Grass clippings are a natural fertilizer for your lawn. Not only do clippings have a heavy moisture content, which adds water to your turf, but they decompose quickly and provide nutrients that will nourish the soil and root system.

Once established, you only need to fertilize your lawn in the fall if you “cut it and leave it!” According to Rutgers Cooperative Research Extension “fertilizing your lawn late in the season (September through November) the previous year reduces or eliminates the need for fertilizer in the spring, reduces frequency of mowing, and improves drought resistance.” Fertilizing in the fall allows the roots system to establish while spring fertilizing promotes top growth, which requires more frequent mowing and can actually stunt root growth. Be careful not to fertilize your lawn if heavy rain is in the forecast. Instead of soaking into the soil where it can nourish your lawn, the fertilizer is likely to simply wash away with the stormwater and find its way to local waters causing algae blooms and leading to proliferation of jelly fish.

Maintaining a mowing height of 2½ to 3½ inches will help increase drought resistance and will decrease insects and disease damage. Turf that is kept at a height of 2 inches or less decreases drought and heat resistance and increases the incidence of insect and disease damage as well as weed invasion. (“Your Lawn and its Care”, Rutgers Cooperative extension FS102, https://njaes.rutgers.edu/fs102/)

SCOOP THE POOP

Dogs are adorable, but their waste can wreak havoc on the environment. Pet waste is teeming with bacteria and parasites that are toxic to our ecosystem, especially our waterways. When we put the waste into the storm drains, nearby streams or even onto leaf piles, this waste finds its way to our rivers where it leads to degraded water quality and promotes algae blooms which rob the rivers of oxygen. This reduced-oxygen environment kills off fish and other aquatic animals… But jellyfish survive and even flourish with less predators and less competition for resources.

WHAT SHOULD I DO WITH MY PET WASTE?

GOOD: Pick up after your pet and dispose of it in the garbage.

BETTER: Compost your pet’s waste! Purchase a septic style composter and use compostable bags or scooper to dispose of waste.

Pet waste is bad for our health. Pet waste contains bacteria and parasites that infect people and pets including food poisoning, tapeworm and hookworm. These diseases can be especially dangerous for children, elderly, and people who have compromised immune systems. A dime’s worth of dog poop contains 23 million fecal coliform bacteria, such as E. coli. Some diseases that are found in pet waste can stick around in the soil for over a year and contribute to making our waterways unsafe for swimming. Pet waste can attract pests like flies, roaches and rats which also carry diseases. Decaying pet waste can release ammonia and other pollutants into the water causing algae blooms that use up oxygen and harm fish and other aquatic life.