What works for your lawns depends on your area, soil, and type of grass, so there are specific tips - I would recommend calling your Master Gardener hotline in your county (you can get numbers from google - Oregon numbers are here) and asking them for a natural lawn care regime.
In general, its sound advice anywhere to:
- leave clippings on the lawn
- add 1 inch of compost (fine is needed) over dethatched lawn (if dethatching is needed) in the Spring and the Fall. I use a product called Garden Mulch that is a very fine blend of half compost with other amendments and rake it thickly over my lawn. This provides nitrogen over time, so you may need to continue with a more immediate release organic fertilizer to start with.
- use corn gluten meal to prevent approx 2/3 of weed seed germination - this also provides nitrogen (slow-release) fertilizer so is an added bonus.
- try an eco-friendly lawn mix: Many eco friendly lawn mixes are now available that include clover (which fixes nitrogen in the soil and can provide up to 50% of your lawn's nitrogen needs!) along with other perennials even herbs such as chamomile.
- dig any perennial weeds (make dandelion coffee with the roots as long as you havent sprayed!)
- water deeply once a week when rainfall is insufficient (one inch of water per week is all that most lawns need so set out a tuna can somewhere and only water once a week if its empty). The good think about having clover in your lawn mix is that it stays green even with little water!
Hope that helps!