But also, your organic fertilizer….!
Lawn fertilizer, yes even your organic fertilizer…either way it’s most likely the same ingredients - nitrogen and phosphorus. Nitrogen and phosphorus are naturally occurring elements that already occur in grass and plants. Adding more of them (to a point) obviously can help. But it’s kind of like taking a multivitamin..if you take too many vitamins you just pee out all the extra nutrients your body doesn’t need… making for really expensive urine. What’s the big deal? Keeping with this analogy…your lawn essentially pees out those extra nutrients into our water system making more vitamins for other water sources which leads to…you got it! Increased growth of algae in the water, which coupled with the increased temperature = bacteria in the water. (Yes, some of the bacterial overload can be caused by other sources: pet waste, agricultural runoff, faulty septics etc).
More and more areas are closed for bacterial overload (both a local and global ever increasing issue) For up to date information check out the mass.gov for beach closures. But please note, they are not testing non public swimming areas as frequently, if at all. Lawn issue #1. (want to learn more about algae blooms and dead zones??)
I know lots of people are obsessed with their lawns but it’s one of the biggest problems that we have in preserving our eco system, but also for people who like swimming in the water....and if you like economic arguments, tourism industry.… my thought is that either you pay somebody to do your lawn maintenance (and I can assure you 99.9% of them are fertilizing your lawn so it looks perfect because you’re paying them a lot of money and they want to keep your business) OR you just don’t know, OR you’re trying to do good and so you switched to some organic lawn care or one of those subscription lawn care things but in reality you’re just paying for really expensive lawn care pee.
Other lawn issues that we won’t go into too much depth since this was mostly a fertilizer rant… #2 water. Lawns are also supposed to go dormant when it’s really hot so you have to spend tons of money and waste water on that…. (In Hanover, folks can’t put in new irrigation systems unless you have a well….what drives me nuts about that is that is that it’s the same freaking water table …)
And #3 well it’s just wasted space. Nonnative grasses don’t provide any “value” to the habitat. It doesn’t feed us or the many species around us.
Okay sooo now what?
Easiest and cheapest “fertilizer” …instead of dumping your grass clippings, mulch your grass and you’re leaving basically the stuff you grew (“for free”) there to provide the excess nitrogen that you need. And cut it on a higher setting. Need actual fertilizer? Use fish emulsion. We like this from Neptune's Harvest. You can grab it online and give more money to Jeff Bezos, but if you live locally they sell it at Gardener's Choice in Pembroke, Devine Feed and Pet in Norwell, and I'm sure most other garden/feed centers. When my husband uses this indoors do I curse him for a day? Sure, it smells when used indoors, but it goes away in a day.
Another option is clover. I like clover because it doesn’t leave pee spots from dogs. It’s also pure nitrogen. Micro clover is super nice but it’s also super expensive (doesn’t flower like the other clover, stays super compact). We like to have some “lawn” for running around and playing soccer so this has worked well for us. Other lawn has been replaced.
Lots of lawn alternatives also exist…if you really want to go wild you can plant some native wildflowers or ground cover, or food!
So do yourself a favor and just say no to the miracle gro! 😱
As always, we have an abundance of great local resources to make these shifts….
NSRWA: https://www.nsrwa.org/get-watersmart/greenscapes/
South Shore Permaculture: https://southshorepermaculture.com/
Blue stem Natives: https://www.bluestemnatives.com/
South Shore Wildones: https://southshorema.wildones.org/
Soooo what should we do about the golf courses? 😅
Photo credits of local algae blooms from George Stanchfield, local garden guru.