Unless you have a water-front home, you may not realize that your lawn maintenance can impact Tampa Bay, its estuarine system and even your drinking water. That’s because all of Florida’s water, the aquifer beneath us, lakes, streams, springs, rivers and ponds, is interconnected in an intricate network. What we do on land can have far-reaching and long-lasting consequences.
August is National Water Quality Month, so it’s the perfect time to take steps that can nurture nature and our lawns.
Let’s get to the root of the issue – your plants’ roots, that is. Nutrients and water you add to your lawn and landscape are only effective when they are kept in the root zone of those plants.
That is a lot easier said than done during a summer downpour. Fertilizer nutrients washed away by heavy rains or leached into groundwater may eventually show up in springs, estuaries and bays, polluting water and causing harmful algae blooms. But there are best management practices you can employ to nurture your lawn and protect nature.
Employing even one of these best management practices can improve your landscape and help protect the Tampa Bay regions’ ecosystem.
Need to Know More?
There are numerous resources for maintaining a sustainable lawn and protecting Florida’s waterways. Following are just a few: