Over a week has passed since the vernal equinox, daylight savings time begins on Sunday, there’s still three feet of snow in my front yard, March madness will not end until April second and if your phone is ringing, don’t answer it.
Chances are, the person at the other end of the ringing phone is a telemarketer, wanting to sell you lawn care service. And why not? Your back is aching and your hands are blistered from shoveling all that late-winter snow, who wants to consider hours of sunburn while out tending the lawn?
Of course, you worry about all those chemicals, but did you know lawn care is actually good for the environment? Yep, according to a press release posted at the Professional Lawn Care Association of America’s web site, 625 square feet of lawn provides enough oxygen for a person for an entire day. That has to be a good thing, right? Well –- what the lawn care professionals neglect to mention is that grass is best at producing oxygen when it’s left to grow two to three feet high, and I’m not sure your neighbors would go for that. And if you’re not going to let your grass grow, your lawn care professional will probably cut it down with a gasoline-driven power mower. Those engines are terribly inefficient and produce far more air pollution per horsepower than cars or trucks.
But let’s say the phone is still ringing and your back is still aching. All you have to do is pick up that receiver, fork over some cash, and let someone else worry about your lawn this summer. It’s up to you, don’t let that guy on WebActive do your thinking for you, but if you hire the lawn service, here’s what you’ll get. For between $500-$600, a lawn care company will visit your yard an average of 10 times during the season and spray chemicals on it. First and foremost is nitrogen-based fertilizer. Lawn care companies usually apply four to six pounds of fertilizer per 1,000 square feet of lawn. That’s about twice as much as the lawn needs, but by over-fertilizing, the grass will green up quickly in the days following application, which makes the customer think he or she is getting good value. There are, however, downsides. Nitrogen runoff to surface water is a serious problem in the U.S. Here in the Champlain Valley, urban areas contribute 13 times as much nitrogen pollution per acre as farmland. Second, over-fertilizing your lawn causes abundant growth of grass roots and leaves, which die and leave a thick thatch which must be removed in the autumn – at additional cost – or new grass will not be able to push through next spring.
Beside fertilizer, lawn care companies spray weed killer – usually a toxic herbicide, perhaps 2,4-D, one of the ingredients in Agent Orange. They’ll come and spray it ten times a year, even though botanists agree that once killed, lawn weeds will not reappear for several years. The people who own lawn care companies, on the other hand, cannot afford that third or fourth car unless you, the customer, are in full crabgrass paranoia. The same goes for insecticides. There are very few lawns in suburban America that have any kind of insect problem, but the lawn care people charge for what they do and not for what they don’t, so they come around and spray diazinon and chlorpyrifos, which will kill not only fleas and chinch bugs, but beneficial insects which eat leaves and improve the soil.
Consumer affairs bureaus are full of complaints about lawn care companies, because they may advertise a 14-point lawn evaluation program, but the bottom line is they hire people who are willing to accept six dollars an hour to spray toxic chemicals without any protective clothing. Protective clothing for the employees creates a negative image, bad for business.
If, in the end, your lawn does not look good, the lawn care company will point out that you, the homeowner, failed to do the three things needed to make their treatments work. 1) Water the grass frequently, 2) Cut the grass frequently and 3) Cut the grass no lower than three inches high.
On the other hand, if you want an all-natural, non-chemical lawn, experts suggest you 1) Water the grass frequently, 2) Cut the grass frequently and 3) Cut the grass no lower than three inches high.
Green, As in Greenback
Over a week has passed since the vernal equinox, daylight savings time begins on Sunday, there’s still three feet of snow in my front yard, March madness will not end until April second and if your phone is ringing, don’t answer it.
Chances are, the person at the other end of the ringing phone is a telemarketer, wanting to sell you lawn care service. And why not? Your back is aching and your hands are blistered from shoveling all that late-winter snow, who wants to consider hours of sunburn while out tending the lawn?
Of course, you worry about all those chemicals, but did you know lawn care is actually good for the environment? Yep, according to a press release posted at the Professional Lawn Care Association of America’s web site, 625 square feet of lawn provides enough oxygen for a person for an entire day. That has to be a good thing, right? Well –- what the lawn care professionals neglect to mention is that grass is best at producing oxygen when it’s left to grow two to three feet high, and I’m not sure your neighbors would go for that. And if you’re not going to let your grass grow, your lawn care professional will probably cut it down with a gasoline-driven power mower. Those engines are terribly inefficient and produce far more air pollution per horsepower than cars or trucks.
But let’s say the phone is still ringing and your back is still aching. All you have to do is pick up that receiver, fork over some cash, and let someone else worry about your lawn this summer. It’s up to you, don’t let that guy on WebActive do your thinking for you, but if you hire the lawn service, here’s what you’ll get. For between $500-$600, a lawn care company will visit your yard an average of 10 times during the season and spray chemicals on it. First and foremost is nitrogen-based fertilizer. Lawn care companies usually apply four to six pounds of fertilizer per 1,000 square feet of lawn. That’s about twice as much as the lawn needs, but by over-fertilizing, the grass will green up quickly in the days following application, which makes the customer think he or she is getting good value. There are, however, downsides. Nitrogen runoff to surface water is a serious problem in the U.S. Here in the Champlain Valley, urban areas contribute 13 times as much nitrogen pollution per acre as farmland. Second, over-fertilizing your lawn causes abundant growth of grass roots and leaves, which die and leave a thick thatch which must be removed in the autumn – at additional cost – or new grass will not be able to push through next spring.
Beside fertilizer, lawn care companies spray weed killer – usually a toxic herbicide, perhaps 2,4-D, one of the ingredients in Agent Orange. They’ll come and spray it ten times a year, even though botanists agree that once killed, lawn weeds will not reappear for several years. The people who own lawn care companies, on the other hand, cannot afford that third or fourth car unless you, the customer, are in full crabgrass paranoia. The same goes for insecticides. There are very few lawns in suburban America that have any kind of insect problem, but the lawn care people charge for what they do and not for what they don’t, so they come around and spray diazinon and chlorpyrifos, which will kill not only fleas and chinch bugs, but beneficial insects which eat leaves and improve the soil.
Consumer affairs bureaus are full of complaints about lawn care companies, because they may advertise a 14-point lawn evaluation program, but the bottom line is they hire people who are willing to accept six dollars an hour to spray toxic chemicals without any protective clothing. Protective clothing for the employees creates a negative image, bad for business.
If, in the end, your lawn does not look good, the lawn care company will point out that you, the homeowner, failed to do the three things needed to make their treatments work. 1) Water the grass frequently, 2) Cut the grass frequently and 3) Cut the grass no lower than three inches high.
On the other hand, if you want an all-natural, non-chemical lawn, experts suggest you 1) Water the grass frequently, 2) Cut the grass frequently and 3) Cut the grass no lower than three inches high.
Get it?