How Well Did Your Lawn Survive the Last Hot, Dry Spell?

 

As the highest temperatures in the nation hit the midwestern states this week, it will quickly be evident how many people made use of the best lawn care advice. While everyone’s yard can look great when it is raining a lot and the temperatures remain fairly moderate, it is only the home owners and property managers who have invested in the best lawn care practices who will still have a green lawn at the end of a week of record high temperatures and no rain.
Whether you are looking for organic lawn care products or you are simply looking for a way to implement more environmentally responsible lawn care services on your property, local horticulturists can often give you the best advice. And while some people want to be able to take care of all of the work on their own yards, others are satisfied to hire specially trained professionals to do the job.

• The front lawns of eight average homes have the cooling effect of about 70 tons, or 68 metric tons, of air conditioning. The average home size central air conditioning system, on the other hand, only has a 3 to 4 ton capacity, or 2.7 to 3.9 metric tons.
• Home value is noticeably increased with a well kept yard and landscaping. In fact, as part of a well maintained landscape, turfgrass alone can increases a home?s property value by 15% to 20%.
• Environmentally friendly lawn care products can still provide beautiful lush lawns, while not having dangerous chemicals running off into the street.






• Grass plants by weight are 75% to 80% water.
• Resaearch shows that turfgrass actually helps control pollution by trapping an estimated 12 million tons, 10.9 million metric tons, of dust and dirt from being released in the U.S. atmosphere a year.
• A sustainable landscaping presentation by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) showed that watering lawns accounts for 30% to 60% of summer month water consumption.
• Short watering sessions are not as good for your yard as longer ones which help the roots grow longer.
• Sadly, 40-60% of nitrogen fertilizer runs off or leaches away, meaning that this can end up in surface of ground water, including wells.






• In a well maintained, thick 10,000 square foot lawn there will be 6 turf plants for every square inch and 850 turf plants every square foot, combining for a total of 8.5 million turf plants.
• Services can provide everything from mowing to fertilizer treatment to aeration services.






• A healthy, dense lawn prevents runoff, and can effectively absorb as much as six times more rainfall than a wheat field, and four times better than a hay field.
• Lush lawns show neighbors that the home owners care about their property.
• Windy days can make water waste even more intense.
• Approximately 60 to 70 million birds die each year from pesticide poisoning in the US alone.
• You can make the decision today to use more earth friendly products on your lawn, your landscaping, and your trees.
• Saving grass clippings can help you provide a natural fertilizer for your garden.






• Grass that is left a little longer, usually between two and a half and three and a half inches, typically improves the health of a lawn.
• Research indicates that somewhere between 30 and 40 million acres of land in the U.S. are devoted to turfgrass.
• Estimates indicate that Americans collectively spend as much as $40 billion a year on sod, seed, and chemicals.
• Environmental research indicates that 70 million pounds of pesticides, including herbicides, are applied to U.S. lawns every year. This is approximately ten times the amount applied to American farmland, when acre to acre comparisons are made.
• New home owners often have to follow very specific watering directions for sod that has just been laid.
• Every home owner can make the decision to have a lawn that is at least as nice looking as any of the other surrounding homes.
• Ready to make sure that your lawn is ready for all of that Mother Nature has to offer?