Question
Charlotte,

   You answered my question about ground cover, and told me you have the greatest lawn without weeding, and invited me to write you if I was interested in more details.   Yes!   I am!   

   When you said you did organic gardening, I assumed that meant you put a lot more time & energy into it, which I don't want to do.   However, I AM also interested in things that are good for our earth.  I DO compost all my vegetable garbage and fallen leaves.   I am thinking about getting a rain barrel.   Neither of these things are, or would be labor intensive.

  So, yes, I would definitely, definitely like to know what you wish you knew 40 years ago!
Thanks!
Sue

Answer
Hi again Sue;
Well, I can tell a long pity party story about all my years of working me lil fingers to the bone, scruffed knees from pulling weeds, fertilizing at midnight, after I got home from work, fixed dinner, cleaned the house and got 4 kids to bed.I had a pretty lawn though.
My grandmother was half Cherokee, and she would tell me, build rich soil, don't worry about the weeds, they will take care of themselves.
Did I listen???noooo,
Well, I became disabled to the extent that I could not do so much.
I read the gardening columns though, and the organic gardener's column.
One day he said. Fertilizing kills beneficial microbes that enrich the soil. Dry molasses or if you can't get that, sugar, will keep them alive. So when you fertilize, put down some dry molasses and water them in together.
I couldn't get dry molasses, so I used sugar. My back was hurting too much to go get fertilizer.My yard was full of weeds. A next door neighbor's unkempt weed farm kept my yard seeded with weeds. I pulled or dug them out, because I didn't want cats that walked across my lawn, eating it and dieing. Cats are attracted to weed killers, and will eat it if they get a chance.
A couple of weeks after I put down the sugar, half the weeds were gone. In about 2 more weeks, there was not a weed to be seen.
I put down sugar in the fall, no fertilizer. Next spring a lot of weeds came up, but not as many. In a few weeks, they were gone. About 2 or 3 years after I started with the sugar, the weeds stopped even coming up.
About 4 years after the first sugar was put down, my grass got a little yellowish, so I put down chelated iron. It's been dark green ever since. No weeds since.
I tried the dry molasses when it became available at the nurseries here, but think the sugar does as well or better, and those bags of sugar are a lot easier to handle than the 40 lb bags of dry molasses, and it costs about the same.
I leave my grass clippings down to feed the lawn. I mow when I will remove no more than 1/3 of the length of the grass blade.If you remove more, your lawn looks like it is full of little sticks rather than grass.When new growth starts in the spring, I set my mower on it's lowest setting, 2 inches. NEVER scalp a lawn. BIG mistake!!!
When the temp reaches 85, I set my blades to 3 inches. That is my highest setting.
When it gets hot, the taller grass blades help shade the groung, and helps keep the roots cooler. so it helps protect against heat damage.
Always water to a depth of at least 6 inches. this causes the roots to go deep into the soil, and a deep root system helps protect against heat and cold damage.
Shallow watering makes the roots come to the surface to get water, and they are exposed to heat and cold damage.
When the top 2 inches of soil are dry, I water again.
I aways water with a soaker hose. Let it run until the water starts to run off, turn it off and let it soak in for about 1 hour, then turn it on again, until it is soaked to 6 inches deep.
I had pretty good soil when I stared with the sugar. I had tilled in bark mulch, peat moss and humus several times, so I had good loose soil.But insecticides also kill the good bugs, so earthworms etc did not live. Now, I have a nice herd of livestock that eats all the bad bugs, and they do a better job of keeping my lawn free of grubs etc, than the insecticides did.My live stock consists of lizards, toads, and grass snakes. I never see the grass snakes, they are people shy, which is good, because if one crawled at me, I would run into a tree getting away, and kill myself. I see the lizards sometimes scampering up a tree trunk. I talk to them, but I don't want to touch em. I protect them,and they work real good for me.
Cockroaches in your lawn are good. They are the best little aerators, but I can't abide one in my house, so I put little sprigs of rosemary I grow in a big container, on each cabinet and pantry shelf, under the fridge, washer and dryer, freezer, any where roaches will hide. they won't come in a house with rosemary all over.I can't smell it, although it has a very relaxing odor.
I want lots of compost to top dress in the spring, so I got a box of construction site cleanup bags at Home depot. They are black plastic, but about 4 or 5 times as thick as leaf bags, and about that size, or maybe bigger. I got some 30 inch chicken wire. I think a 50 ft roll cost me about 10 dollars. That box of bags was 10 dollars, and I have had it about 7 years. Getting low on them now. I think there was 50 in the box.I cut a piece of the chicken wire, long emough to make a circle as big as the bag opened. Cut the bottom of the bag out, leaving about a 2 inch lip, to put some dirt in it, to hold it down so the wind wouldn't whip it out of the frame. Fold the top of the bag over th frame, and that holds it open. I put about 6 inches of dirt to start. you can get the worst dirt you have, and by spring it will be good top soil. I put in about 1 ft, of kitchen veggie scraps and raked leaves from the fall, and put enough dirt on top of that to cover it well, and water it. Fold the top of the bag loosely over it to keep it from drying out too soon. OH!!! Almost forgot, poke some small holes down the sides of the bag for ventilation.This keeps it from souring. If you are going to put the compost on only grass or flower beds, you can put doggy droppings in the compost, but compost you are going to use on a food crop, you want no animal materials in it. It will transfer any germs in animal fat or feces to your food crop.
When one bag is full, I just fold the top over, and put a litle rock to hold it down. It will still let in enough water when it rains or when you water, to keep the compost moist.When I want to get the compost out, I just lift off the frame, slit the bag down the side and there is all y nice top soil. I never turn it with a spade. Mu jusband tills it into the ground where it comes out, and shovels it into a wheel barrow to take where he wants to use it.That I put a new bag in that frame, and strt another bag of compost.I usually have 3 or 4 bags of compost in the spring, because I get some of the neighbors' leaves when they rake them up.I put their weeds in there too. The heat the compost generates, kills the weed seeds.So I guess you could say I beg trash from my neighbors.LOL
Mow and edge, and that is all we do to the grass.
Spring;
Top dress with compost,strew down sugar, water it in. Mow when it needs it, edge.
Fall;
Put down sugar, water it in.
Honest injun, that is all we do to the grass. It is lush, thick, dark green, and weedfree.
The weeds we had were, crabgras, johnson grass, dandelions, clover, chickweed,dollar weed, and some I didn't know what they were.I have one very small area where I put NO sugar. Wild violets come up there, and I love them. They are a weed, and if I put sugar there, they won't come up any more. Where I put sugar, no wild violets come up now.I have a couple of clusters on a footpath, and I want to keep them.
I grow roses. I would spray once a month, and use systemic rose food with insecticide in it. I still got aphid damage. A beautiful bud would open, and half the petals eaten. It just made me sick. Now my lizards take care of my roses for me. I never see any aphid damage. I only prune them. Old bananas that are too ripe for banana bread even, I put in the blender with some water and make a tea, and give each rose bush a bit of it. It is a good source of potassium for them.Makes em grow big and pretty.
For black spot, which is a big problem for roses here, instead of Fungicide once a month, I spray when new growth comes and after a heavy rain with, baking soda disolved in water.It does better than the Fungicide, and I don't have to spray once a month. No black spot. It also keeps powdery mildew off my plants that are suseptible to that.
I think I covered it all. I can't think of anything else right now, but then I am old and forgetful.LOL
If you have a question, just write me.
Charlotte