Take a look over on the Organic Gardening forum at the FAQs. Near the bottom is one titled, Organic Lawn Care. Read that and come back here with your new questions.

And don't buy any more fertilizer until you read that and come back. Just declare a moratorium on fertilizer for now.

I've always been a bit confused, I confess, about the difference between corn gluten and corn gluten meal. Can someone explain that for both of us?

Kathy, never mind terryb....he gets accused of spamming all the time and probably likes to turn the tables whenever he can, lol.

One of the great benefits about 'going organic' is that much of what you do is addressed to the soil. Compost is something that can be top dressed at any time of the year, without regard to the stage of growth of your turf.

Burmudagrass is a warm season grass, thus has its largest energy needs when the temperatures are warm. Since organic nitrogen sources typically take longer to be available for plant uptake, you'll need to get something down before temperatures warm up.

Bermuda doesn't benefit from a fall fertilization as the cold season grasses do. But compost (again) is always appreciated by your soil.

Liming would always be done in response to a soil test and only a soil test. The results will help you decide which of several liming products would make the most sense to use, and how much.

thank you rhizo_1. that was most helpful.

Hi Kathy,

Like rhizo said, nevermind terryb -- I've seen post after post from him not offering anything constructive, useful or helpful.

Let's get started....

Just beginning how bad have a I messed up?

Not at all! You're fine.... One of the best things about natural/organic turf programs is that organic fertilizer may be applied any day, any time of day, and at any amount without fear of hurting the turf. You've put down quite a bit of fertilizer already this season, so you don't need any more at the moment, but we'll come back to that in a bit.

Do I need to apply compost when the Bermuda is starting to break dormancy or while it is still dormant?

You can apply compost now or later or you can choose not to, it's not really mandatory. The primary purpose of applying compost is the introduction of beneficial microorganisms. Unless your lawn's been really hammered with lots of chemicals in the last few years, there are soil microbes there already & feeding them in the form of organic protein based fertilizers will cause them to multiply. The application of compost is sort of a shortcut in this process. IMHO the only problem with applying compost is that it's quite a labor intensive backbreaking process. It requires about a cubic yard of compost for every 1000sqft of turf & to apply, you take it out in a wheelbarrow, shovel it out & then use a broom and/or landscape rake to spread. I did it in early March last year & frankly, If I had it to do over, I'd apply compost tea instead. Far easier, far less expensive & still you get the benefit you're after of the introduction of beneficial microorganisms. To learn more about compost tea, you can look in the Soil & Compost forum FAQ's and don't miss checking out Deuley's Little Texas Tea Brewer for instructions on a very inexpensive home brewer.

Should I apply anymore fertilizer this growing season or wait till fall?

Bermuda is a "heavy feeder", it likes fertilizer. I applied alfalfa pellets 3 wks ago & now my bermuda's coming out of dormancy, so I applied soybean meal a few days ago. I'll apply soybean meal @ 14-15lbs per 1000sqft approx every 4 to 6 weeks until first frost. Then I get to take a break til next spring. You can see the results of organically feeding my bermudagrass by looking at my member page (but beware, if you have dial-up, it;ll take a while for the page to load, I have many pics on there.)

Any thoughts on lime?

Only apply lime if you do a soil test & the test indicates you need lime to adjust the PH level. Keep in mind that now that you're feeding your microherd, you'll be naturally shifting PH towards neutral.

Well, that's my 2 cents & I hope it helps some.

Good day, Dan

We don't talk much about changing the pH of the soil because by and large, that's a problem for people on chemical programs. Some chemicals need the pH to be just right or they don't work. Organic gardeners don't seem to have the problems, or at least not quite as bad. In fact we have people growing azaleas and other acid loving plants in our limestone dust soils, as long as they never use any chemicals.

You could toss all your different fertilizers into a bin, mix them up, and apply the mix at a rate of 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. Normally I say 10-20 pounds per 1,000 but for bermuda, IF you want to to look really dark green, it needs as much as you can apply. And I would apply monthly throughout the growing season. Or if you don't care about the color, you can fertilize now and then in the fall.

Compost on bermuda is a waste of time and effort, not to mention money. It has lots of microbes but nearly no fertility. Unless you have had a chemical spill that wiped out your soil microbes, you don't need it. Just use the fertilizer.

Do you have a reel type mower? If so, set it down to between 1/2 and 3/4 inch and get ready for the season. It will look like a putting green if you can mow it two or three times per week. When mowed low like this, it becomes very dense and helps keep weeds out. You might also invest in a weed hound tool for pulling weeds.