Make a Positive Impact on Your Neighborhood with Environmentally Responsible Lawn Care Services
May 27, 2017
A healthy lawn is beautiful, and maintaining it can be a daily chore. If you’re looking for a new way to impact your neighborhood positively, consider hiring the best lawn care companies that are environmentally responsible. Whether you reside in the city or suburbs, maintaining your property and looking its best is paramount. However, most people think excellent lawn service is limited to mowing, raking, edging, and fertilizing. There are other ways in which your lawn needs attention, from watering to insect control to weed removal by the best lawn service for weed control. There are several options available when procuring lawn and yard care companies. You can hire an expert specializing in just one type of work, such as a lawn weed and feed company, or you can get a full service lawn service. Regardless of how many tasks need attention, you must engage someone with experience with all types of weather and other environmental factors. Research and check reviews online when looking for the best lawn care company. You can also peruse through pictures and past projects on their website and find out the kind of work they do.
Were you aware that having turfgrass in your front or back yard can help manage pollution? Turfgrass has the ability to trap approximately 12 million tons of dust, dirt, and other debris on an annual basis. As a result, these substances are prevented from entering the atmosphere within your neighborhood and the country at large.
When the front lawns of just 8 average-sized houses have turfgrass, it can have a significant cooling effect during hot weather. It has been demonstrated that the overall cooling effect provide by these turfgrass lawns is the equivalent of approximately 70 tons of air conditioning. Since the average home-sized central air system only has a 3 to 4 ton capacity, having a neighborhood of healthy lawns contributes significantly to environmentally responsible lawn care.
Installing turfgrass can also increase a house’s property value. When a home also has a well-designed and maintained landscape, its curb appeal can be increased by adding turfgrass. The estimated increase in property value can range between 15% to 20%.
It’s interesting to note that there are between 30 and 40 million acres of turfgrass in the United States. In order to maintain this grass, Americans spend approximately $40 billion every year to purchase seed, sod, and chemicals. Furthermore, as reported by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 30% to 60% of the water used during the hot months of summer is used to water lawns. When landscaping is more sustainable, however, water use can be reduced considerably.
When dense, healthy lawns are present, for example, rainfall can be absorbed more effectively than other types of ground cover. It’s been shown that healthy lawns are 6 times more effective at accomplishing this task than wheat fields and 4 times more effective than hay fields.
An integral aspect of promoting environmentally responsible lawn care, however, is not to use pesticides, herbicides, or nitrogen-based fertilizers. Approximately 40% to 60% of the nitrogen can run off or leach away. As a result, this toxic substance can end up in ground water, surface water, and well water.
In the United States alone, it is believed that 60 to 70 million birds die every year from pesticide poisoning. Furthermore, it is noted in The Virginia Cooperative Extension’s publication, ?Nutrient Management for Lawn Service Companies,? that 60% to 90% of the earthworm population dies as a result of coming into contact with certain pesticides and fungicides. It was also mentioned that even more earthworms could be dying as a result of these substances.
Every year, roughly 70 million pounds of pesticides and herbicides are used on American lawns. This is considerably more than is used on farm acreage. In fact, recent data shows that it is likely 10 times more when considering acre for acre.
There are healthy alternatives to using these toxic substances, such as organic lawn care products and practices. To have a natural healthy lawn, experts also recommend allowing it to grow between 2-1/2 to 3-1/2 inches. Given so many American’s proclivity to over fertilize, and with toxic substances, an organic lawn care specialist will test a lawn’s pH levels. When extra nutrients are needed, these will only be organic in nature.
Since engaging in environmentally responsible lawn care makes such a positive impact on individual homes, neighborhoods, and entire regions, using environmentally responsible lawn care services makes sense. Furthermore, when more and more homeowners also use the services of environmentally responsible lawn care services, it can have an even more significant impact.