In the United States, lawns occupy more land than any single agricultural crop including wheat or corn. Homeowners use ten times more chemical pesticides per acre than farmers do, much of it on lawns. The average American homeowner will spend 40 hours a year behind a lawn mower.

By practicing a more natural approach, gardeners have found that they can have a great looking lawn with less work and vastly reduced chemical application. Here are some ideas on how to have an easy-to-care-for and beautiful lawn.

Make the Cut

A healthy, easy-care lawn begins with the right mowing height. Grass blades exist to convert energy from sunlight into sugars and starches that the grass plant then uses for growth. The food manufactured in the blades of the grass is used for both the top growth and the root growth.

When you mow, you reduce the ability of the grass plant to manufacture food, and thereby to form strong roots. The shorter you mow, the less the roots will grow. Deep roots are the key to a healthy, drought resistant lawn. So  mow lightly and frequently. Mow the lawn when the grass is dry, and remove only one-third of the blade length at any given time.

Mowing heights for most cool season grasses will vary with the season as the grass grows at different rates throughout the year. Start mowing when the grass begins to grow in the spring. As a general guideline, cut the lawn shorter in spring. This removes dead grass and increases the penetration of sunlight to new blades. A short mowing in early spring also helps to invigorate the grass and will aid in warming the soil. After this initial cutting, set the mower at around two inches for the next few mowings until the lawn begins to grow vigorously. By mowing higher, you encourage the grass to thicken and grow new tillers, stolons, or rhizomes.

Allow lawns to grow longer in the summer months-in the range of three to four inches. A higher mowing height helps to improve the growth of the lawn and helps to shade the soil which aids in reducing water use and suppressing weeds.

Keep the mower set high into the fall. This allows the grass to replenish its store of nutrients in the roots. In late fall, gradually reduce the mowing height again to 1-1/2 inches. Regardless of the time of year, the lawn should always still be green after mowing.

Leave the clippings

One of the great myths of lawn care is that clippings cause thatch. In one study at the University of Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, researchers observed that, "You didn't need any fancy instruments to see the difference. Where the clippings were left, the plots were much greener." The only exceptions would be for lawns suffering from some diseases like red thread or rust, for lawns with heavy infestations of weeds with mature seed heads, and during times of the year when clippings may be too wet or excessively long.

Pick the Right Fertilizer

A second component of easy-care lawn practices is the use of a slow release, natural organic lawn food. Remember, your lawn is only as good a the soil it grows in. Good nutrition improves turf performance and disease resistance. Slow-release natural organic fertilizers are less likely to contribute to thatch buildup, and do not acidify the soil or cause a decline in the population of earthworms and microbes in the soil. Unlike the many forms of synthetic nitrogen, natural sources do not cause the lawn to grow too quickly. Iron sulfate contributes to the growth and color of your lawn while it also helps to increase the drought and disease resistance of your lawn and discourages moss.

By comparison, chemical or synthetic fertilizers can release their nutrients too quickly, contributing to thatch buildup and causing over vigorous growth that means more mowing . Also, because these types of fertilizers can contain extremely soluble forms of nutrients they tend to leach away. Research at Alabama Polytechnic University showed that up to half of the soluble nitrogen applied to the soil will be leached out and unavailable to plants. This can contribute to the contamination of ground water and waterways. At the same time, because synthetic fertilizers are by definition salt based, you are much more likely to burn the lawn if they are accidentally overapplied or you are not able to water soon after application. Plus, there is some evidence that repeated use of salt based synthetic fertilizers can result in the destruction of soil microbes which in turn contributes to the loss of soil structure and thatch build up.

As Elliot Roberts, director of the Lawn Institute, has said, "We've found that the grass plant is a very efficient user of nitrogen...The more chemicals you use, the more you disturb the natural biological processes that convert organic matter into nutrients to keep the lawn growing...once you get heavily involved with chemical fertilizers, you're increasing the growth rate of the plant and growing it to death." Grass grown with chemical fertilizers can often grow so quickly and require such frequent mowing that the plant is unable to store carbohydrates in the roots. Ultimately this weakens the plant making it more susceptible to drought stress, diseases, and weed invasions.

Feed Your Lawn in the Fall

Proper timing is essential when feeding the lawn for the best results. Feed your lawn every fall sometime from late September through mid-October (in areas with milder climates). The fall feeding is the most important feeding for cool season grasses. During the fall, the grass plant is storing nutrients that will support the growth in the spring. By feeding late in the season, but while the soil is still warm, you will stimulate the root growth and food production in your grass.

The other ideal time to feed again is the spring about the time the initial growth spurt is beginning to slow down. Your lawn has now used up all the reserves stored the previous fall and is feeding itself. Fertilizing at this time helps to support that process.

If you intend to keep your lawn watered and green through the heat of summer another feeding, if needed, in late May will help the lawn to thrive through the hot summer months. This application should be made at least 30 days prior to the onset of hot weather. Do not feed the lawn in the summer.

The growth of cool season grasses slows down in the heat, and all you end up feeding are the weeds which thrive in summer heat and will often out compete the grass for nutrients during hot weather.

Dress Your Lawn

Once a year, topdress with compost. Add a thin layer of up to 3/8 of an inch of finely screened, unsterilized compost to your lawn to help control thatch and improve the soil, as well as to discourage diseases. Dr. Eric B. Nelson reported as early as 1990 in the trade publication "Lawn Care Industry" that, "Research at Cornell University with the use of compost and organic fertilizers has indicated the potential to suppress diseases such as brown patch, dollar sport, typhula blight, pythium blight and root rot, and red thread by topdressing with these materials." The fall is probably the best time of year to topdress your lawn, but topdressing is also recommended anytime after aerating or thatching your lawn.

Take advantage of the cool fall weather to improve the health of your lawn.