According to the Environmental Protection Agency, a teaspoonful of healthy soil contains about 4 billion organisms. That community of beneficial soil creatures keeps our landscapes healthy by:
• Creating a loose soil structure that allows air, water and plant root growth into the soil.
• Recycling nutrients and making them available to plants.
• Storing water until plants need it.
• Protecting plants from some pests and diseases.

Plant native species suited to the area, and look for plant and grass species that require less water. What types of grasses are growing in your lawn? Says New Hampshire’s Department of Environmental Services: Where you need to have a lawn, a mixture of grasses (such as fine and tall fescue, perennial ryegrass and Kentucky bluegrass), clover and legumes is the ideal combination.
The mix of the different species requires less nitrogen fertilizer, less water, is more resistant to diseases and pests, and provides a more hospitable environment for beneficial insects.
Some tips from the EPA:

Composting is one of the best things you can do. It takes kitchen and yard waste that would otherwise go into a landfill or be incinerated and turns it into an amazing fertilizer for your lawn or garden. If you’d like to try your hand and building your own composter, check out the website below. If you want to buy an already assembled backyard compost bin, you can find bins and tumblers in almost every home and garden store, as well as online.

Our lawns, or lack thereof, have finally emerged from under piles of dirty gray snow. But before you get out the fertilizer and lime, make sure you really need them. A test will tell you how much nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and lime your soil needs to grow healthy plants. Depending on the condition of the soil, you may not even need to apply these nutrients. Contact your local Cooperative Extension office – (877) 398-4769 – or garden supply center for a soil test kit.