Soil Food Web restoration of Lawn

Initial Situation

Five years ago, our lawn was in poor condition. My focus was on other things besides fertilizing and tending to the lawn, and the trampoline and children playing had left their mark (significant compaction). Essentially, it was a patch of weeds and moss, where mowing 3-4 times a year was sufficient. The clover had long since disappeared on its own.

When I first looked under the microscope in 2018, I saw some fungi, but not nearly enough for a healthy lawn. Most of the fungi were transparent, and the diversity of protozoa was very low. In contrast, there were relatively many bacteria.

Experimenting with Compost Tea

By early 2020, I had compost with good quantities of organisms, and I was able to do the compost extract and compost tea section of the Soil Food Web School's consultants course. In the early spring, I conducted one experiment after another. In the first tea experiments, the fungi didn’t grow well. The nematodes from the extract were fine, and the protozoa thrived in the tea. The projects went one after the other directly onto the lawn. Perhaps something good would come of it.

After a few attempts, I managed to get the fungi to multiply in the tea. This marked the end of "treating" the lawn with leftovers, and my focus shifted to my final project.

Soon after, clover started growing in the lawn again on its own.

Compost Extract, Humic Acid, and Fish Hydrolysate

In the following years, I treated the lawn 2 to 3 times a year with compost extract from the worm bin, just as many people fertilize their lawns. At first, I only added humic acid (extracted from my own compost), and in the last 2 years, I occasionally added small amounts of fish hydrolysate from herring waste. This quantity has no noticeable odor and nourishes fungi and bacteria.

The lawn steadily improved, and the amount of weeds gradually decreased.

And yes, I remove moss from a part of the lawn every year. Otherwise, the lawn would mainly consist of clover and moss with a few blades of grass here and there. By the way, the moss goes into the compost heap.

Final Result

Today, while working outside, I realized that our lawn looks much better than it did a few years ago. Thus I thought it was time to write a blog about it. So, I took another look under the microscope to see how the soil life is doing now. A lot has changed.

• The transparent fungi seem to be at about the same level as before, but many brown and beige fungi have appeared next to them. I like to see that. I think the abundant rains have been very beneficial for the fungi here on the dry sand.
• The amount of bacteria is good.
• The protozoa show a nice diversity. The quantity is okay, but there could be a few more. Maybe it’s time for another treatment soon.
• Unfortunately, I didn’t see any nematodes. So, there are definitely too few nematodes present.

The soil is still more compacted than desirable, which may be why the nematodes haven’t established themselves well yet.

Want to Try It Yourself?

Compost extract? Compost tea? Extracting humic acids? Making fish hydrolysate? I invite you to take my dutch language online course on Soil Food Web key concepts and/or participate in one of the practical workshops. I also help with planning an aproach and teach private lessons.

Please use my affiliate link if you want to participate in the English language Foundation Classes of Elaine's Soil Food Web school. This way you are paying the same price and I am getting a fee.