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Miami Valley yards have begun "going green" as their owners seek lawn care options they perceive as better for the environment, pets and children.

Mark Grunkemeyer, owner of Buckeye Ecocare, said about 50 of the 6,000 lawns serviced by his Centerville company are on a strict organic program. That is up from virtually none a couple of years ago.

Some property owners are mindful of any potential harm to children, pets and the environment from lawn chemicals, much as they were during a short-lived organic lawn care boom in the early 1990s.

"What we do in our backyards goes straight to the Ohio River. We should be good neighbors," said Marvin Duren, a Vietnam veteran who said he was influenced by the effects of the defoliant Agent Orange.

Duren's company, Marvin's Organic Gardens near Lebanon, has about 25 first-time organic lawn care customers this year — four times what the company had a year ago.

Sales of corn gluten, a pre-emergent used in early spring to suppress weeds, were up 4 percent from a year ago despite a big price hike.

Good results from an organic lawn care program typically take three to five years, said Ken Cline, manager of Deal's Landscape Inc. of Beavercreek, whose organic lawn care division has had 40 estimates this spring, double last year's. "Organic is not a quick fix, that's for sure," Cline said.

Organics made up 5 percent of all turf pesticide purchases by lawn care operators in 2007, according to Lawn & Landscape magazine.

Those products will have to improve and become more competitively priced to be a bigger part of the lawn care business, Grunkemeyer said.

"We've created a marketplace where people are not willing to pay for a service that doesn't deliver a perfect lawn," he said. "We've spoiled ourselves."

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-7457 or

bsutherly@DaytonDailyNews.com.

Tips for organic lawns

Raise the deck of your mower about half an inch between mowings until you're cutting only the tips of the grass, leaving 3 inches to 4.5 inches.

Test your soil to see what nutrients, insect and weed control are needed.

Don't bag grass clippings.

Aerification, or the process of removing small plugs of soil, can be used to improve soil health.

Make sure your lawn is adequately watered.

Source: Local companies that provide organic lawn-care services.

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