Lawns are literally an obsession for many in the world, especially the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and Australia. One problem in our modern society is the environmental and sometimes financial impacts that the pursuit for the perfect lawn can sustain. Nearly 40 million acres of land in the United States is devoted to grass and Americans spend about $40 billion annually on lawn care products. Close to 70 million pounds of pesticides and herbicides are applied to lawns in the United States every year. That amounts to nearly ten times the product sprayed on farmland. In 2004, it was estimated that 70 million tons of fertilizer was used in the United States on lawns per year. That is insane!
Most of the money that is spent on lawn products ends up helping in superficial ways, degrades the soil, pollutes water, and in extreme cases can even endanger humans, pets and other wildlife. Most of the conventional fertilizers and pesticides are well-documented as to the negative environmental effects that they sustain.
We aren’t advocating the quack science that these global warming nuts are promoting, but we are propagating a message of good stewardship towards our environment. One step towards that goal is to adhere to organic lawn care principles and products such as organic fertilizer.
We also hate to be a downer on lawns because they do have benefits to the environment like muffling noise pollution such as traffic and they actually reduce carbon dioxide levels. They also work great as filters removing pollutants from the air and not to mention one of the greatest places for kids to play safely. When you go organic, it doesn’t mean that you have to give up a beautiful lawn. You just have to be more attentive when tending the lawn than before and use other means for killing dandelion weeds than herbicides. It also means choosing the best type of lawn for your area so that you use the least amount of water and products to keep it healthy.