Using Lawn Fertilizers Without Damaging The Environment

Using Lawn Fertilizers Without Damaging The Environment
By Steven Garrett

We've all seen an increase in pollution over the past few decades in many areas of our lives. One of the most noted and reported pollution epidemics has been around our waterways, where many rivers, creeks and lakes have been overcome with toxic algal blooms which can kill many forms of water life. In reporting of these major health issues with our waterways, the blame for such problems has been squarely put onto the use of fertilizer products, and most notably the Phosphate in fertilizers as the cause of algal blooms and other environmental damage. Sadly this is true, but it is not the full story. As a result of these new revelations, many homeowners have switched to Phosphate free fertilizers so as to responsibly minimize their own environmental impact while caring for their lawns. While this is commendable, the truth really does lay in the fact that most of this damage from excessive use of Phosphate is coming from the Agriculture industry, and not the homeowner.

Which in turn has led many lawns to be deprived of one of the major nutrients it needs to survive and flourish, and with very little reason. Phosphate is the major nutrient needed by all plants for root development, and in depriving our lawns of this nutrient, our lawns will naturally lower in their health, will become more prone to damage during times of drought due to a weak root system, will become more prone to diseases and weeds and pests during its weakened state. At which time the lawn will need applications of damaging pesticides and herbicides, and so the problems continue to compound.

With this in mind, we would like to flip all the latest trends on their heads, and instead look to use fertilizers properly and responsibly with the result of a healthy strong lawn, which is naturally resistant to weeds pests and diseases, and without any excess runoff of nutrients from our home lawns.

Fertilizing Lawns Properly

The only time in which nutrients can runoff from lawns and into the open environment is when they are used excessively. This is because once a lawn has taken in all the nutrients it possibly can from our fertilizers, it will simply refuse to uptake any more nutrients. The result is that the excess nutrients are washed away into the open environment, at which point they can indeed become damaging.

With this in mind, its time to fertilize our lawns properly from now on.

Firstly we should look to buy a high quality fertilizer which contains a healthy balance of both major and macro nutrients. We should also measure up our lawns properly to know the exact area of turf we have. Once our lawns are correctly measured we must then read the manufacturers application rates for their fertilizer products, and then only ever apply our fertilizers at these rates. When we're reading the fertilizer packaging, we'll also notice instructions of how often the fertilizer should be applied throughout the year. With these instructions, we now know how much fertilizer to use, and at what frequencies the product needs to be applied to the turf. And by following these instructions we will never over-fertilize our lawns, and never have any nutrient runoff.

Each fertilizer product can be very different in their application rates and application frequency rates, so we cannot give a one size fits all approach to fertilizing properly. However, if we still have reservations about fertilizers and would like to lower our use even further, then this too can safely be done. Instead of using the full application rate of fertilizer, we simply use 75% of the recommended application rate, which is still enough nutrients to maintain a healthy strong lawn.

In recapping our main points, we can now see that environmental damage from fertilizers arises from the overuse of these products, the lawns or plants cannot uptake all the nutrients, and so they runoff. We also know that a lawn which is not properly cared with added fertilizers for will develop many other problems which then need much more damaging toxic treatments to cure weeds, pests and diseases. And finally, we can now see that we can avoid all these potential problems by using fertilizers properly and responsibly for the greatest possible lawn health with no damaging environmental impacts.

Steven Garrett is a turf professional with over 10 years experience in the field of lawn care. With these many years of experience, backed up by training and ongoing research. Steve now shares his knowledge with readers on The Lawn Guide, including turf reviews such as Buffalo Grass, as well as the ever popular article Couch Grass, plus many more original lawn care topics for homeowners wanting a beautiful home lawn.

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