Question
We have purchased a new house in Long Island and have noticed that there appears to be a lot of thatch in the grass. That is the first problem to work on I think. But I am not sure. This is our first lawn and we are wondering if it would be better to simply hire a lawn service to take over the job for now. However, I am a bit worried about the quality of the services here. We are willing to get a good one but being at least vaguely familiar with the Organic movement I would like to see if there is any way to do that with a lawn. Before we do anything wrong, can you provide some guidance on this matter? Thank you. We are in Suffolk County on the North Shore near Port Jefferson and have an impressive amount of property. But it has thatch (I think).

Answer
Welcome to the neighborhood - Port Jeff is famous for fresh air and the seabreeze.  And its beautiful lawns.

If your grass has thatch, that says one thing to me: C H E M I C A L S. And over-fertilization - to build up a thick green carpet quickly and artificially and (maybe) sell a house quicker.

Organic soil does not get all thatched up.  If you hire a lawn service, they most certainly will decide that the solution is de-thatching with a large piece of equipment that they will gladly operate for a hefty fee.

The Organic approach, which I applaud in your question, will wait for Nature to take its course.  That thick buildup will be digested by earthworms and microbes; when they're finished, you will have some rich, healthy soil, free of chemicals, ready to build up your grass.

One of my favorite Organic Grass websites, Dirtworks (www.dirtworks.net/Lawnfert.html_), puts it this way:

"Many soil organisms are responsible for suppressing a large number of turf grass diseases, not to mention phytopathogenic nematodes and some herbivorous insects. Many disease pathogens exist as saprophytic organisms feeding on organic residues in the soil. It isn't until those residues are depleted that they become parasitic and cause plant disease.

"Maintaining resources for soil organisms is always in the best interest of the turf manager.

"Other benefits of a biologically active soil include soil aggregation, thatch reduction, more efficient release of available plant nutrients, improved soil atmospheric respiration, systemic acquired disease resistance, antioxidant hormone production, improved water infiltration, increased water and oxygen holding capacity, deeper and more extensive turf roots, mycorrhizal associations, reduced soil compaction, and improved turf density with consequent weed suppression."

Capeech?

The WORST thing you can do right now, and it probably has not crossed your mind since you are new to this but it might cross someone else's mind, is YOU DO NOT WANT TO FERTILIZE.  Nitrogen will only cause a fungus flareup.  And you do not want to go there.

What can you do?

First, if you get a lawn service with all its equipment to come over and do anything, make sure you are the ones calling the shots.

Personally, I think the first season or so you ought to do this yourself.  It's a great way to get back to basics and it will get you up close and personal with your own grass, which right now is not doing too well.

Get a good mower -- a hand driven reel mower is best and you will not get those at Home Depot -- and a cute little spreader (which will probably say "Scotts" somewhere on the side, it does not matter) and a soaker hose.

Instead of de-thatching, water your grass and buy some high quality organic compost.  Hicks on Jericho Turnpike is a bit of a drive for you -- I think you will find some fine garden centers in your neck of the woods and you want to absolutely, positively make sure it is ORGANIC compost.  Whole Foods Markets sells a very solid compost right now.  Put that compost all over your lawn.  That's the kind of vitamins your lawn needs right now.

I would also drench the soil with compost tea. In a nutshell, compost tea is a concentrated, easily-distributed cocktail of beneficial microbes for your garden.

These microbes control fungus diseases among other things and determine basically whether or not your grass is ever going to be healthy. Tea will fast-forward the microbial population and give it the boost it needs.  The only thing I worry about is residual chemicals, but you will have to deal with that in what we call God's Time.  That's just the way it goes sometimes.

Compost tea will instantly fix that.  But you may have to reapply.  This may be the summer you remember as The Year I Learned How To Make Compost Tea because you make so much of it.

The cutting edge recipe on this matter in the scientific community is AERATED compost tea. When you're finished with the basic recipe, you use an air pump and airstone to shoot air through a 5-gal. bucket of tea. The Oxygen energizes the aerobic microorganisms in the tea, which fluorish and multiply.

DIRECTIONS: Put 1 shovel of HIGH QUALITY compost in a 5-gallon bucket of water. (Optional: Alfalfa pellets or some other cattle feed.) Let 'tea' sit for a week, stirring daily. Some people add 2-3 tblsp molasses, brown sugar, corn syrup or another simple sugar -- 1 Tablespoon per 3 days of aerobic brewing. Molasses also contains sulfur which is a mild natural fungicide.

Sugar products are mostly carbon, which is what the micropopulation devour. You just want to make sure the sugar has been eaten and digested before you apply tea to soil.

Optional: add a few cups of fruit, corn meal, Epsom salts, green weeds, a can of fish, garden or woods soil, apple cider vinegar (1-2 Tablespoons only), and/or alfalfa meal.

Stirring occasionally will also contribute Oxygen.

The tea is ready when a foamy layer appears on the surface.

Apply straight or diluted. This formula is the best possible fertilizer you can put on your lawn -- or your garden.

Let me know how things work out.  I'm all ears.