Many homeowners aim to have a lush, green lawn that's free of weeds and one that's relatively easy to maintain. In addition, most of us want to protect the environment, and our family's health, by cutting down on the use of lawn chemicals.

So what's the solution? Almost everyone has turned to natural lawn fertilizers.

The philosophy behind it is pretty simple. A healthy soil grows healthy plants. Growing turf with the use of natural lawn fertilizers seems like the best means we have. Why? Because when we feed the life in the soil, those growing populations of microorganisms begin to accomplish many of the jobs that would have consumed great amounts of our time, money, and energy.

But how does natural lawn fertilizer keep soil healthy? Well, as you probably know already, the soil is actually an example of a biome - a place where lots of different organisms live. When you look at soil, you think that it's just soil, nothing more. In fact, there's a lot more to it than the eye can see (and we mean that literally, too). That's because soil is actually home to a number of microscopic activity that helps keep the soil healthy enough for plants to grow in.

The principal characters are the soil microorganisms - bacteria, fungus, etc. They are organisms that consider the soil as their natural habitats. These microorganisms play a very important role in lawn gardening as the activities they participate in help provide the necessary nutrients that your plants need in order to grow. You could say that they are the key to a healthy soil.

The microorganisms help fertilize the soil by fixing nitrogen from the air, mineralizing the soil organic nutrient, generating carbon dioxide (the plant's most needed nutrient), and dissolving mineral nutrient from rock.

Some microorganisms also help in de-thatching, by decomposing the thatch and other organic mater into valuable nutrients and humus, which in turn increase the water and nutrient holding capacity of the soil. So even if you add a whole bunch of compost and humus in your soil, but there are no microorganisms to de-thatch these and convert them into nutrients beneficial to plants, the soil amendments you made would have been for naught.

In addition, microorganisms aerate the soil and control many insect and disease problems by competition and predation. These are but a few of the benefits that soil microorganisms have. Researchers are in wide agreement that there are still plenty more things yet to be discovered about soil microorganisms and what they can do for plants.

By using natural lawn fertilizers, you encourage the growth of these soil microorganisms. Because natural lawn fertilizers, unlike chemical fertilizers, do not contain harmful substances that could destroy the microorganisms or render them unable to do their job, then there are no worries. While the nutrients contained in natural lawn fertilizers help growing plants stay health, the fertilizer itself is not invasive on healthy bacterial life in your lawn soil. In this way, natural lawn fertilizers are dual-acting.