Have you ever listened to your lawn? If you’re one of those 56 million Americans with a home lawn, you’ll agree it’s a pretty quiet place. But there is more going on down there than meets the eye. The lawn is a miniature forest and within that short canopy, there are 900 billion organisms for each pound of soil. Pretty wild for that little lawn of ours. Building a healthy lawn depends on the presence and activity of these billions of plants and animals that are part of the lawn’s ecology.

More time and money goes into our lawn than any other part of the landscape. So, it’s important to follow these simple cultural practices to create a healthier lawn environment:

-- Mow the lawn high, high being two and a half to four inches. High grass shades the ground and creates less exposed soil, which in turn creates less weed germination. Higher grass will also require less watering.

-- Seed the lawn heavily each fall and spring to create a thick cover and use many different varieties of grasses. In the Northern states, use a blend of Rye, Fescue and Bluegrass. Also, adding clover will help shade the lawn, keeping it greener by fixing nitrogen into the soil.

-- In the south, Bermuda grass, Zoisia, Carpet grass, Centipede grass and St. Augustine grass works best depending on soil and climate conditions.

-- Cool season lawns will go dormant during dry summers. When this happens raise the height of cut and water deeply, if at all.

-- The soil is the basic building block of the lawn. So the more organic material in the lawn the healthier it will be and the less maintenance it will require. If needed, use natural lawn fertilizers.

-- Use pest control that is environmentally friendly. If an infestation occurs, like grubs for instance, then natural controls such as milky spore when properly applied can last in your soil as a preventative measure for up to ten years.

If proper cultural practices are followed, little or no fertilizing will be required and pests will be controlled naturally.

For more information about ecological gardening log onto the Native Landscapes Garden Center website at www.NativeLandscaping.net.

And tune in to hear "The Living Landscape" with Pete Muroski throughout the day on LIME Radio, Sirius Satellite channel 114. Thanks for visiting "The Living Landscape".