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When my husband and I exchanged two decades of urban existence for suburban life, I didn't know a rhododendron from a Rototiller. We did know that we wanted to forgo the "weed 'n' feed" approach to lawn care. To our pleasant surprise, organic yard care is simple once you go through the steps of disconnecting your lawn from its chemical life-support system.

Curing this chemical dependency has its environmental benefits. One 40-pound bag of synthetic fertilizer contains the fossil-fuel equivalent of approximately 2.5 gallons of gasoline, and mowing for one hour with a gasoline-powered mower generates the same amount of pollution as driving a car for 20 miles, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). To keep lawns green, we apply about 10,000 gallons of water, which leads to fungal diseases and weeds that attract pests, so we douse our coveted green patches with approximately 67 million pounds a year of synthetic pesticides.

As in any detoxification program, the first step is admitting that you have a problem, says Paul Tukey, author of The Organic Lawn Care Manual (Storey, 2007, $19.95). "The organic lawn is not a ton of work—it really isn't—but it requires more understanding."

Start with the Soil
"Everything is as healthy as the soil it grows in," says Harmen Vos, president of the Organicdutchman lawn service in New Jersey. Healthy soil contains naturally occurring potassium, nitrogen and phosphorus as well as billions of beneficial microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi and protozoa and larger creatures like earthworms that build soil structure. Chemically treated grass, in contrast, has very little life because, over time, the fertilizers and pesticides kill or slow down these helpful bugs.

To aid your organic conversion, many university cooperative extension offices will test your existing soil for organic matter, nutrients and pH for a small fee. Once you know what's in your soil, you can begin to bring it back to life. Lawns prefer slightly acidic soils with a pH range of 6.5 to 7, but flowers, shrubs and trees vary in their pH preferences. Lime helps balance acidic soil, while sulfur helps with alkaline. Other soil improvers such as worm castings, kelp, fish wastes and decomposed organic matter called humates add nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.