Lawn Care Ideas
Are you thinking twice about growing large lawns in this day and age of $3-per-gallon gas? When you think of lawn care and its impact on energy sources, the act of mowing the grass is probably what comes to mind first. Traditional lawn care, in fact, consumes oil and natural gas in numerous ways:
Each
year, a family with a one-third-acre lawn will:
a) consume five
gallons of gas for mowing and trimming;
b) apply the equivalent of seven gallons for fertilizing;
c) burn up to five gallons for watering; and
d) consume an additional gallon for cleanup.
That's 18 gallons of fuel per household. With 120 million U.S. households, that's the equivalent of almost 2.2 billion gallons of fuel used for lawn care each year.
What are some alternatives?
Mowing - Use an electric or non-powered push mower. An electric mower maintaining one-third of an acre for a season consumes only $3 of electricity on average. Electric mowers are 75 percent quieter than gas mowers. Push mowers, of course, consume no fuel and make little noise.
Watering - Avoid large lawns in areas with water
shortages. Grow drought-tolerant grasses or other groundcovers. Save rainwater and gray water. Water deeply once per week on average, rather than frequently.
Fertilizing - Use natural, organic fertilizers not derived from fossil fuels. Recycle grass clippings, mow higher and mix 5 percent clover into your lawn seed.
Cleanup - Compost everything. All yard wastes can go into compost piles.
Seed Mix - Consider “No – Mow” grass mixture when reseeding lawns. No-Mow Mix forms a dense turf, thrives in both sun or partial shade. It requires little or no mowing. Little water or fertilizer needed after established. Biologically reduces weed growth, reduces lawn maintenance dramatically.
Source: email from Gary Fish, Maine Board of Pesticides Control http://www.thinkfirstspraylast.org referring to information from Paul Tukey and PPPlants and Safe Lawns, http://www.safelawns.org/
and No-Mow Mix, Prairie Nursery, 800-476-9453 http://www.prairienursery.com/