a lawn less susceptible to damage from weeds, insects, drought and disease. This is one of the best non-chemical treatments for a healthy lawn.

SEEDING & SODDING we offer a variety of services to rejuvenate your lawn. Besides our turf fertilization programs, we offer core aeration in conjunction with overseeding, slit seeding or sodding. Core aeration combined with overseeding is an excellent method for an established lawn to relieve compaction and improve its density. We recommend aeration & overseeding once per season until you achieve a thick turf grass that meets your preference. We only use high quality Delalio seed mixes. DeLalio Sod Farms has been a grower of high-quality turfgrass for the past 40 years on Long Island, they are the leader in the Long Island turfgrass industry when it comes to seed mix and sod. Slit seeding or groove seeding is the process of cutting rows into the soil and planting grass seed in the rows. Slit seeding is an extremely effective method of filling in bare spots, and/or turning a spotty lawn into a lush turfstand. We recommend slit seeding for those lawns that appear thin or spotty. Sodding, for those of you who would like immediate results, without the wait for seed germination, we offer sodding. Sodding is the process of applying strips of turfgrass to prepared soil, creating an “instant” mature lawn. Sodding can be done at anytime of the year. This is an excellent way to instantly transform the appearance of your landscape.