Caring for your Lawn in an Environmentally Friendly Way
Picture a healthy green lawn: perfect for lounging, great for cookouts and playing games with the kids and grandkids, a real asset to your home. But did you know that your lawn - and how you care for it - can also benefit the environment?
Healthy grass provides a home for insects and worms that provide a rich feeding ground for birds. Thick grass prevents soil erosion, filters contaminants from rainwater and absorbs many types of airborne pollutants. Grass is also highly efficient at converting carbon dioxide to oxygen, a process that helps clean the air. Caring for your lawn properly can both enhance its appearance, improve its health, and support its benefits to the environment.
You don't have to be an expert to grow a healthy lawn. The secret is to work with nature. This means creating conditions for grass to thrive so that it can resist damage from weeds, disease, and insect pests. Organic or regular fertilizers can offer an answer. A well fertilized lawn can do two things: (1) keep weeds at bay by fleshing out turf and leaving less open spaces for weed seeds to germinate, plus (2) it tolerates better the presence of destructive lawn insects, such as grubs or chinch bugs. Keep your lawn healthy by feeding it well, and you won't need to use pesticides as frequently.
It means setting realistic goals for your lawn, whether you do the work yourself or use a professional lawn care service. And if you choose to use pesticides, it means using them with care and with strict attention to the manufacturers' instructions on the label so as to get the most benefit and reduce any risks.
Caring for your lawn in an environmentally sensible way can have a bigger impact than you might think. Your lawn is only a small piece of land, but all the lawns across the country cover a lot of territory. That means that you and your lawn care activities, in collaboration with everyone else's, can make a difference to the environment. That's why taking care of the environment begins in our own backyards.
|
» Crop Inputs Home
|