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Local firm nurtures healthy yards By Ann Lovejoy April 17, 2003

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Several readers recently requested assistance in locating a lawn service that provides natural care. Seattle-area dwellers are lucky to have an excellent resource available -- In Harmony Organic Based Landscape Services. Located in Woodinville, In Harmony offers a full range of lawn and landscaping services with an ecological accent. Owners Ladd Smith and Mark Gile share a belief that respect for ecology begins at home. Over the years, they have helped many homeowners achieve beautiful, healthy lawns and landscapes by using natural-care products and techniques instead of toxic herbicides and pesticides. In Harmony staff can help you design your garden from the ground up, if that's what you are looking for. They can renovate an existing landscape as well, replacing elderly or weak plants with healthy and more appropriate choices. In Harmony also will come to your property on a regular basis, feeding and treating your lawn and landscaping plants with compost, aerobically brewed compost teas and mycorrhizal innoculants. They also will treat lawns for crane fly larvae, root weevils and a host of other pests. Instead of using the typical lawn toxins that now pollute every important waterway in the state, they use natural, biological controls such as compost, nematodes, neem tree oil and beneficial insects such as ladybugs. The results are exceptional. Drive through a neighborhood that includes In Harmony lawns and you can spot the difference from far away. Why? Because the natural-care practices In Harmony embraces help build healthy soil, which makes for strong, sturdy root systems. Plants -- and especially lawn turf -- with deep, healthy root systems are resistant to many diseases and less attractive to pests. Part of the In Harmony success story is about their use of compost teas. Gardeners who regularly use aerobically brewed compost tea often comment that they see unexpected benefits as well as the expected ones (sturdy growth and clean foliage). In my experience, roses sprayed with compost tea not only are free of foliar disease, but are not troubled by aphids and other pests. There are still aphids in my garden, but never in problematic quantities and seldom on plants that are sprayed with tea. This makes sense, because plants with well-developed root systems are far less vulnerable to environmental stresses. It is clearly established that pests are more apt to attack weak or stressed plants than healthy ones. And diseases that may not even affect a healthy plant can flourish on a stressed one. What all of this means in terms of lawn and landscape care is that when you start using natural care, you can expect to see both clear and subtle changes. In gardens that have been ignored or neglected, the differences may be apparent quickly. Hungry soil, once replenished, can restore well-established old plants surprisingly fast. And funky lawns can turn into handsome ones in a single season. In gardens where chemical care has been the norm, the transition year can be a challenging one. Chemically treated lawns and landscapes tend to have shallow, poorly developed root systems. The soil they are planted in may be essentially dead, since many chemical treatments (including some fertilizers) can harm or kill soil biota, from bacteria to worms. Thus, In Harmony's natural lawn care service begins with a site and soil assessment and continues with consistent monitoring to ensure that your lawn and plants get the care they need. Typically, In Harmony care begins with a lime application to help neutralize acidic soil. Moss treatments that foster healthy lawn growth follow, as do monitoring and treating for crane fly as needed. Often, lawns that show a lot of crane fly damage initially regrow so strongly with natural care practices that even when crane flies remain active, you can't see any signs of them. Deep-rooted grass is very resilient, while shallowly rooted turf displays every blemish clearly. Once the initial problems have been resolved, routine care consists of regular applications of compost tea and appropriate fertilizing with natural substances that nourish soils as well as plants. Weed control is part of the program, and one natural-care weed preventative that In Harmony often uses is corn gluten. Nature's weed-and-feed, corn gluten stimulates rapid turf growth while prohibiting weed seeds from sprouting. Corn gluten works only where it falls, so prilled or pelletized corn gluten is most suitable for use on lawns or closely planted ground-cover beds. For weed suppression on bare earth, look for corn gluten meal, which can be spread very evenly with a hand seeder. When wet, corn gluten dries out seeds as soon as their protective sheath opens to let the sprout emerge. Since this effect lasts for six to eight weeks, be sure to overseed your lawn before using corn gluten. Once the newly sown seed sprouts, you can spread corn gluten, which will help feed your new grass while keeping weeds in check. In Harmony offers three levels of natural care: completely organic, minimal pesticides, and what they call their "I hate weeds!" program, with selective spot spraying for broadleaved weeds. Contact: Call In Harmony at 425-486-2180 or 888-472-7748. Top of Page | Back to Articles