The Authority on Organic Lawn Weed Control
Clean Air Lawn Care franchise owners are experts on keeping lawns beautiful and weed-free organically. Over the past decade, we’ve learned the secret to maintaining a healthy, weed-free lawn. We’ll let you in on the secret: The key to a lush, green and weed-free lawn is healthy grass. Yes, it’s that simple! You don’t need the toxic chemicals and unsafe weed killers lawn care companies and hardware stores are trying to sell you. The truth is, those treatments cause more harm than good to your lawn — and the pets, people and wildlife who use it.
Our organic lawn weed control approach is built on the fact that a healthy lawn will naturally have very few weeds. That’s because the vigorous grass effectively crowds out existing weeds, and grows so lush that new weed seeds are unable to find a foothold in the soil.
How to Master Organic Lawn Weed Control
For over a decade, we’ve continually tweaked and improved an organic weed control approach that keeps lawns growing green, lush and weed-free. We’ve found that the following three-part approach yields the best results, and we’re confident that you’ll see an improvement in your lawn thanks to these tried-and-true organic lawn weed control practices. This approach has not only been proven effective but also ecologically sound and safe for pets, children and wildlife.
So how do you keep your organic lawn weed-free without using harmful pesticides? By optimizing your mowing schedule, edging vertically and using a soil-building organic weed fertilizer combined with organic weed control when needed. We’ll detail each step below.
Optimized mowing height and schedules
When it comes to perfecting an effective mowing approach, we follow the rule of “mow high, mow often.” Mowing high has been proven to set the stage for grass to grow lush, green and weed-free. Longer grass length directly contributes to better lawn and soil health.
Our research shows that for a healthy lawn, you should never cut more than 1/3 of the grass blade. Cutting too much of the grass blade causes stress to the plant, and allows for the conditions for weeds to grow.
Clean Air Lawn Care recommends a once-a-week mow schedule that ensures the perfect amount of grass is being cut for optimal lawn health and minimal weed growth. It’s also important to cut your grass at a height that we know will encourage a healthy, vigorous lawn.
Want to learn more about why mowing high and mowing often leads to healthier grass? You can read more details about a healthy mowing approach here.
Vertical edging
Have you ever noticed weeds creeping in on the edges of your lawn? Or seen weeds on the edges of the lawns of neighbors who use other lawn care companies? Those weeds are a result of horizontal edging. Horizontal edging damages grass and exposes soil near sidewalks and driveways. And as we know, damaged grass and exposed soil create prime conditions for weeds.
We know that the horizontal edging that other lawn care companies use is hard on the grass and creates the perfect conditions for weeds to grow. That’s why the edger should be run vertically along sidewalks and driveways. When the grass is edged vertically, weeds don’t creep in from the perimeter. Many lawn companies and homeowners edge their lawns horizontally, which gives weeds an easy entry-point into their grass. Making the simple change from horizontal to vertical edging can make a big difference in keeping your lawn weed-free.
Organic fertilization treatments combined with organic weed control products
The only way to grow truly healthy grass that can out-perform and resist weeds is to focus on the soil. When a lawn is growing in healthy soil, the grass can easily outperform any weed. That’s why it’s really important to feed the soil, rather than deplete it. The non-organic, synthetic-based fertilizers and pesticides that are popular in hardware stores and used by conventional lawn care companies are actually very harmful to the soil. They deplete the soil of important nutrients and microbiota, which in turn forces homeowners into a scary cycle of continual lawn chemical use.
Our customized Clean Air Liquid Fertilizer treatment is a big part of how we keep lawns weed-free without turning to harmful pesticides. We know that a healthy, lush lawn is a weed-free lawn. Because healthy grass requires healthy soil, we offer organic fertilizer and soil builder treatments that encourage the growth of vigorous grass. If you’re taking charge of the organic treatment of your own lawn, we recommend sticking to a natural, all-organic fertilizer that feeds and builds the soil. You can learn more about our organic lawn care products here.
If you still have a few weeds in your lawn, you have a few organic weed control options. You can always pull them manually (which is usually easy enough since there won’t be that many), or you can use an organic weed killer. There are a few organic weed killer options out there (including DIY options like vinegar), but they are all non-selective so will kill your grass as well as the weed. However, Clean Air Lawn Care franchises will be using the first-ever available selective organic weed control product starting in 2020.
Coming in 2020: A selective, organic weed control product
Finally, we’ve found an organic weed control option that has a positive effect on lawn health instead of a negative one! And that’s a product we can get behind. Clean Air Lawn Care is in the final stages of demoing a cutting-edge weed control product that is 100% organic. This organic weed control treatment is a major breakthrough because it will be the only organic weed killer on that market that is “selective.”
What is a selective weed killer? When a weed killer is “selective,” that means that it will only kill weeds, and not the grass around it. This is an advantage because weeds won’t have to be spot-treated in your lawn, and you don’t run the risk of killing the healthy grass that grows around the weeds. We are demoing this natural, safe and organic weed control treatment in 2019, and are excited to offer it as a treatment option to our customers in 2020 — so stay tuned!
This new organic weed control treatment is a big boon to Clean Air Lawn Care franchise owners, as they will be able to offer the one and only all-organic selective weed control option on the market. If you’re interested in opening a franchise at the perfect time (now), get in touch! We’d love to talk.
