You may have heard of environmentally responsible lawn care, and wondered if you should look into it for your own backyard. If you have kids or pets, you may be thinking of reducing the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. You may also be aware of the harmful impact of chemical lawn care products on small creatures – earthworms, bees, birds, frogs and bats. On the other side of the scale, you want to have a healthy green lawn. The good news is that you can do both: use organic lawn care and have a healthy green lawn.
Lawns: the benefits
Being ecologically conscious doesn’t mean giving up the green turf where your kids and pets love to play. With environmentally responsible lawn care services, you can have a naturally healthy lawn that is better for you and your family, pets and the environment.
Lawns provide natural climate control, keeping your home and its surroundings cooler in the summer. They help to control pollution and prevent soil erosion. Consider the benefits of a lawn:
- Your lawn provides natural climate control, with a cooling effect that can only be matched by 70 tons of air conditioning. An average central air conditioning system has a capacity of only 3 to 4 tons.
- Lawns prevent soil erosion and run-offs by absorbing rainfall. They absorb six times more water than wheat fields and four times more than hay fields.
- Like all green, growing plants, lawns reduce pollution by trapping the dust, dirt and harmful emissions released into the atmosphere.
- A well-kept lawn adds to the value of a home, increasing it by 15 to 20 %.
Avoiding harmful chemicals
However, while lawns can be highly beneficial, the chemical fertilizers and pesticides used to maintain them are not. They have been shown to have harmful impacts on the creatures that share the world with us, endangering everything from humble earthworms to brilliant songbirds.
When it comes to harmful pesticides, lawns in the U.S. actually use more than ten times per acre than is used on farms. Further, as much as 40-60% of nitrogen from the fertilizer used on lawn and farms ends up in the water – surface water in the form of streams, rivers and oceans as well as in ground water.
Environmentally responsible lawn care allows you to enjoy all the benefits of a green, healthy lawn without harming the natural world. Natural pest control methods and organic fertilizer can help you create a beautiful lawn than is also safe for your family and pets.
