A yard without leaves and a garden without dead stalks sticking up all winter long brings a sense of satisfaction. But at Organic Bob we promote a love of untidy lawns and gardens. These organic materials serve to nurture the soil and also provide shelter for pollinators.

Our friends at the Pollinator Friendly Alliance explain that most pollinators stay over winter, looking for shelter in both plants and the ground. “During cold months, dead plant stems, old bark, cane, leaves, and undisturbed soil are the secret winter homes of pollinators. Leaving piles of leaves, compost or wood help all manner of creatures including salamanders, beneficial insects, and pollinators. Many solitary bees like mason bees burrow under tree bark or wood piles. Some have gorged like bears to make it through the winter; others wait in suspended animation as larvae, pupae, or eggs.

“Something you should be aware of as you begin to tidy up your garden for winter – especially burning or removing the plant stems, you may be destroying hibernating bees or bee nurseries. So, it’s important to leave plants standing until late spring when temperatures rise and nectar and pollen is available.”

If you have a question about keeping a pollinator friendly yard, contact the experts at Organic Bob.

Thinking 1 or 2 months ahead is essential to creating a thriving lawn – especially when you’ve made the important decision to go organic. So that’s why it’s important to prepare in August for effective organic lawn care in the fall.

Late Summer Lawn Care Tasks To Do

• Aggressive hand weeding before fall seed goes down.
• Look for signs of small grubs in the soil, because there’s still time to add in a fall grub treatment. This year especially it seems like they are everywhere!
• Make sure to keep the soil moist to keep your lawn as healthy as possible going into the fall. We covered how important watering wasn this year because of the drought (Tips for Watering and Maintaining Lawns During Drought). In addition, watering now will help with seed germination success when you do your fall aeration and seeding.

Things Not to Do
Our friends at University of Minnesota Extension are a wealth of information and one of our favorite resources is their Lawn Care Calendar. They warn about damage that can occur from practices you think may be helping your lawn.

• Do not spray to control weeds when temperatures are warm. This increases the likelihood of damaging the lawn.
• Do not fertilize in hot mid-summer months. This can cause irreversible damage to your lawn.

If you would like help getting your lawn ready this year for the best results next year, contact the experts at Organic Bob for more information or to request an assessment and quote to transform your lawn.

Our yards experience stress every summer when the temperatures and winds start to increase – and this year is worse than most.  Fox 9 News reports that the Twin Cities is experiencing its driest period on record for mid-May to mid-June with approximately ¼ inch of rain during the period. This is over 4 inches below the average of nearly 4.5 inches of rain during these weeks. 

Tips for Watering and Maintaining Lawns During Drought

Our friends at the U of M Extension service warn us that about 75% of Minnesota is in a moderate drought. They offer these guidelines:

• Water an inch every 10 – 14 days*

*Organic Bob recommends and sees the best results when watering an inch per week.

• Raise your mower height and mow less often (or not at all) to minimize damage to grass already struggling with the heat and low moisture conditions.  
• Treating weeds in the lawn will cause additional stress on the grass, so only spot-treat if absolutely necessary, if the weed is actively growing.

You Can Still Conserve Water

The EPA understands that people want to water their lawns, but point out how much impact it has on water supplies – especially during droughts. They’re trying to increase awareness about avoiding wasteful watering practices.

• Depending on the region, homeowners use between 30 and 70 percent of their water outdoors.
• Experts estimate that 50 percent of the water we use outdoors goes to waste from evaporation, wind, or runoff due to overwatering.

Here are some great suggestions about how to conserve water while maintaining your yards. Especially for homes with automatic sprinkler systems. They can use about 50 percent more water outdoors than those without them. 

• Timing is everything: Know how much water your landscape actually needs before you set your sprinkler. 
• Your local utility can offer recommendations for how much water certain plants need in your region and best times to water. Generally, it’s best to water lawns and landscapes in the early morning and evening, after the sun goes down, because significant amounts of water can be lost due to evaporation during the heat of the day.*

*Organic Bob recommends watering early in the morning. Watering in the evening sometimes can promote the growth of fungus.

• If your system uses a clock-based controller, consider upgrading to a WaterSense labeled controller that uses local weather data or monitors the moisture level of soil to determine when and how much to water, reducing waste and improving plant health. Replacing a clock-based controller with a WaterSense labeled irrigation controller can save an average home up to 15,000 gallons of water annually. Combining a smart irrigation controller and spray sprinkler bodies that have earned the WaterSense label can save water, time, and money on water and sewer bills.
• Contractors certified through a WaterSense labeled program can audit, install, or maintain home irrigation systems to ensure water isn’t wasted. Make sure you ask for credentials.
• Inspect irrigation systems and check for leaks and broken or clogged sprinkler heads. Fix sprinkler heads that are broken or spraying on the sidewalk, street, or driveway.
• When planting, assign areas of your landscape different hydrozones depending on sun/shade exposure, soil and plant types, and type of sprinklers, then adjust your irrigation system or watering schedule based on those zones’ specific needs. This helps you avoid overwatering some areas or underwatering others.

Even if your home doesn’t have a sprinkler system, there are a number of simple steps you can take to promote a healthier lawn and garden with less water this summer:

• Grass doesn’t always need water just because it’s hot out. Step on the lawn, and if the grass springs back, it doesn’t need water. An inexpensive soil moisture sensor can also show the amount of moisture at the plant’s roots and discourage overwatering.
• Raise your lawn mower blade. Longer grass promotes deeper root growth, resulting in a more drought-resistant lawn, reduced evaporation, and fewer weeds.
• Sweep driveways, sidewalks, and steps rather than hosing them off. And don’t forget to check for leaks at your spigot connection and tighten as necessary.

If you would like to plan a yard that requires less watering, contact the experts at Organic Bob for more information or to request an assessment and quote to transform your lawn.

Spring is coming and most homeowners after months of snow look forward to seeing a soft green lawn. What they see more often is a collection of unwanted weeds. Don’t blame the weeds! They’re in your lawn because you have unhealthy soil. The kicker is your soil got this way from doing things you thought were helping your grass – using chemical fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides. And even if you’re using something labeled “Organic” make sure it’s OMRI (Organic Materials Review Institute) certified, otherwise it may still include traces of chemicals. In this article we’ll discuss real organic solutions to regenerate your yard

Here’s the science. Unhealthy soil is dominated by anaerobic bacteria caused by soil compaction. This is the result of a combination of factors, but is commonly caused by the synthetics we introduce to our yard thinking we’re making it healthier. Synthetic fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides decimate the beneficial soil microbes that create soil structure. This structure consists of pores, tunnels and channels that move water, oxygen and biology through the soil. Lawn chemicals kill off the organisms that create and maintain this soil structure. Without the organisms, this structure collapses, resulting in compaction.

Compacted soil drains poorly and grows anaerobic and acidic, spawning multitudes of bacteria. These conditions smother grass roots with bio slime and create the perfect conditions for weeds. You’re further degrading the biology that can solve the weed problem every time you apply one of these chemicals you think is helping.

Other factors to be aware of that cause soil compaction include:

over-sized lawns
construction equipment on yards
excessive irrigation

Luckily there are real organic solutions to regenerate your yard. A truly organic solution is not working on your grass, but is rebuilding your yard’s soil. Like anything in life, this is not a quick fix – the quick fix is what created your problem. Here is the process we use at at Organic Bob:

1 Fertilizer

We use only certified organic fertilizers and only 2 applications per year.

For DIY, use a “Top Dressing”. Because most lawns are depleted of organic matter, applying a thin layer of quality organic matter over existing grass provides food and habitat for beneficial soil microbes.

2 Over-seeding

We use a proprietary blend of low maintenance grass seed.

3 Aerated Compost Tea (ACT)

This is a concentrated solution of beneficial aerobic soil microorganisms. Regular applications of ACT keeps soil healthy, which in turn, suppresses diseases, improves soil water capacity, fertility, and air/oxygen capacity of soil. The benefits of ACT are:

Improved water availability and plant hydration.
Relieves compaction.
Increases nutrients in the soil.
Improves plants nutrient uptake.
Increases plant vigor and disease resistance.

DIY is an option, and we offer a free yard assessment so you know what you’re getting into. More information is available on the DIY Page of our website Of course, we’re happy to do the work for you if you prefer. Just go to our Get A Quote page and we’ll follow-up.

Two years ago, I heard about an initiative from England, called “No Mow May.” The idea is to not mow your lawn until June 1. This will encourage flowers to bloom in our lawns, thereby supporting countless bees and other pollinators with nutritious pollen and nectar. The number and diversity of bees in these unmowed areas is many times those in mowed lawns.

The ubiquitous lawn represents one of the largest losses of habitat for our bees and other pollinators. No Mow May simply provides food and habitat during a critical time in the spring.

Here are some action steps you can take to create more vital habitat for our bees and pollinators:

1. Observe No Mow May on your lawn (or at least part of it) and encourage neighbors, friends and relatives to participate in No Mow May with you.
2. Educate and persuade your schools, churches, cities and workplaces to go with a No Mow May.
3. Keep leaves in your planting beds through May, they protect pollinators in their habitats.
4. Mow high (around 3 inches) to provide cover year round for pollinators.
   (Our partner, Eco Friendly Lawn Care, provides a great lawn mowing service in the Twin Cities Metro area using non-polluting electric equipment.)
5. Stop using traditional lawn pesticides and other harmful chemicals. Instead, follow an organic lawn care program so pollinators aren’t sheltering in a toxic environment. Our Real Organic Program meets and exceeds industry organic standards.
6. Permanently replace your lawn or a piece of it with a clover or bee lawn.
7. Saving the best for last…. plant native plants. This is the best way to help pollinators. Consider planting a pollinator garden to help this valuable and vulnerable part of our ecosystem. Our OB Gardens are perfect for this purpose, especially the affordable Pollinator Pocket garden.

If you like the idea of helping bees, contact Organic Bob to learn about some different options.