Lawn Care Month & Earth Day

April is National Lawn Care Month; yes, that really is a thing. April is also the home of Earth Day. Let’s chat how the two of them go hand in hand in terms of making our planet a healthier, happier place to live.

We at Weed Man are committed to helping to make a more beautiful and sustainable planet through the work we do. That’s why we have hosted educational field trips with EPA scientists to discuss innovations and best practices to move initiatives such as sustainability and pollinator protection forward.

Lawns too often get a bad rap; blamed for all manner of things that tend to stem from both misunderstanding and poor care practices. Like so many things, how you use or care for something has a major impact on how it plays into the things around it. Treat something badly and you’ll never see its true potential.

Managed correctly, lawns are powerful environmental filters, absorbing literally tons of airborne and water borne pollutants. Lawns help to rebuild depleted soils by pulling carbon dioxide from the air and sequestering it into the soil as organic matter as clippings. They also help to lower the air temperature around homes thus reducing cooling bills.

Believe it or not, properly managed lawns do more than absorb stormwater – they actually clean it. What you may not be aware of is that stormwater; especially from summer thunderstorms can contain substantial amounts of dissolved nutrients. That says nothing about nutrients and sediment that can be picked up when the water runs across bare soil or poorly secured ground. Healthy lawns both slow this rain water allowing it to more effectively absorb into the soil but lawns also actively grab the nutrients as a food source. Studies have repeatedly shown that properly managed lawns are net absorbers of nutrients rather than sources of pollution. To put it another way, your properly managed lawn is cleaning the water that flows across your property before making its way to the rivers and streams.

To further make this point, grass is routinely used as buffer strips in agriculture or in stormwater retention ponds specifically because of its ability to manage stormwater and resultant pollutants.

Now that we’ve talked about some of the benefits of laws, lets discuss how we can enhance the benefits while reducing the inputs.

One of the most important things you can do to green (pun intended) your lawn is to raise your mowing height. Anyone who has been a Weed Man customer has undoubtedly heard us talk about the importance of mowing height when it comes to maintaining both the health of your lawn and its need for water and resistance to weeds and pests.

For the mid-Atlantic region, you don’t want to mow your fescue lawn any shorter than a 3” finish height or remove more than 30% of the blade length in a single mowing. Taller mowing heights allow the plant to push their roots deeper and lower soil surface temperatures which reduces water loss and allows your lawn to find more water and nutrients on its own. As a reference point, my home lawn is mowed no shorter than 4.25” year-round (fescue) and has had a drop of supplemental water in four years. 

Other tools for reducing your environmental impact:

Sharpen your mower blade. It doesn’t matter what fuels your mower, battery, gas or a turkey sandwich (for manual reel mowers). Sharper blades take less energy to cut through the grass; they’re also less stressful to the plant in addition to saving fuel. For most people, sharpen your blades twice a year.

If you’re using a gas-powered mower, be sure to have the engine tuned regularly. Clean engines and filters produce cleaner emissions. 

Don’t bag your clippings. If you’re mowing the lawn correctly there is simply no need. Moreover, returning the clippings to the lawn is part of the carbon sequestration/transfer cycle and both builds soil health and reduces nutrient needs for the lawn.

Aerate the lawn annually. Aeration stimulates new root development and improves microbial life in the soil. Literally one of the most important things you can do to enhance lawn performance.

If you need to water, water smart. Longer less frequent waterings encourage deeper root development and reduces weed germination.

Consider swapping out your gas-powered mower for an electric or autonomous mower when it’s time to replace your existing mower. The technology isn’t there for all applications yet, but it’s making some impressive improvements.

We’re strong believers of right plant right place. If you have areas in your property that are super shaded or tend to dry out in the summer, consider replacing grass in those areas with plants more suited to those growing conditions. Trying to force plants to live in areas they struggle is both inefficient and may well be a poor use of resources.