You know that sinking feeling you get when you realize that something you’ve been doing — or have been failing to do — is a problem? I recently experienced that when I read a Minnesota Public Radio report on how homeowners can affect a river’s health.
I recommend reading the article, but here’s the short version: While agriculture has an enormous effect on local watersheds, homeowners also bear responsibility for the health of nearby sources of water. Two of the biggest problems are over-fertilizing lawns and failing to pick up pet waste. We look for nutrients in our food, but we don’t want too many in our water; otherwise, we have problems like algae blooms.
My family is really lazy in terms of lawn care, so we don’t over-fertilize. But, as the article noted, many people are good about picking up dog waste on walks but are not particularly good about picking up waste in their yards. I’m one of those people.
There are some easy solutions. I’m going to have to make more of an effort to clean up after our dog in the yard on a regular basis. If you don’t have a dog, you’re off the hook for this one.
If you’re better than we are about fertilizing your lawn, you can fertilize it less by engaging in practices like leaving grass clippings on your lawn, top dressing your lawn with a mix of compost and soil, testing your soil to get fertilizer recommendations, and timing your fertilizer application for the fall, when your lawn is most likely to store the nutrients it receives.
You can also cut down on the amount of fertilizer you use by reducing the size of your lawn and introducing more native plants to your garden.
A rain garden is more effort, but it can really cut down on the nutrients that leave your yard and reach the watershed. Have you ever seen spray-painted messages near your neighborhood sewers that say “This drains to the river”? Think of a rain garden as a filter system between your yard and the gutters that lead to those sewers. You’re giving the nutrients to the plants in your rain garden rather than sending them into nearby streams and rivers.
If you own a home, take some time to consider if there are steps you need to take to stop nutrients from leaking from your yard to the watershed. You know what I’ll be working on!