What's that 'chemcially treated lawn' worth?

Who doesn't like a beautiful weed-free lawn in their front yard? We believe an attractive lawn earns us the approval of our neighbors. Dave Barry, the syndicated columnist said, “The average American home owner would rather live next to a pervert, heroin addict or communist pornographer than someone with an un kempt lawn.”

But the question is what is it worth to have that ‘chemically treated’ lawn or how large a price will we continue to pay for our manicured green carpets?

As Americans, we spend $40 billion per year caring for our turf and lawns- that’s ten times more than is spent on school textbooks! But it smells so good when it’s cut, it’s so pleasant to look at, it’s fun to roll and run on, it’s alive, it’s green and natural. Botanically speaking, a lawn is far from natural. Turf grass is a monoculture, developed to suppress, and out-compete all other species that would normally germinate in its place. If you choose to plant and maintain turf grass, you are essentially eliminating diversity in your home garden.

Well, I will keep the biological diversity issue for some later discussion but let’s focus on the nutrients and fertilizers that we have been applying to our lawns.

Did you know that :

The hazardous lawn chemicals are drifting into our homes where they contaminate indoor air and surfaces, exposing children at levels ten times higher than pre-application levels.

Of 30 commonly used lawn pesticides, 19 are linked with cancer or carcinogencity, 13 are linked with birth defects, 21 with reproductive effects, 26 with liver or kidney damage, 15 with neurotoxicity, and 11 with disruption of the endocrine (hormonal) system.

Of those same 30 lawn pesticides, 17 are detected in groundwater, 23 have the ability to leach into drinking water sources, 24 are toxic to fish and other aquatic organisms vital to our ecosystem, 11 are toxic to bees, and 16 are toxic to birds. With numbers like this, the only logical question becomes: is this really necessary and what can we do to stop or prevent this kind of contamination?

Some 100 million pounds of pesticides are used by homeowners in homes and gardens each year, even more when commercial companies are added in. Suburban lawns and gardens are known to receive far heavier pesticide applications per acre than most other land areas in the U.S., including agricultural areas.

As far as I remember, storm water run-off from non-point sources (such as farms, residential lawns) contribute to anywhere from 60 to 80% of the nutrient loading in our streams. How? It is as simple as rain falling on the chemically treated and overly fertilized lawn and running down the roadside gutter to the nearest creek. Big rain events result in major nutrient and chemical ‘shock’ to the urban creeks and streams and result is really worrisome.

The world is rapidly changing and with it are perspectives on the use of toxic lawn chemicals and the hazards they pose to our children, families, neighbors, wildlife, and drinking water sources?

I am NOT advocating against having a lawn or a green yard. Rather, they are important from preventing soil erosion. What I am advocating is putting a simple thought behind the ‘routine’ practices. Educate our selves and be more responsible about our actions for preserving our environment and be responsible for sustainable future for us and coming generations.

Resources are out there to help you out.

Mulching, planting native plants and shrubs, customizing the fertilizers per your soil / garden’s needs rather than blindly applying fertilizers, going ‘organic’ route for weed control and fertilizing are just a few simple ways to have environmentally friendly lawns.

In most cases, doing ‘the right thing’ is economical is the long run and may be even short run. Just give it a careful thought!

Good resources for additional information are:

Organiclawncare101 and Organic Lawn Care FAQ

Links to the resources from which I received information for this post:

http://cfpub.epa.gov/ncer_abstracts/index.cfm/fuseaction/display.abstractDetail/abstract/797

http://www.beyondpesticides.org/pesticidefreelawns/

http://www.ghorganics.com/Refuse%20to%20Use%20Lawn%20Chemicals.htm

http://www.losethelawn.com/lose_lawn_article.php

Below are some additional resources to go ‘organic’ and have sustainable and environmentally friendly yard!

Organic Lawn Care FAQ

http://www.ghorganics.com/products_currently_available.htm

http://www.ghlp.org/tips.html

http://www.richsoil.com/lawn-care.jsp

Additional Information on this subject can be found at:

http://www.mde.state.md.us/assets/document/AppendixE.pdf

http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/horticulture/DG2923.html

http://www.westchestergov.com/HEALTH/JustSayLawnChemicals.htm

http://www.yougrowgirl.com/lawns_gardens_convert.php

So, what's your Greendex?

With Green Revolution on the way.....so, the question I would like to ask is what's your Greendex?

Greendex is a latest term coined by National Geographic equivalent to finding out the environmental impact of one's life style. However, their research went beyond just stereotypical carbon-foot print rating for a country, it rank individuals and looked at each country as a whole.

As NG put it, "Unlike other measures that rank countries according to the environmental performance of their governments, companies and other factors, the Greendex is the first to rank the performance of individual consumers, rather than countries as a whole."

The results were quiet surprising but at the same time easy to digest.



Among the countries ranked for Greendex, India and Brazil topped the charts...

Here's what i think --
With significant population crammed in relatively smaller area (high population density), booming economies and thus fight for resources has turned at least the individual citizens some of these developing countries, more environmentally conscious than conventional wisdom might suggest.

It would seem - if one is competing with billion odd people for the limited number of opportunities - everyday would be a quest of survival by using the minimal possible resources and maximizing the utilization and gains....

I am running at 55 Greendex right now and looking to 'green-it-up' a bit more with a road-bike soon. What's your Greendex? Find out for your self by using the Greendex Calculator.

A few excerpts from the NG article --

"Consumers surveyed in Brazil earned higher Greendex scores than all others for housing. This is driven by small residence size as measured by number of rooms per household (96% have four rooms or fewer in their homes), by far the least use of home heating (found in only 9% of homes, a need negated mostly by climate), relatively widespread use of on-demand water heaters (rather than tank heaters), and wide penetration of renewable electricity (generated from biofuels/biomass in this case). Brazilian consumers overwhelmingly wash laundry in cold water, and they are far above average on minimizing their use of fresh water, both of which contribute to their stronger performance.

Their transportation habits earn Brazilian consumers second place on this sub-index. They are much more likely than most others to walk, bike, take public transportation, own a fuel-efficient vehicle and drive compact cars.

On the other side of the globe, Indian consumers tied with those in Brazil for the top rank on this 14-country index, in part because of their relatively lower environmental impact from housing and above-average performance on transportation and food.

Indian (and Chinese) consumers are more likely than other respondents to say they have installed solar panels at their residence to heat water (12%); six in 10 (58%) use an on-demand electrical water heater, by far the highest among consumers surveyed.

In terms of transportation, Indian consumers also ranked near the top. A third (33%) —- the second highest on this survey — say they live close to the places they need to go most days in order to reduce their impact on the environment. They are by far the most likely to own motorcycles or scooters instead of a car, and among the most likely to take public transportation (35% daily) and to drive a compact car rather than a larger vehicle. As a reflection of rapid economic growth and increasing transportation needs in India, consumers in this country are among the most likely to say that last year they used public transportation and bicycles more often than in the year prior, but were also more likely to have increased their frequency of driving alone and flying.

On the food sub-index, Indian consumers outperformed those in the other countries surveyed by a considerable margin, driven primarily by their avoidance of meats: 72% never eat beef and 76% never eat pork. In addition, 84% ate locally grown food at least weekly, among the highest recorded in the survey.

On goods, Indian consumers do better than most, with widespread preference for green products and ownership of relatively few appliances and electronic devices. Four in 10 prefer to repair things rather than replace them, the highest (on par with Hungarians) in the survey. However, only 17% always recycle, the lowest (also on par with Hungarian consumers), likely due to high levels of reuse.

Attitudinally, many Indian consumers — higher than the 14-country average —- are very concerned about environmental problems (42% strongly agree), feel these problems negatively impact their health (35%), feel guilty about their own environmental impact (22%), and say they are currently working very hard to reduce that impact (27%). Three of these last four statements were found to be drivers of Greendex scores, meaning the more likely consumers are to agree with these statements, the more likely they are to be behaving in a more environmentally sustainable way."