It's officially spring, and that means that those of you in the chilly parts of the country are starting to think about that big green expanse that covers all of the area around your house: your lawn. Having a beautiful green lawn has been a detrimental trend in terms of the environment, with residents placing toxic chemicals onto the ground and spending excessive amounts of water to keep it green. Then we cut the grass and bag up the clippings to throw away in the trash. While many may argue that we should get rid of lawns altogether and instead plant native plants all around to provide a habitat for local wildlife (we love this idea), there are ways to have a lawn and "be green."

Enter SafeLawns.org, a campaign to raise awareness & educate on "alternative" lawn care techniques run by a coalition of for-profit businesses and non-profit organizations. The site features weekly video "how-to" tips from HGTV's Paul Tukey. Each episode is between 2 and 8 minutes long and walks you through how to tend your lawn organically.

The first thing Paul recommends is to go organic with your lawn cold turkey. Don't try to phase in the organic over time. Being that it is spring right now, we recommend that you start off watching the "Spring Evaluation" video as well as the "Organic Lawn Care Recap" which runs through 12 basic steps for an organic lawn.

One of the first things you'll need to do, before preparing to apply any fertilizer (organic lawns = organic fertilizer), is get a soil test. It makes sense, really. How will you know what to do if you don't know where you are starting from? You'll need to take several samples across your property, digging 3-6 inches deep on each. About a 1/2 cup of soil will do for each sample. Watch "The Soil Test" video on SafeLawns.org, and then do a quick internet search for "soil test" and your state name. You'll quickly find out who can test your soil locally.

So this year, Paul Tukey says go cold turkey (does anyone else find that funny?), and go organic with that lawn.

Rebecca says: As a condo-dweller, this is all a little foreign to me. Organic lawns are important, and not just for the families in that home, but for the entire community.

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