Organic lawn care does more than resuscitate yards; it also brings business partners together. For “Organic Bob” Dahm and Melissa Berg, what started as a client/business relationship grew into a joint Twin Cities-based enterprise.
Berg, a photographer who was Dahm’s customer when her yard “was a mess,” now sports a yard without brown spots. She also does marketing for Dahm’s organic lawn care service. As she says, “What could be more fun? Meeting people’s cool dogs, seeing people’s yards, helping improve the planet.”.
When Berg became Dahm’s client, her yard needed what Dahm calls “the SOS treatment.” Since Berg was interested in the DIY approach, Dahm suggested that she begin by testing her lawn for compaction “the chief culprit in a yard that has more weeds than grass.” She got to use the space age-sounding “Soil Penetrometer” which revealed that her lawn, “like 99 out of 100,” needed aeration.
So Dahm and Berg hopped to it, using shovels to penetrate the turf carpet, every foot, across the yard – a process that can be done in both spring and fall.
Then, Dahm suggests sprinkling organic compost with a snow shovel, allowing the compost to penetrate the vertical slits in the ground. During a rain, microbes help the organic matter “melt” into the ground, neutralizing pre-existing chemicals by taking the carbon out of the organic top-dressing.