The Organic Lawn Care Manual: A Natural, Low-Maintenance System for a Beautiful, Safe Lawn

For homeowners tired of their chemical-saturated lawns, this book provides step-by-step guidance for "get[ting] your lawn off drugs." Tukey, a lifelong lawn lover, started mowing as a teenager, and as the owner of a successful lawn care company, he was well entrenched in the "weed 'n' feed" method prevalent since the 1940s: "With one pass of a lawn spreader, we could feed the grass" (with chemical fertilizers), "kill the weeds" (with pesticides) "and still have time for a round of golf at the course we so envied"). When, after years on the job, he began to experience nosebleeds and shortness of breath, his doctor ordered him to stop using lawn chemicals, and that was the beginning of his commitment to organic lawn care. His lively and passionate instruction—on soil structure and how to improve it; grass varieties; "starting a lawn from scratch"; natural lawn foods; "watering dews and don'ts"; and how to deal with moles, voles, grubs and bugs—are interspersed with inspirational tales of natural-lawn activists. With an appendix on lawn games, from croquet to badminton, this book will delight lawn fanatics and provide sound advice for those who simply want to maintain their yard. (Feb.)