Lawn Care and Stormwater
Keep your lawn green and the water blue. Using too much fertilizer and other lawn care products can cause water pollution. The same rain that helps turn your lawn green also washes excess fertilizers, pesticides, and other pollutants into the nearest creek, turning the water green, or worse. Much of it makes its way downstream to the Chesapeake Bay. Have your soil tested to determine how much fertilizer you really need. And use lawn care products as instructed on the product labels. Less is always more when it comes to water quality. |
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Fertilizer Fertilizer is a pollutant when it is washed off lawns and gardens into streams, rivers and other bodies of water. Fertilizer consists of plant nutrients that help plants grow and reproduce. In the water these nutrients feed naturally occurring algae and can lead to massive algae blooms, particularly during the warm summer months. An algae bloom is an explosion in the algae population that turns the water green, shutting out sunlight needed by bottom-growing plants and leading to oxygen depletion that kills fish, oysters, crabs and other aquatic creatures. How does Fertilizer Cause Fish Kills? It might seem strange that an overabundance of plants (algae) can cause a reduction in the amount of oxygen available to other aquatic organisms. There are two ways that algae blooms remove oxygen from the water.
Responsible Use of Fertilizer The best way to prevent water pollution by fertilizer is to apply no more fertilizer than can actually be used by the plants you are tending. Some practices which will limit the amount of fertilizer available to be washed into stormdrains and streams are:
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Other Lawn Care Products Much of what applies for fertilizers applies equally well to other lawn care products such as pesticides and weed killers. Follow the instructions which accompany the product and take care not to over apply. Herbicides in the class of RoundUp should be applied on a sunny day, as the harmful components in the product break down very quickly in sunlight. Be very careful not to apply RoundUp and similar herbicides near a stream or pond as the substance does not break down in water and is particularly harmful to aquatic organisms such as frogs. |
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Mowing the Lawn Don't cut your grass too short. Leaving grass at least 2 or 3 inches tall is better for the health of a lawn. Keeping a lawn even longer helps prevent erosion, filters out pollutants that can be washed into storm drains and streams and keeps it healthier during the drier and hotter days of summer. Leaving grass clippings on a lawn reduces the need for fertilizer and reduces the amount of waste disposed of in landfills. |
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Read Your Weeds: A Simple Guide to Creating a Healthy Lawn Complete with a chart of various weeds that can help you diagnose any deficiencies affecting your lawn, this pdf document discusses the most common problems and the best way to solve them in an environmentally friendly manner. | |
A Virginian's Year Around Guide to Lawn Care (3.3 MB) Tips and techniques for healthy gardens. Published by the Department of Conservation and Recreation and the chesapeake Bay Program. | |
Poster & Flyers | |
Large Lawn Care Poster
(22" W x 32" H 1.5MB) |
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