Our air is cleansed by plants through the process of photosynthesis. Green plants take in carbon dioxide and water and use the energy from sunlight in photosynthesis, which produces carbohydrates for the plant to live off of and releases the true breath of life ... pure oxygen.
* A turf area 50' x 50' produces enough oxygen to meet the every day needs of a family of four and each acre of grass produces enough oxygen for 64 people a day.
* One acre of grass produces more oxygen per year than one acre of rainforest.
* The grass and trees along our country's interstate system produce enough oxygen to support 22 million people.
* Turfgrass is the best defense against soil erosion. Grass binds the soil more effectively than any other plant. The reason is that each grass plant has an extensive root system. Up to 90% of the weight of a grass plant is in its roots. A single grass plant grown under ideal conditions has over 300 miles of roots.
* Healthy turf areas absorb rainfall 6 times more effectively than a wheat field and 4 times better than a hay field. A thick healthy lawn reduces runoff to next to nothing. No wonder newly excavated earth is so quickly replanted in turfgrass.
* Runoff can be reduced by establishing new lawns and turfgrass areas. The biology of turfgrass makes lawns a near ideal medium for the biodegradation of all sorts of environmental contamination. Turfgrass purifies the water as it leaches through the root zone and down into our underground aquifers. Soil microbes help break down chemicals into harmless materials. This filtration system is so effective rain water filtered through a good healthy lawn is often as much as 10 times less acidic than water running off a hard surface.
* The cooling properties of turf are so effective that temperatures over turfed surfaces on a sunny summer day will be 10 - 14 degrees cooler than over concrete or asphalt. Or to put it another way, consider the fact that on a block of eight average homes, the front lawns have the cooling effect of 70 tons of air conditioning!
NOTE: The above survey data was collected by the Maryland Agricultural Statistics Service which also tabulated the results and wrote the findings.
AS OF JANUARY 2009, IN SUFFOLK COUNTY NEW YORK, YOU MAY NOT APPLY ANY FERTILIZER TO LAWNS FROM NOVEMBER 1 THRU APRIL 1 OF EVERY YEAR. THIS LOCAL LAW (#41-2007) WAS PAST TO PROTECT LONG ISLAND SURFACE AND GROUND WATER FROM POTENTIAL HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES RELATED TO NITRATE CONTAMINATION.
We must all work together to help keep Long Island's water safe. Hermann Lindau & Son, Inc. has completed the required Suffolk County Nitrogen Fertilizer Turf Management Course given by Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County.
