RUNOFF:
- Install rain barrells to capture rain from your roof for watering your landscape.
- Create a raingarden to infiltrate rainwater.
- Install permiable pavers for driveways and walkways to let rainwater infiltrate into the ground.
WATERFRONT HOMEOWNERS:
- participate in the Marylanders Grow Oysters Program
- Install aeration systems on your pier
- maintain a buffer of native vegetation (trees, shrubs, grasses) to protect your waterway from polluted runoff. Read the Green Book For the Bay to learn more about living in the Bay's Critical Area.
- replace bulkheads and riprap with vegetated shorelines to reduce nutrients and provide habitat.
OTHER TIPS:
- Upgrade your septic system to an Enhanced Nutrient Removal (ENR) system and make sure you maintain your system.
- Dispose of pet waste in trash or toilet. Pet waste contains nutrients as well as harmful bacteria that can enter surface waters via stormwater runoff.
LAWN & GARDEN CARE:
- Convert some lawn into a native plant garden, needing little or no fertilizer.
- Have your soil tested and if you need to fertilize wait until Fall.
- Look for fertilizer that contains water insoluble nitrogen, abbreviated “WIN” which will release slowly over time.
- Set your mower blades higher and cut only 1/3 off at a time.
This reduces stress on grass so it requires less water, and it actually helps reduce weeds.
- Reduce the use of chemical perticides. Control garden pests with bird and bat houses.
LAWN FACTS:
- Lawn or turf grass is the largest crop in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, covering more acreage than corn, soybeans, wheat, and other row crops.
- More than 3.8 million acres of land in the watershed are lawn (9.5% of the 64,000 squar mile watershed)
- An estimated 215 million pounds of nitrogen fertilizer is applied to those lawns each year.
- An estimated 19 million pounds of pesticide are applied to lawns in the watershed each year.
- The water applied to lawns in summer is roughly equal to the flow of the Potomac River (7,875 cubic feet per second).
- Lawn and garden equipment are the second leading source of smog-causing air pollutants (after cars and trucks).
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