Forget what your neighbors think stop using too much fertilizer on your lawn

Americans love their lawns a littletoo much, perhaps. And like all loves, this one too has its chemistry in this case, rooted innitrogen, phosphorous and potassium, the key components of lawn fertilizer. Sure, it makes the grass grow. But thats not where the effects end if people over-fertilize or fertilize carelessly, and these nutrientsend up getting into our lakes, rivers, or water supplies.

According to the U.S. EPAs New England Regional Laboratory, 40 to 60 percent of the nitrogenthat people put on their lawns through fertilizerwinds up in surface and groundwater. Take the case of the Chesapeake Bay: A significant part of the nitrogen and phosphorous that is keeping the Bay polluted comes from urban sources, according to the EPA.

Indeed, careless lawn fertilization can have suchnegativeconsequences that some states have passed laws to restrict phosphorus in fertilizer. As the New York Department of Environmental Conservationputs it, Phosphorus going into the States water has been linked to: reductions in oxygen in waterbodies necessary for fish to breathe; algae that turn water bodies green; and algae and algae by-products that degrade drinking water. Scotts Miracle-Gro, a leading maker of fertilizers and lawn products, itselfannouncedthe removal of phosphorus from a key line of fertilizer products,TurfBuilder, in 2013, saying this was a partial solution to nutrient runoff that can lead to excessive algae growth in waterways.

In general, the concern is that excess nutrients in water can lead to a process of eutrophication, in which algal blooms fed by nitrogen, phosphorous and other nutrients change the chemistry of water bodies, choke off sunlight (potentially killing off plants below the surface) and foster the growth of harmful cyanobacteria. It has been estimated that the damage from eutrophication to U.S. water supplies costs$ 2.2 billionayear to address.

Nitrogen and phosphorus pollution has the potential to become one of the costliest, most difficult environmental problems we face in the 21st century, concluded the EPA in 2009.

This isnt your typical environmental issue, though the cause is not simply some single big polluter. While the eutrophication problem arises from many sources much of it can be traced to agriculture and wastewater treatment plants another key contributor is thelarge number of Americans busily tending tosome37.5 million acres of turf-grass covered residential lawns,and sometimes making mistakes that across our population, can really add up.

For some reason, these Americans feel that their lawns have to look a certain way super green, with turf grass standing tall, as opposed to an alternative, less environmentally impactful lawn approach and that fertilizer is the way to get that to happen. So what underlies the belief?

Keeping up with the Joness fertilizer

The short answer seems to be: Our neighbors. A growing amount of research suggests that people fertilize and over-fertilize their lawns in significant part out of a sense of what those who live around them expect their lawns to look like.

In apaperpublished in 2012, for instance, Amanda Carrico of Vanderbilt and two colleagues found strong social pressures surrounding lawn maintenance in the Nashville, Tenn., area. Some 48 percent of people told the researchers that they used fertilizer on their lawns, and the study found that social pressures were a leading key predictor of their use of fertilizer. As the researchers concluded, maintaining a lawn is an avenue for engaging with ones neighbors, for fulfilling expectations of what it means to be a positive member of a community, and to communicate a willingness to cooperate in creating and maintaining a shared space.

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Forget what your neighbors think stop using too much fertilizer on your lawn