Does anyone have an organic lawn company that they are happy with? (Charlotte: HOA)

[ChessPie]

I've heard it can take awhile for an organic to look good. I just don't want my good lawn looking bad for a few years, but I'd like to switch. Can you tell me about your experience?

[frewroad]

My recommendation is to switch to warm season grass and you won't need a lawn service company and their toxins. The grass takes care of itself.

[flyingscotsman]

Originally Posted by frewroad

My recommendation is to switch to warm season grass and you won't need a lawn service company and their toxins. The grass takes care of itself.

Can you recommend a warm season grass and can you explain why this would work?

[ChessPie]

My HOA doesn't allow anything but fescue. I'm still hoping to hear from somebody with experience, thanks.

[frewroad]

Originally Posted by flyingscotsman

Can you recommend a warm season grass and can you explain why this would work?

(I apoligise as this doesn't really answer the OP's question but might help others)

Because cool season grasses such as fescue and rebel start to die when the temperature gets above 85 degrees. By this time of the year yards are full of brown spots and thatch and it takes considerable effort in Sept/Oct to restore it back to something presentable. Conventional yard service companies advise the customer to do watering and then they they use chemicals to mitigate the effects of the watering. In the fall they sell aerating, reseeding, more chemicals and fertilizers. Because Fescue/Rebel don't do well in the warm months other native and warm season plants invade the yard. it takes more yard service effort to deal with this too.

South of Charlotte the usage of cool season grasses disappears. It's just too big of a job to maintain, and warm season grasses are common. St. Augustine, Centipede, and several others are very popular. These grasses thrive in hot sun, don't need a lot of water to survive though rain doesn't bother them, and they don't need to be reseeded each year. They self propagate. They will choke out weeds and crabgrass so no control is needed.

The downside of these grasses are they will slowly intrude into planting areas so you will need to maintain a border or put up edging/barriers and these grasses will go dormant in cold weather. Here in Charlotte this means they may brown up from about mid December to mid to late March. It's not as much an issue now because Charlotte is warmer (they recently moved us into agricultural zone 8 from 7) and there are newer developed strains that do well in NC weather. Yard service companies won't tell you much about this option because they don't make money on yards that have converted.

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To the OP, my recommendation given your restrictions is to look as spending money for a landscaper to convert your yard to non grass areas. This might be a good alternative. IMO, given the weakness of fescue/rebel, going organic is going to be very difficult in our climate.

[Sultan of Soil]

We provide 100% organic (don't rely on pesticides/herbicides) lawn care in Charlotte. You don't have to worry about your lawn looking bad for years but you can't be hung up on having an un-natural weed free environment either. Nature is in balance and we use that paradigm to balance your soil and create an environment favorable to grass and not to weeds.
Would enjoy talking to you about it or even advising you on how to do it yourself! Getting the toxins off the lawn is the most important part of organic lawn care!