Organic Lawn Care Solutions for North Texas
Here's the help you need to select the best organic lawn care products to keep your North Texas turf looking its best. In this article and accompanying video, Mark Hill from Nature's Creation takes a deep dive into the organic products we recommend for your organic lawn care program. He explains how they work and when to apply them to enjoy the maximum benefit. The transcript below has been edited for readability.
Watch the Video
North Texas Climate Challenge
Most of our soils in this area are very alkaline, very clay, heavy soils, so they have a lot of locked up nutrients that are in the soil. Over years and years and years there have been been a lot of phosphates and pot ashes that have been put down through synthetic fertilizers, and basically what those do is, they just get locked up in the soil and they stymie the microbial activity. So they stymie the microbes in the soil, and of course, the less microbial activity you have in the soil, the less likely it is that the soil will release those nutrients.
If You Do Nothing Else, Apply Dried Molasses
According to Howard Garret, who is well known as The Dirt Doctor, the best thing you can do, even if you're just a first-time organic gardener, and if you only do one thing all year long to your yard, is to put down dried molasses.
The reason for that is because the molasses increases the microbial activity in the soil. It's a sugar shot. It's food for the microbes. And we're trying to generate as much microbial activity as we can to help release those nutrients so they become more readily available to the root system for the plant material.
Use It Anywhere
Molasses can be used in any kind of bedding area. We can use it in our vegetable garden areas. We can use it around trees and shrubs. We can even use it in potted plants. Most of what we sell goes for lawn applications because that's what people are trying to really try to get.
There is a lot of stuff that we can do in the flower beds that makes things pretty easy. But trying to take care of the whole lawn is a lot different. Just going out there putting a bag of fertilizer down is not always the best thing you can do for the yard. So we want to start with dried molasses.
Apply 10 Pounds Per 1,000 Square Feet
What we sell is black strap molasses from pure cane. You can use it at a rate of 10 pounds per thousand square feet. A 40 pound bag will cover about 4,000 square feet. We recommend that you apply it at a rate of 3,000 to 4,000 square feet per 40 pound bag. You can put it in your fertilizer spreader and spread it just like you would any other lawn application.
Thrice is Nice
The best thing to do is apply it two to three times a year. We recommend one in the fall and one in April. March through April area is when things really get started in North Texas. We recommend putting down a third application in midsummer, and that's what people don't like to do because it's 110 degrees outside. But here's the thing: think about what you're doing in midsummer. You re using a lot of water to maintain that lawn. And like I said, most of the water here is alkaline. So if you're not doing something to help try to neutralize that, once again, we get back into a state where we cause the microbes to go dormant in the soil. And that's the last thing we want to do is for the microbes to go dormant.
This consistently feeds them a sugar shot. It will not burn anything on the yard. It really doesn't matter if you get it into the flower beds or anything else.
Mix It With Other Ingredients
If you're doing any kind of garden area, we recommend that you till your garden up and add compost and soils, such as lava sand or green sand or any organic compost that you're putting in there — cotton burr or whatever might be your choice — that you mix in dried molasses with it. It says to use about one pound per 100 square feet. For garden areas you can be pretty liberal with it..
Try Liquid Molasses for Container Plants
You can't overuse, really, any of the products that we're talking about today. So we also carry dry molasses in a liquid state. Liquid molasses is great. Mix it with water and you can fertilize any of your plants with it. It maybe a little easier to use the liquid in your potted plants, hanging baskets, window pots, anything like that that you've got potted up.
Expanded Shale for Sandy Soils
Okay, you said that I have real sandy soil.
Attendee: I mean, you go down three feet and you get something that is not sand. I've got pure sand.
Which means that basically your soil leaches a lot more. So we have some recommendations of some things that we can use to help retain the moisture in the soil.
The most important one would be expanded shale. Expanded shale is good for any soil type. Think about the fact that the water is leached out through the sand. So how are you going to trap that water? If you've ever looked at a piece of shale, it looks like a piece of pumice. Now in clay soils, you're trying to create space. You're correct about that. But you're also trying to retain moisture in it at the same time. So if you put expanded shale in either one of those situations, yeah, it works great as space for clay, but it's almost imperative for water retention in sandy soils.
Attendee: What about perlite or something like that? Is that good?
You could use that, but it's just another inert ingredient. I it will eventually break down.
Really, one of the best things about the shale is that it doesn't raise or lower the pH of the soil. It can sit inert for 20 years in your flower bed and still retain that moisture. But I would still want to put the dried molasses in as the first part of my organic program.
Fire Ant Deterrent
One of the other benefits of molasses — and this may sound kind of funny — is that they're a deterrent for fire ants. Fire ants and microbes are in competition for the same soil. So one of the fire ant drenches has a molasses base.
Howard Garrett recommends that you mix molasses with a shot of orange oil ( one ounce). The orange oil breaks down the exoskeleton of the ant, and the molasses creates microbial activity, and fire ants and microbes are in competition for the same soil. So the fire ants tend to move on.
They don't like to be disturbed. Obviously, if you've got fire ant mounds or seen them, all you've got to do is drop a pebble on it nd they will emerge from their mound.
But no, dried molasses will not drive off moles or voles. It may sound like a miracle product. If you use it consistently around your yard, it can help prevent fire ants. It's not a guarantee that they won't nest, but it is a good preventative for that.
And like I said, some of the organic fire ant killers, they have a molasses base. Molasses grows a type of fungus that will eat fire ants.
As I said, I recommend that you apply dried molasses two to three times a year. As Howard Garrett recommends: If you don't do anything else, apply dry molasses.
It's safe to put down anywhere in your garden. And it is safe for your pets. You can have your pet right out there in the yard when you're putting it down.
Corn Gluten Meal Pre-Emergent Herbicide
But back to the subject of lawns, the other thing we want to do this time of year (early fall) is apply pre-emergent.
Pre-emergent kills the weeds before they emerge. There are synthetic products out there: Dimension, Pro-Diamine, stuff like that. Those are synthetic pre-emergents. But for the organic gardener, we sell corn gluten. It is available in both a meal, which is a powder, and in a granular form, which is kind of a chunk.
The granular is not quite as messy. It takes a little bit longer for it to get into the soil than the powder does. But be sure and wear your oldest shoes when you put the powder down because it's going to get all over your pant legs and turn your clothes orange or yellow in a heartbeat.
A Fertilizer, Too
If you look at the bag, it says, 9-0-0 and that's just fertilizer, isn't it? Yes that's what it is: Corn gluten is 9% nitrogen. Technically, it is 10% nitrogen, but we register it as 9-0-0 because of state legal requirements. If the state were to test it and came in at 9.99%, then the state would have a cow and they'd pull it off the market. So we register it as a 9%, but it's 10% nitrogen and 10% nitrogen generates 60% protein and that will burn the weed seed at germination.
Unlike some of the pre-emergents that kill seeds before they come up, this actually works as the seed germinates. Straight 10% nitrogen will burn the weed seed.
You can use corn gluten anywhere that you're not over seeding. A lot of people like to over seed their lawns with ryegrass (annual or perennial) or fescue, or whatever in the fall.
When to Apply
We recommend you use corn gluten in February and again in May. And sometimes February could be late. We get these Indian summers sometimes in late December and through January in North Texas. That's when Henbit and all this other stuff can start to pop up. So normally you would apply it sometime between the end of January and about the mid part of March.
I have a customer who says that his customers are always late. And in Texas, there are optimum times, but it's never a bad time to put down pre-emergent because we have weed seeds that germinate all year round in the state of Texas. So yes, February would be your first application.
We recommend that you come back in late May or early June because if you have sand burr issues, that is when they grow a head. They seed out sometime in early June. So if you have a grass burr situation, then we highly recommend that you put another application down. People want to kill what they've got, but this is not going to kill what's there. It's only going to keep what's there from spreading. That's the whole premise on the pre-emergent. So we need to make sure that if you've got a sand burr issue that you go back with the application.
And then of course again, we come back in early fall anywhere from mid-September through mid-October for fall application to take care of winter weeds that are going to germinate. And hopefully that'll take care of some of the henbit that's out there.
How Much to Apply
As I said, we have corn gluten in a powder, which will cover about 2,500 to 3,000 square feet. And you can use it anywhere on the yard. It says it covers up to 4,000 square feet. That's on cool season grasses. That's the graphic on the bag. That's cool season grasses.
For Bermuda or St. Augustine, we recommend about 2,500 to 3,000 square foot.
Once again, corn gluten is safe to use anywhere in the yard. You don't have to worry about getting it in the garden or the flower beds or anything else. You may actually prefer to do that to help keep weeds out of your beds. Unless you're planting from seed or over seeding.
If it didn't work, we wouldn't sell quite as much of it as we do.
Timing has a lot to do with the effectiveness. I've given you a window for the best time to apply it, but there are people who buy it all summer long and use it as a 10% nitrogen fertilizer.
Of course, this is not an overnight solution. You're not going to put a bag of molasses down and a bag of pre-emergent and go, okay, I'm organic. It really doesn't quite work that way. But it works.
Attendee: Is the powder more effective than the granular?
The powder gets to the soil quicker than the granular does. Absolutely. Which means that it doesn't have to break down first. Some customers swear by the powder more than they do the granular. Just because this gets to the soil so much quicker. But the granular is easier to keep at that 3,000 square foot level and the powder is.
Being organic is a lifestyle of how you're taking care of your yard. I don't care what you do in the house or how you take care of your other business. But if you want to garden organically, it takes some effort.
More Affordable
It used to be you couldn't afford it. It used to be only available by mail order, which made it expensive to buy. Now these products are in the same price range as a regular synthetic fertilizer.
6-1-2 Lawn & Garden Fertilizer
Alfalfa-based Nature's Creation 6-1-2 Lawn & Garden Fertilizer. is essentially an alfalfa pellet. Outside of Norwegian seaweed, it has the highest concentration of nutrients that you can put into a fertilizer and be organic. We lace it up with with a lot of mycorrhizal fungi, which is a symbiont between the root system and the fungus.
And it really goes a long way toward helping to restore your soil health. We call this our turf builder. So if you've never used any organic fertilizer before, this is a totally manure free fertilizer. You don't have to worry about dogs or cats trying to dig in it. It is an actual pellet and it takes it a little bit of time for it to break down. And then, along with the molasses in the soil, you get a double shot of help in building your turf. And it is good for either sandy soil or clay soil.
That's what we're trying to do. We're trying to improve the soil life, microbial activity and put the right nutrients into the soil. It's slow release because it takes a little while for the pellet to to break down it.
You can use it anywhere in the yard. It's safe for all yard applications, just like the other products we've discussed. It's good for Bermuda, St. Augustine, or any other kind of turf. You don't have to worry about getting it in the flower beds or, you know, it really doesn't make a difference. It will not burn. Absolutely will not burn. So if you want to put that down once a month, you can put it down once a month and it won't burn.
We go back to the same thing on applications. We recommend that you do a spring application, which would be in April after your pre-emergent and after your molasses.
Fungal Problems
When you have warm temperatures and everybody's watering like crazy, what happens to your St. Augustine? You get fungus. And our fertilizers help deter that fungus from the root system on the plant material because both our fertilizers have mycorrhizal fungi in them.
We're a big proponent of that because that helps take care of the root system. The last number on the 6-1-2 is potash, and potash is what you usually use for the root system. There's lots of potash and and phosphates that are locked up into the soil. The 6-1-2 is a turf builder that helps release those nutrients.
For example, if you got roses, you always got one or two that are not as healthy as the other plants. It's like anything else in in nature, you know, the strong survive and the weak fail.
Attendee: Well, and also, too, there's just like with bacteria, there's millions and millions of different kinds of fungus and bacteria. And there's beneficial ones and not so beneficial ones. And the mycorrhizal is a beneficial one that, like you said, is symbiotic with the root system.
That's right. We're trying to build the turf. A lot of the fungicides on the market for fungus only take care of the symptoms. They don't fix the problem.
Horticultural Corn Meal
For example, I can use propiconazole, which is a synthetic fungus control. And I can go out there and spray my yard, nd my fungus might go away, but it's probably going to come back because you haven't fixed the root of the problem, which is the root system. And until you do that, I think Neil Sperry, who talks about take all patch. That is one that St. Augustine gets, is take all patch. And he recommends that you put peat moss on it. You know, there's a lot of pros and cons.
It makes a great potting soil as long as you've got everything else in there with it, because most of the premium potting soils that aren't organic or they're all peat based. But it's what else you put in there with it that makes the difference, It's whatever else we put in the yard that makes the difference in how the grass and plants, shrubs, garden area are going to respond. So once again, the weakest area of your yard, that's the area where you get the fungus.
Horticultural Corn Meal with Garlic
Horticultural Corn Meal is a natural fungicide, but the state requires us to add garlic to it. The state requires us to have a active ingredient and they don't recognized corn meal as an active ingredient, So we have one percent garlic and ninety nine percent inactive ingredient, which is corn meal. That allows us to register it as a fungicide.
Horticultural Corn Meal is a lot better as a fungal control and its the organic way. If you have fungal issues in your St. Augustine and you use corn meal, you'll be surprised.
Prevention is Always Best
But we want to try to eliminate those issues. So that's why we're trying to promote the molasses and the organic fertilizers.
We talked about expanded shale a minute ago. You just can't get expanded shale down on your yard unless you aerate.
If you're on a sprinkler system, really, you should only be watering about twice a week. But you have to get a half to three-quarters of an inch on on the ground.
Does anybody know how to gauge that on their sprinkler system? That's a good idea: a jar lid. Stick a jar lid out there in the fall line. Anything like that can give you an idea, then you'll know how long to run your sprinklers. It's better than paying somebody to come out and tell you a whole lot of stuff. I could tell you about how much water you're running out there using a jar lid. That's generally a pretty easy way to gauge. So if you can cut your water back and to twice a week and make sure you're getting about half inch to three quarters of an inch when you're doing it. That's really about all we need.
I know people who water three or four times a week. And if you're paying a water bill, you know that it's not cheap to maintain all that water. So there you go.
So we have these products to help the soil and that you can help maintain your water level. We can help maintain the soil and we can help have healthier grass, trees and shrubs, garden, no matter what area you're planting in. There's no area that is too big or too small area to be an organic gardening.
Attendee: On our St. Augustine grasses, the roots don't go into the ground. The grow over the top and there are bare areas.
They are runners. They are stolons.
Attendee: So how can we make them go into the ground?
Well, but they don't. See, that's the whole premise of St. Augustine is that it is a runner grass. You want it to thatch together. That is what you're trying to get it to do.
Attendee: But I shouldn't have to see a little roller coaster.
Well, you shouldn't.
Attendee: But then there's bare spots around there.
Yes, is it underneath a tree? St. Augustine requires a certain amount of sun, just like everything else. St. Augustine needs pretty much six to eight hours of full sun. People think it's a shade tolerant grass, but it's not.
So it really doesn't matter if it goes into the ground. They call those stolons, those runners. I used to always pick them when I was a kid and chew on them. And it's a running grass that eventually what you want it to do is to thatch together.
4-2-2 Turf Food
It stinks! But it is effective It is chicken manure. When you put it on your yard and water it in, it's not going to smell so great for about a day and then after that you're not going to pay any attention to it.
But our 4-2-2 Turf food is a terrific fertilizer that will not burn. (The nitrogen comes from poultry litter instead of alfalfa.) It has all the mycorrhizal fungi in there just like the 6-1-2 does. Safe to use around your pets and kids.
Put it out there at the same time. Use it anywhere in the yard, garden, flower beds. Doesn't make any difference, but it will work a lot faster than the 6-1-2. It's not the turf builder that the 6-1-2 is. It's a quick release, quick feed to the root system of the plant of whatever grass that you got with Bermuda, St. Augustine, or Zoysia. But it works very quickly.
It's a terrific fertilizer. It's our number one seller. The price point on is really good. It's the most competitive of the organic fertilizers that we have in our line. And we we sell we sell a lot of all of it.
For Healthy Soil
If you've been if you've been gardening organic gardening for 10 or 15 years and you've got great soil, it's great for the grass. Because during times of stress, people will go out and just put a high nitrogen fertilizer on their yard in the summertime just to give it a green up shot.
Attendee: So you described all your products. And you mentioned fungus in the grass. What happens to our yard every single year? In the wintertime, of course, the St. Augustine is dormant. But I can already tell by the color that there are dead patches.
Yeah. And that's from the fungus.
Attendee: And we water maybe once a month if it hasn't rained in the wintertime. So when the grass starts to green up and we see that those dead patches are there, we know that the fungus has attacked. So we use your cornmeal with garlic in that area and around that area. And it does beautifully. We also add some nitrogen to it in the form of compost usually. And eventually it recovers. But my question is, what can we do using your products to prevent that? And I think it might be St. Augustine fire because it's viral. Because it comes back every single year in the same instance. Do you have recommendations on how we can prevent that from happening?
Use the right fertilizer on it. Continue to use an organic compost on that. Really, we lost a lot of St. Augustine the last couple of years because of freeze.
I mean, we had some major freezes where, when you get those giant swings and then it stays for two or three days, man, it could just take St. Augustine right out. Especially if it hadn't had any water before that to help protect it. Remember, water before a freeze helps insulate the roots.
But in your case, maybe you need to take that out and replace it. If it's something that's just so reoccurring, you know, that certainly is an idea that you might look at. But I think for the most part, if you do what you're doing, use the alfalfa-based fertilizer in that area and use the compost on there. If it's coming back every year, there's a reason it's coming back. It's got enough strength to come back. It's just trying to keep the fungus out of it.
20% Horticultural Vinegar
One other thing here that I wanted to talk about right quick before I go is 20% vinegar. It is a non-selective grass and weed killer. So it'll kill both grasses and weeds. You should use it straight. You don't mix it with water. You put it into a trigger sprayer or a pump-up sprayer.
Spray anywhere. Spray the cracks up and down the driveway or spot spray out in the yard, anywhere in the garden area or in flower beds.
It's really safe to use on henbit. This will kill henbit (and other flowering weeds like dandelions).
I did a science fair project many years ago with my oldest, and that's what we did. We had three giant trays of henbit. We had a control tray, and we had one where we used Trimec Trimec is a widely-used synthetic broadleaf weed killer.
And then we had one that we used vinegar on. And we sort of got lucky because it works better when it's hot. We got a warm day in January when we put it down.
And, of course, you know, the control was the control. The next day, you couldn't tell anything from the Trimec. Although, within about four days or so, it was dead or no doornail.
But the vinegar worked overnight. We went out there the next day, and, I mean, it was just burnt to a crisp. It just took that henbit right out.
Now, it's not a giant root killer, okay? You're not going to put it on nut grass and get down to the nut. You're just not going to get there. That's because — unless you have it in sandy soil — it runs off clay soil before it ever soaks down to where the nut is. But it is safe to use pretty well anywhere.
Like I said, you don't want to spray it on any of your vegetables because it will burn them. But It doesn't really transpire very well. You don't need to worry about it leaching in the soil. Even at that point, it's still just vinegar, so just a great product.
Attendee: The best way to kill dandelions in that January-February time frame when the rest of the yard is dormant and you've got dandelions coming up. Just go out there and spot spray them with vinegar. You won't kill the grass because the grass is dormant.
No, it's dormant.
Attendee: Best way in the world.
You do have to be careful with St. Augustine because if it doesn't get real cold, you can always dig down and find green runners on St. Augustine. Unless it gets really cold, it doesn't just dormant out kind of like Bermuda does. Spraying might burn them, but the grass will recover.
But you couldn't kill Bermuda, you know what I mean? You can dig down that deep and you've got, you know, Bermuda roots. But you just have to have a lot of sun to grow that. I have a question.
Attendee: I have a question: In the areas where there is nothing but dirt, what would you do?
We carry this rye called Barenbrug SOS. You can over seed with any kind of ryegrass. I don't recommend that you use the annual rye because annual shoots up, man! You've got to really mow it like every two days or so. But there are good perennial ryes, and they'll come back every year.
We're hosting a wedding shower in two weeks. And my wife's about to have a cow. All summer long, she's been worried about how bad the lawn looks. I said, look, you know, it does this every year. We put a bunch of ryegrass seed out there, and I mean, it's this thick, and covers the whole yard.
Attendee: Is that just a hand-drawn nest type thing?
You put it in a little thing like this (hand-cranked fertilizer spreader), or you can just throw it out there. Put some water on there and it will come right up.
It'll last all winter. It'll look like hell next summer because it's just a perennial ryegrass. When it starts to even smell like it's going to get hot, then it goes dormant. It's not our grass. It's not good for our area, but it's good for the winter.
If you notice all these properties that are green in the wintertime, it's because they're paying to have their landscapers guy over seed. And that's why they look like they do. Bermuda grass just won't stay green all year round. It goes dormant.
The best time to over seed your lawn with ryegrass is right now.
Attendee: Tell me again when is the best time to put out corn gluten meal?
Right now. And again in March, April, and again May, June.
Okay, well, thank you all for coming today. We really appreciate it. Marshall Grain appreciates it.