Sustainable Lawns
The following techniques and recommendations will help either the do-it-yourselfer or your lawn service maintain a healthy lawn in a way that reduces greenhouse gases and decreases water usage and reliance on chemical fertilizers and pesticides. When working with a lawn care service let them know in advance what your expectations are in the use of chemicals and equipment. Depending on the health of your lawn, some amendments may not be needed as frequently as your lawn service provides. Over-application of fertilizers and pesticides can be detrimental to the environment, your pets and family, as well as a waste of money. Don’t be shy about asking whether a treatment is really needed.
Mowing
Collection, transporting, and disposing of leaves is COSTLY, when they can instead be used to recycle nutrients back into your yard.
Composting
Composted kitchen and yard waste make excellent fertilizers for both your lawn and gardens, and reduces your need for commercial fertilizers. Ask your lawn service if they can build a compost bin, and have them deposit all lawn and garden waste into it.
Mowing
- Ask your lawn service if they can use electric or alternative fuels (propane or biodiesel) equipment. Some companies will use your electric mower in lieu of their own equipment.
- Ask your lawn service to cut with a mulching mower. Instead of collecting clippings, a mulching mower deposits finely chopped clippings on your lawn, recycling nutrients back into the lawn and reducing the need for additional feeding (and leaf collection).
- Ask your lawn service to add excess clippings to your compost pile. In spring and fall, when grass grows faster, there may be too much to leave on the lawn. Collect the clippings and compost them.
- Cut your grass a little higher in dry weather to withstand drought. Be sure your lawn service does not cut the lawn shorter than 3 inches, and ask them to skip a week if it has been very dry with little growth in your lawn. Ask them to decrease mowing frequency in the fall, after grass growth has slowed.
- Feeding is not an annual necessity. If your lawn is healthy, feeding only encourages more grass growth and more mowing. If needed apply organic fertilizers in early spring.
- Treatment for grubs is not necessary if they are not a problem. If they are present, ask your lawn service to use organic remedies.
- De-thatch with a rake in early fall and reseed bare patches.
- Aerating is best performed in early fall once every 3 years on healthy lawns. Top dressing should be done after aeration. Fine leaf mold or garden compost mixed with loam and sand make a good mix for the clay soils found in our area.
- Hand-pull weeds. Mowing grass too short makes your lawn more susceptible to weeds.
Collection, transporting, and disposing of leaves is COSTLY, when they can instead be used to recycle nutrients back into your yard.
- Leaves make excellent insulation for over-wintering your garden and add nutrients back into the beds. Ask your lawn service to place the leaves over your flowerbeds and around cold-sensitive plants and bushes.
- You can reduce the volume of leaf waste to 1/10 by shredding the leaves with a mulching mower. Ask your lawn service rake the leaves into a less maintained area of your yard and mow over them. The remaining leaf mulch can be composted or used as winter mulch.
- Ground wood mulch can be obtained for free from the Village of Wilmette Public Works yard. If you have new construction and need mulch to protect trees or new landscape projects, ask your contractor to use the free mulch and save money.
Composting
Composted kitchen and yard waste make excellent fertilizers for both your lawn and gardens, and reduces your need for commercial fertilizers. Ask your lawn service if they can build a compost bin, and have them deposit all lawn and garden waste into it.
Eco Lawn Care Guide from SWANCC
Gas-Powered Lawn Maintenance Equipment
Garden equipment engines emit high levels of carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, and nitrogen oxides, producing up to 5% of the nation's air pollution and a good deal more in metropolitan areas.
One gas mower sends 87 pounds of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide and 54 pounds of other pollutants into the air every year.
One gas mower running for an hour emits the same amount of pollutants as eight new cars driving 55 mph for the same amount of time, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Over 17 million gallons of gas are spilled each year refueling lawn and garden equipment; more oil than was spilled by the Exxon Valdez.
Americans burn 800 million gallons of gas each year trimming their grassy yards, according to the EPA.
Gas-powered lawn equipment used during the hot summer months contributes to ground level ozone when it is the highest, which causes problems for asthmatics and aggravates other respiratory conditions.
(Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency)
If just 20% of US homeowners switched to electric mowers, 84,000 fewer tons of carbon monoxide would be emitted into the air each year, saving the average user 73% in total energy costs. (Source: www.greenseal.org/resources/reports/CGR_carpet.pdf)
Lawn Treatment
Three million tons of fertilizers are used on lawns annually.
If grass clippings were left on lawns, we would need 50% less fertilizer.
30 thousand tons of synthetic pesticides are used on lawns annually.
The average homeowner uses ten times more pesticides per acre than the average farmer.
Of the 32 pesticides routinely used by a major lawn service company:
http://www.nicholas.duke.edu/thegreengrok/lawns)
Lawn Leaf collection
If Park Ridge residents composted even a portion of the leaves from their yards, the cost for pickup could be significantly lower, benefiting taxpayers and increasing the amount of compost that can be used in place of fertilizers.
Garden equipment engines emit high levels of carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, and nitrogen oxides, producing up to 5% of the nation's air pollution and a good deal more in metropolitan areas.
One gas mower sends 87 pounds of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide and 54 pounds of other pollutants into the air every year.
One gas mower running for an hour emits the same amount of pollutants as eight new cars driving 55 mph for the same amount of time, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Over 17 million gallons of gas are spilled each year refueling lawn and garden equipment; more oil than was spilled by the Exxon Valdez.
Americans burn 800 million gallons of gas each year trimming their grassy yards, according to the EPA.
Gas-powered lawn equipment used during the hot summer months contributes to ground level ozone when it is the highest, which causes problems for asthmatics and aggravates other respiratory conditions.
(Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency)
If just 20% of US homeowners switched to electric mowers, 84,000 fewer tons of carbon monoxide would be emitted into the air each year, saving the average user 73% in total energy costs. (Source: www.greenseal.org/resources/reports/CGR_carpet.pdf)
Lawn Treatment
Three million tons of fertilizers are used on lawns annually.
If grass clippings were left on lawns, we would need 50% less fertilizer.
30 thousand tons of synthetic pesticides are used on lawns annually.
The average homeowner uses ten times more pesticides per acre than the average farmer.
Of the 32 pesticides routinely used by a major lawn service company:
- 13% are known or suspected endocrine disrupters
- 22% are known or suspected reproductive toxins
- 41% include ingredients that are banned or restricted in other countries
- 53% include possible carcinogens
- 100% pose a threat to the environment, including water supplies, aquatic organisms, and non-targeted insects.
http://www.nicholas.duke.edu/thegreengrok/lawns)
Lawn Leaf collection
If Park Ridge residents composted even a portion of the leaves from their yards, the cost for pickup could be significantly lower, benefiting taxpayers and increasing the amount of compost that can be used in place of fertilizers.
Keep those leaves!
This is the time of year for raking leaves and cutting back in the garden. Keep those leaves, grass clippings, and plants to enrich your soil next year. You don't have to buy a composting container. Simply start with a pile in your backyard. Turn it several times throughout each season and have great compost someday. For more information on composting, visit http://www.howtocompost.org/
Watering 101
Remember these simple tips when watering!
1. More delicate plants, including any new trees, shrubs, perennials or seed/sod that you’ve planted this year, typically require more moisture than more mature plants. That said, it doesn’t matter what plant you have: keep in mind that you should water plants, shrubs, trees or lawns when needed. What does that mean? For annual and perennial plants, check them on a regular (even daily) basis to see if they look healthy and gauge the moisture in the soil. If the dirt is dry, cracked or crumbly and you haven’t watered in a while or experienced a good rainfall, then water. You can also dig right in with your finger or a trowel and check the soil 3 to 4 inches below the surface to determine moisture.
2. Many experts recommend watering in the morning. It’s not only a pleasant time of day to be out in the garden, but if you go a little overboard, the plants or lawn have the extra daylight and warmth to dry out a bit. Automatic timers are a handy tool for today’s busy gardeners, but if there have been several days of regular rainfall, as there has been this summer, you should hold back or tweak the timer accordingly. Excessive watering can make your trees/shrubs become dependent on irrigation rather than resilient enough to survive on what nature provides
3. Adjust your watering time and amounts by the depth of the plants. Annuals, like geraniums and petunias, generally have roots down to about six inches. Perennials, shrubs and trees have roots that extend down as much as 12 inches. So it can take longer for the water to get down deeper for those varieties. Soaker hoses work well for watering trees and shrubs and tend to more efficient than overhead sprinklers. Mulching around trees and shrubs will also help conserve moisture (and keep weeds away). Avoid placing mulch against the trunk as this will help avoid rot
1. More delicate plants, including any new trees, shrubs, perennials or seed/sod that you’ve planted this year, typically require more moisture than more mature plants. That said, it doesn’t matter what plant you have: keep in mind that you should water plants, shrubs, trees or lawns when needed. What does that mean? For annual and perennial plants, check them on a regular (even daily) basis to see if they look healthy and gauge the moisture in the soil. If the dirt is dry, cracked or crumbly and you haven’t watered in a while or experienced a good rainfall, then water. You can also dig right in with your finger or a trowel and check the soil 3 to 4 inches below the surface to determine moisture.
2. Many experts recommend watering in the morning. It’s not only a pleasant time of day to be out in the garden, but if you go a little overboard, the plants or lawn have the extra daylight and warmth to dry out a bit. Automatic timers are a handy tool for today’s busy gardeners, but if there have been several days of regular rainfall, as there has been this summer, you should hold back or tweak the timer accordingly. Excessive watering can make your trees/shrubs become dependent on irrigation rather than resilient enough to survive on what nature provides
3. Adjust your watering time and amounts by the depth of the plants. Annuals, like geraniums and petunias, generally have roots down to about six inches. Perennials, shrubs and trees have roots that extend down as much as 12 inches. So it can take longer for the water to get down deeper for those varieties. Soaker hoses work well for watering trees and shrubs and tend to more efficient than overhead sprinklers. Mulching around trees and shrubs will also help conserve moisture (and keep weeds away). Avoid placing mulch against the trunk as this will help avoid rot
Keep Safe From Pesticides
Children encounter pesticides everyday and are uniquely vulnerable to their toxicity. Prenatal and early childhood exposure to pesticide is associated with pediatric cancers, decreased cognitive function, and behavioral problems. Americans use more than a billion pounds of pesticide each year on farm crops and lawns, in homes, schools, parks, hospitals, and public spaces. Source: American Academy of Pediatrics, US Environmental Protection Agency
