The organic evolution: Building healthy turf through sustainable practices

In the lawn, that deeper issue is soil health, and lawn care professionals who specialize in organics have long emphasized digging deeper — to turf roots and soil microbes — to make a long-term positive impact.

But then there’s waiting and not much instant gratification. Most clients expect results and associate a healthy lawn with the color green. Tolerance for weeds varies greatly; a few weeds to one is a jungle to another. And plenty of clients who sign on to organic lawn care with do-good intentions grow weary when the idea of sustaining an organic program over time sets in as reality.

Does every customer want it all? Most do — and more homeowners today are interested in lessening the impact of inputs, turning toward organic lawn care options that have expanded by way of products and service providers.

Shay Lunseth recalls introducing a then-fledgling consumer organic division of their Bloomington, Minn.-based commercial landscape business 15 years ago at trade shows. “People would say, ‘it’s never going to work,’” she says of a “this is the way we’ve always done it” mindset.

The tune is quite different today.

Demand for organics is up, customers see results and more people are asking for it. “People who call us are educated,” Lunseth says.

Pets, kids and concern for the environment are top reasons homeowners, in particular, go organic. And companies offering organic lawn care adopt varying degrees of “purity,” with some like Lunseth committing to Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI) certified products and others offering a hybrid option with mostly organic products and occasional targeted, synthetic weed control applications.

Tea time

The secret sauce to organics at Vande Hey is a geeky, tweaked concoction the company calls its compost tea. The company’s microbe-rich soil drench is a lot like chicken soup for the soul or an immunity drink, and Vande Hey has adapted the initial formula it acquired after purchasing an organic lawn care company in 2021.

“Part of our mission is to support a healthy lifestyle and family-friendly environment for the landscapes we create, and we’ve been refining our organic service to improve it and mirror this vision,” says Kelly Smith, who heads up the marketing for this and other service lines at the 75-year-old business.

Since acquiring the organic lawn care operation, Smith says Vande Hey has been introducing it to existing customers who are on a synthetic program, which is still a choice. “There was an interest in the area we service,” Smith says of overall acceptance and demand for an alternative.

When customers move from synthetic to organic, conversations center on “the long game” and what lies beneath the turf: soil, the root system, beneficial bacteria. “Helping people understand this is a journey,” Smith says.

For the most part, “customers are fascinated by organics because of the science behind it,” she says.

There’s a nerding out factor. Those who embrace the science and want a sustainable option realize patience is key. For those who choose organics but want a boost of crabgrass control, for example, “we do a quick hit with weed control if the customers isn’t looking for a fully synthetic program but doesn’t get the weed control they were hoping for with organics,” Smith says.

Vande Hey first explains that mowing at a higher height and mulching clippings to naturally regenerate nitrogen are ways to gradually squeeze out weeds. And the real secret sauce to the organic program that draws customers in is the compost tea. The company maintains test plots to measure how the mixture performs. “We measure microbial populations so if we need to make an adjustment, we can — and this comes with the territory,” Smith says.

Aside from interest in the science and the feel-good nature of choosing organics, Smith says what really sells clients on the alternative is their family dynamic: “With organics, your dog and kids can run out on the lawn and play right away.”

Fewer barriers

When Josh Larson and his team at Greenwise in Skokie, Ill., return home after servicing clients in Chicagoland, there’s no need for a separate laundry basket for uniforms. He doesn’t have to double-wash his work clothes to be sure there was “a complete breakdown of chemicals.”

Larson is in his sixth season at Greenwise after a career in synthetic lawn care and pest control. He admits some initial reservation about the efficacy of organics when he was considering joining the team — but after visiting properties that Greenwise had consistently serviced for several years, he was completely sold on the sustainable alternative.

There are no short cuts to cultural practices, and no quick-fix replacements to improving the turf root system and soil content. Aeration, overseeding, proper mowing height — all this is just as much part of an organic program as the five-application service Greenwise offers.

Beyond lawn care, Greenwise is 75% on the way to its goal to only operate electric vehicles, mowers and hand-held equipment by 2030.

As for the cost of organics, some companies express a good-sized pricing and profitability gap between organic and synthetic programs — such as double the price — but Larson notices the opposite. Products labeled as natural, organic or sustainable cost less now, he says. In fact, he recalls the same products he’s using at Greenwise costing twice as much six years ago.

This can make the service more appealing for some property owners. But for others, the decision to go organic or stick with synthetics is largely about weed tolerance. Greenwise does not offer a fully synthetic service.

Greenwise also does not offer a hybrid program, but if a customer is really struggling with weed tolerance, the company suggests subcontractors who can offer a synthetic application. Larson notes “definite limitations” and reviews cultural practices, including manual weed removal.

“But from our standpoint, it would be hard for us to turn away a customer because of a one- or two-time chemical application they decide to make,” Larson says.

Home-brewed results

Microbial soil drenches are one type of biological enhancement Native Edge Landscapes clients can choose from the company’s organic lawn care program, and these compost teas “have to be served fresh,” points out founder Tom Sunderland, who brought lawn care in-house in 2020 after subcontracting organic and synthetic offerings for about eight years.

Now that the service is within the Native Edge fold, the company only offers organic — and the program is more than a product swap setup that replaces synthetic applications for ones that are considered more sustainable.

At Native Edge, it’s all about the home-brewed enhancements, which are tailored for each lawn. “The soil health results are amazing,” says Sunderland, who shares with customers the benefit of biologically healthy soil that requires fewer inputs and less maintenance.

Every custom program starts with soil testing to establish a baseline for improvement. “It’s not one-size-fits-all,” Sunderland says. An in-house specialist finetunes biological additives. “She curates the compost — there’s a scientific element,” Sunderland says.

Herein lies a challenge: scaling for greater profitability.

However, by working organic lawn care into other business verticals, Sunderland sees gains in plant health and reduced plant warranty claims on design/build jobs. “We started incorporating organic treatments into our plant establishment program, which is baked into design/build contracts,” Sunderland explains.

“It’s not an optional add-on,” he says. “For every plant we install, including lawns, we return three to four times during the course of a one-year warranty period to feed them with those microbes.”

Because of the organic establishment program, Sunderland says a typical 7% plant replacement rate in Colorado where extreme weather creates undue stress has been reduced by half.

“This is one way we are integrating organic plant health care into another service line, and we’re seeing this is also a great way to introduce our customers to organics and build trust in confidence in what the service can do,” Sunderland says.

A long game

A move into organic lawn care began as a personal choice for Eric and Shay Lunseth in 2008, after they had their first child. “We were figuring out what worked,” says Shay, who joined her husband’s commercial landscape maintenance business in 2010.

What started as a peace-of-mind mission for their own property quickly expanded into a “what if?” for the business. To get a better handle on horticulture, she went back to school at University of Minnesota to learn about organic turf management. “We started slowly selling the service to neighbors,” says Shay, who now heads up this division, which is only for homeowner clients.

“It’s a harder sell for HOAs,” she says, relating that higher prices and weed tolerance are deterrents. The company still offers a fully synthetic lawn care program for its commercial clients, along with maintenance, landscaping and snow removal. Homeowners, on the other hand, must elect organic lawn care.

Lunseth rewinds a decade and acknowledges that early sales were a struggle. “We almost shut down several times in the very beginning,” she says.

Results and an understanding of the service have taken time. Also, qualifying customers is critical. Lunseth pinpoints an ideal demographic: double-income households, dog owners and parents of children who play in the yard. “Dog ownership is even more of a factor than kids,” she notices.

Usually, one person in the household prioritizes organics. “Another person at home might not care,” Lunseth says, relating that involving everyone in the education process reassures skeptics that occasional weeds happen and rebuilding a lawn’s root system requires a few seasons of sticking with it.

The company hosts monthly webinars with Q&A sessions, along with updating its blog and communicating how customers should participate in the process on service tickets and emails. “We set the expectations for involvement,” she says.

This can mean hand-picking some weeds. It includes embracing the whole program, which includes seasonal overseeing with allelopathic grass species that naturally regenerate the lawn. Lunseth is an organic purist. “If we are going to put the word organic in our name, it has to be 100% organic,” she says, pointing to natural weed control with a non-GMO, OMRI-certified corn-gluten product for pre-emergent.

Organic Lawns by Lunseth offers a chelated iron post-emergent product that it will not call organic, though it is permitted in places where synthetic herbicides are banned, such as Ontario, where there are cosmetic pesticide regulations.

Lunseth says demand for organic lawn care has increased and so has weed tolerance. The company’s online reviews demonstrate that good, healthy turf takes time. “We love these honest reviews,” says Lunseth, “because a lot of them say, ‘I’ve been on the program for seven years, and my grass looks amazing, I don’t have to maintain it as much and it’s softer on your feet.’”

Looking back, Lunseth is glad she got schooled in horticulture and organics before the company formalized its service. The company sustains a lose partnership with the University of Minnesota’s extension service. “We have a lot of experts at our fingertips,” she says.

Ultimately, Lunseth says, a temperament for the time and weed allowance required to establish a successful, fully organic program requires this understanding: “There’s no lawn care emergency.”

The author is a freelance writer based in Ohio.