The problem is that no one told us these creatures making up the soil food web need to be fed on a regular basis. Fertilizer feeds plants, not the soil creatures. Consequently, because we do not routinely give our soil web sufficient food in the form of organic matter, every year, year in and year out, most soil in America’s home landscapes is not very good for growing healthy plants.

Good soil under turf grass can be maintained only by finding a way to annually add some organic matter to that soil to feed the earthworms and the other 4000 species that make up the soil food web. There is only one way to accomplish that task. You must mulch your lawn just like folks mulch their gardens.

Mulching is a method of adding organic matter to the soil under an existing lawn, either to restore soil fertility and health to a worn-out lawn or to help a healthy lawn stay that way. It is a way of feeding the soil by spreading a thin layer of some kind of organic material--either a layer of finely chopped leaves or Canadian spaghnum peat moss--over the lawn. Once the organic material is spread in among the grass plants down to the soil level, worms take it down into the soil.

Once in the soil an organic mulch harbors and feeds a lively population of microbes and earthworms, and it holds essential air and water available to all plants and creatures living in the soil. Without organic material in it, soil dies. It becomes compacted, and infertile. Since it can no longer provide essential nutrients, moisture and air to grass roots, then you must compensate with more fertilizer, more water, and more time spent. Mulching with organic matter each year saves you the time, energy and money involved in constant rounds of fertilizing, watering and weeding.

For more information about soil and lawns go to Caring For Lawn's Soil.