The Hudson Valley Community College Sustainability Committee is starting a new feature: Sustainability Tip of the Week: Faculty, staff and students, please send your sustainable ideas to share for our weekly tip to: j.coons@hvcc.edu. When used, you’ll receive a token of our appreciation.
Sustainability Tip of the Week:
A Simple Wish for a Better Tomorrow
Spring will be here soon and in preparation think about organic lawns.
Over-fertilization or applying fertilizer at the wrong time can harm your lawn. First determine IF there is a nutrient deficiency with a soil nutrient test. Broadcasting up to a half inch of finished compost provides nitrogen, other trace nutrients, and organic matter to the soil. More serious nitrogen deficiencies should be corrected with a slow-release, organic source of nitrogen such as blood meal, cottonseed meal, or fish meal. Apply nutrients when soil temperatures are above 65 degrees. Get 50% of your lawn’s needed nitrogen by leaving clippings on the lawn; apply the other 50% in the fall by shredding leaves using a mulching lawn mower and leave them on the lawn.
If you fertilize an existing lawn in mid-summer, you’re feeding the weeds!
Note: As required by NYS law, do not apply any fertilizer containing nitrogen, potassium, or phosphorous between December 1 and April 1 or within 20 feet of any surface water unless there is a vegetative buffer of at least 10 feet, and do not broadcast fertilizer onto sidewalks and roads where it can run-off into storm drains or nearby waterways.
Published: Mon, 04 Mar 2019 12:59:09 +0000 by j.coons