How to Restore Soil Fertility

Good soil forms the foundation of a healthy, green lawn. If your lawn looks dry and lackluster, with patches of dry grass, it's time to consider restoring and preserving soil fertility.

But what makes a good, high-quality soil?

Soil is a complex and dynamic blend of minerals, organic matter, water, and living microorganisms. Moreover, soil health encompasses its overall condition and quality, as well as its ability to sustain plant life. A healthy soil should have a balanced mix of physical, chemical, and biological properties.

Physically, it should offer good structure to root growth, water drainage, and nutrient penetration. Chemically, it should maintain a balanced pH and nutrient profile, ensuring plants have the essential elements for growth. Biologically, it should have diverse microorganisms that aid in decomposing organic matter and nutrient cycling, which is essential for soil health.

How to Restore Essential Nutrients to Your Lawn

Understanding soil properties enables you to adopt proper lawn management practices that restore, improve, and maintain soil health, ultimately leading to a lush and resilient lawn.

Get the Soil Tested

Soil restoration is an ongoing process. As soil becomes depleted of nutrients over time due to erosion, nutrient leaching, and the removal of organic matter through landscaping practices, continuous efforts are needed to replenish and maintain its fertility for sustained plant growth.

A soil test is essential for understanding your soil's pH levels and nutrient composition, helping you identify deficiencies or excesses. While you can perform a basic soil test, getting soil samples analyzed by a laboratory offers a more detailed assessment. This analysis provides valuable insights to help you determine the lawn fertilizers and soil amendments necessary to create the optimal conditions for your grass type.

Add Organic Matter

Adding organic matter to your soil, such as decomposed animal manure, plant debris, or compost, can significantly improve soil fertility. As it decomposes, it provides a steady supply of nutrients for plants and feeds soil organisms like worms, which in return, help maintain soil structure by aerating it. Aeration is crucial for root development and allows better water and nutrient penetration, supporting healthier plant growth.

Fertilizing the soil organically is often preferred over synthetic fertilizers due to concerns about nutrient leaching and runoff, which can harm the environment. However, many fertilizers today are designed to address these issues.

For example, NutriPod® is a granular fertilizer for grass encased in dissolvable pods that are worked into the soil before planting grass plugs. These pods release nutrients gradually and steadily, supporting plant growth without the risks associated with traditional fertilizers. This controlled release ensures that nutrients are available to plants as needed, reducing the risk of leaching and runoff. Overall, NutriPod® contributes to a healthier, more sustainable approach to managing soil fertility.

Aerate the Soil

Plants require water and oxygen in their root zone for optimum growth. These essential elements are held in the pores within the soil structure, and the size and number of these pores influence how well water is absorbed and drained in your lawn.

Over time, soil naturally becomes compacted, a process that can be accelerated by heavy foot traffic or equipment. This compaction reduces pore space and increases soil density, making it harder for plant roots to grow. It also prevents water infiltration and drainage, leading to waterlogging issues.

Aerating your lawn occasionally is an effective way to relieve soil compaction. You can aerate your lawn by perforating small holes into the soil with a spike aerator. However, removing soil plugs with a grass plug tool is more effective at breaking up compacted soil and improving soil structure.

Mulch

Mulching is the practice of covering the soil with a layer of organic and inorganic materials to act as a barrier, preventing the risks of erosion, moisture loss from the soil, and damage from harsh weather conditions. You can use various materials to mulch your lawn, including newspaper, cardboard, and organic residues like manure, compost, grass clippings, shredded leaves, straw, and shredded bark. These organic materials provide the added benefit of adding nutrients to the soil as they break down over time.

Avoid Excessive Tillage

Excessive tillage can be as harmful in gardening as it is in farming. In both cases, over-tilling can lead to soil compaction. It also disrupts the soil structure, breaking down soil aggregates and reducing pore spaces essential for root growth and water and air penetration. Additionally, excessive tillage can disturb beneficial soil microbes, leading to imbalanced soil ecosystems.

You can maintain healthy soil and prevent these issues by practicing minimal tillage or no-till methods, which aim to keep the soil loose. This approach involves avoiding soil compaction from foot traffic, adding organic matter, and using mulch.

Restoring and Managing Soil Health with NutriPod® Lawn Fertilizer

Planning the timing, application method, and quantity of organic matter and lawn fertilizer helps meet your lawn's nutrient needs while minimizing excesses.

Proper fertilizer management focuses on establishing a healthy, dense lawn that withstands pests and diseases, avoiding overfertilization risks that can decrease resistance to pests and weeds. It also maintains an appropriate soil pH for your grass type to maximize nutrient availability.

Using diverse nutrient sources, a blend of organic matter and fertilizers improves soil health and supports lush, vibrant grass growth. This approach enables you to restore and maintain soil fertility while reducing reliance on synthetic chemicals.