Open Association of Landscape Industries
Lawn biodiversity
I am going to check the number of insects in a two foot
square area of lawn that has not been treated for the last
seven years, and compare it to a similar area from a lawn
that has been treated for the last seven years.
The soil will also be sifted to find worms etc.
My question is this, how do I check these areas of turf
for insects ?
Replies to This Discussion
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PRO MemberPermalink Reply by Stuart @ Eco Garden Maintenance on -
microscope? I will be very interested to know the results of this.
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Permalink Reply by John on -
Thanks,
Yes the turf will have to be lifted as I want to sieve the soil as well.
One of my employees used to do this at school, and he said that the turf
would have to be carefully ripped apart to find all the little critters and then
dunked in water.
Explaining this to the customer might be diffilcult, unless I wait until they are
away and then blame it on the badgers :)
I need to take up a section in the middle of the lawn, as the edges might give a false
reading with the shrub and flower beds close by. So either an existing border will have
to be extended slightly to enable me to pinch some turf, or a new flower bed will have
to be put in where I want to do the test.
I think that to do a proper test, it should be done at different times of the year, so the borders
might get extended in stages... lol
The Winchester Gardener said:Hi John
Are you going to lift the turf? If so, I would place a large light coloured sheet on the ground, lift the turf and turn it over (With help of course!), and shake it over the sheet to allow the insects to drop onto the sheet for examining. To make things easier this can be done in smaller sections than the whole area in one go. Obviously you can then just place the turfs back in their positions on the soil......
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Permalink Reply by Kevin Barnett on -
What is the purpose for the Examination. When you say part of the lawn has been treated can you say what The treatment was ?
Are you going to test the pH as well ?
Kevin
www.gardencoaching.blogspot.com
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Permalink Reply by John on
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None of the lawn has been treated, and it has not been scarified or
fed organically, neither has it it had any herbicides sprayed
on it in the last seven years. The ride on lawnmower mulches
the grass.
The level of thatch rarely gets above 1 cm, so I assuming that the PH
is not too acidic, as high acidity kills of the insects and micro organisms that feed
on the thatch. Adding chemicals usually raises the acidity of the soil, and is a sure way
of eliminating the beneficial insects.
The reason behind the test is to add information to the aguement, for and against
the use of chemicals in the garden. I realise that the majority of people will not change
their way of doing things regardless of the results, but those on the fence might just be
swayed into trying it for a while.
The chemical lawn is in a different garden
Kevin Barnett said:What is the purpose for the Examination. When you say part of the lawn has been treated can you say what The treatment was ?
Are you going to test the pH as well ?
Kevin
www.gardencoaching.blogspot.com
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PRO MemberPermalink Reply by Stuart @ Eco Garden Maintenance on -
All lawns should be chemical free in my opinion.
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PRO MemberPermalink Reply by David Cox on -
has anyone used Chicken manure pellets or comfrey as a lawn fertilizer? I have been doing so in several gardens now for 2 years - Good results, especially with the chicken manure pellets. Nice thick green lawns, very good steady growth and a thick sward - Very pleased with the results. and Given that it is a non chemical fertilizer, I would expect it to be at least better than chemicals, and hopefuly almost neutral in terms of effect on soil life,
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PRO MemberPermalink Reply by Stuart @ Eco Garden Maintenance on -
I've used chicken pellets as a test on my mothers lawn and was'nt disappointed with the results. Currently using farmura porthcawl which is a mixture of bovine waste and seaweed. I have 60 comfrey root cuttings (bocking14) in pots all starting to put on growth and will be planted out when they have filled their 3 litre pots with roots. So watch this space as far as liquid comfrey fertiliser goes.
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Premium SupplierPermalink Reply by Peter Woolnough on -
Hi David,
I have a very green lawn, i let my ducks and chickens roam freely in our garden so it is fertilised everday, the lawn is scarified as they work they way through it looking for bugs, worms and grubs. We get almost nil weeds or pests. They also graze the grass so i dont have to cut it either.
So my solution would be get some ducks and chickens, let them carry out the fertilising, pest control and scarification, while you sit back and eat the eggs.
Peter
David Cox said:has anyone used Chicken manure pellets or comfrey as a lawn fertilizer? I have been doing so in several gardens now for 2 years - Good results, especially with the chicken manure pellets. Nice thick green lawns, very good steady growth and a thick sward - Very pleased with the results. and Given that it is a non chemical fertilizer, I would expect it to be at least better than chemicals, and hopefuly almost neutral in terms of effect on soil life,
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PRO MemberPermalink Reply by David Cox on -
id love to use more liquid comfrey - it seems to take effect in about 7 days, but I save it all for flowers in need and my Allotment - helps produce huge Butternut sqaushs.
Stuart @ Eco Garden Maintenance said:I've used chicken pellets as a test on my mothers lawn and was'nt disappointed with the results. Currently using farmura porthcawl which is a mixture of bovine waste and seaweed. I have 60 comfrey root cuttings (bocking14) in pots all starting to put on growth and will be planted out when they have filled their 3 litre pots with roots. So watch this space as far as liquid comfrey fertiliser goes.
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Premium SupplierPermalink Reply by Peter Woolnough on -
Hi David,
Do you produce your own comfrey?
If so how many plants do you have to cover what area you have, just so that i could get an idea on how to scale up or down to suit the ground we have and i will give it a go.
David Cox said:id love to use more liquid comfrey - it seems to take effect in about 7 days, but I save it all for flowers in need and my Allotment - helps produce huge Butternut sqaushs.
Stuart @ Eco Garden Maintenance said:I've used chicken pellets as a test on my mothers lawn and was'nt disappointed with the results. Currently using farmura porthcawl which is a mixture of bovine waste and seaweed. I have 60 comfrey root cuttings (bocking14) in pots all starting to put on growth and will be planted out when they have filled their 3 litre pots with roots. So watch this space as far as liquid comfrey fertiliser goes.
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Permalink Reply by Rose Lennard on -
interesting thread, hope you will let us know the results! But it will be difficult to compare the no-chemical lawn with a chemically treated one because of the problem of controlling the other factors - soil, microclimate, proximity to other areas of rich habitat, site use and compaction etc.
I used to work with some entomologists who used 'pitfall' traps to study creepy crawlies. You need to be a real expert to id them all though! What about going on the i-spot site and getting some advice there? there are some very knowledgeable and helpful experts on the site.
Also lots of postings about organic feeds for lawns, giving lovely thick green swards. Which is great if that is what you are after, but you'll only get a really biodiverse lawn where the fertility is lower so that the grass doesn't thrive so much that it crowds out more delicate herbaceous wildflowers, and of course the mini-beasts will be more diverse if the flora is more diverse. I have a pretty rubbish lawn on a poor sandy soil; one year I let it grow long and had a lovely flowering display from selfheal, trefoils, white clover, daisies - but not to everyone's taste!
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PRO MemberPermalink Reply by Stuart @ Eco Garden Maintenance on -
You make a good point Rose. I have customers where i only mow the grass and do nothing else. Plenty of clover but i have to keep stopping the mower for bees on the flowers. I dont push customers to have anything done on their lawns but 75% of them want weed, moss and thatch free lawns in the darkest shade of green.
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