By Laura Littlefield Kelley  
Did you know Nitrogen is harmful to saltwater ecosystems and Phosphorus is harmful to freshwater ecosystems?
The health of our fresh and salt waters depends on the choices every one of of us makes every day. We can all can make a difference by purchasing more wisely, which will create a cumulative outcome of real change. Really, this all starts with you!
Do you own property on Cape Cod? Or are you a visitor? Either way, we all have a responsibility to care for the aquifer below us, don’t you think? The items we purchase and use matters a great deal in nature and we can all be conscious of the choices we make.
The use of pesticides and fertilizers can contaminate the local water supply and be a danger for wildlife, pets, and children. Finding ways to have a beautiful green lawn that is also environmentally safe doesn’t have to be a daunting task. With a few minor changes to the typical lawn care routine, you can have a beautiful green lawn, often at less cost to you and to the environment.
Unfortunately, the effects of man-made fertilizers and anything that ends in ‘cides’ does more harm than we realize. By shifting a few habits you’ll be back to helping nature again. Who said it takes chemicals to grow a lawn? Or food?
Feed your soil not your plants!
Instead, get your land off drugs, cut cold turkey! Don’t allow your land to be dependent on you and don’t you be a slave to your property by always having to work on it. Set up a sustainable system and let nature go back to nature and thrive happily with your care.
Stop purchasing what is harmful in nature. Instead, feed gardens and lawns an inch of compost (not top soil) in the early spring and fall for 3 years in a row. Compost feeds worms and microorganisms ~ it’s like feeding them meat and potatoes instead of Twinkies. If you have been reliant on man-made chemicals to maintain your land, beneficial insects will need to become happy there again so it may take a few years of compost applications twice a year but once the worms are reproducing and pooping, then you have created a sustainable system that will last forever. It is their poop that feeds vegetation.
Now the circle of life working to your benefit, in terms of a natural healthy environment. as well as by putting a little extra back into your wallet,
Other tricks to live by: If you have lawn area, mow every other week and the most important step for success is to let your grass grow tall and cut down to three inches. This allows the photosynthesis process to occur longer growing a larger root system to help grass stay alive in extreme conditions like droughts. Now you can cut watering time in half, saving you money as well.
If each of us doesn’t shift soon our ponds and our bays will be filled with guacamole like thick blue-green algae that is too toxic to swim in. Algae blooms strip oxygen from water creating dead zones that threatens shrimp, fish, crabs, etc.
Did you know Orleans wrote a new regulation bylaw to enforce application limit requirements? It’s is set up to help home and business owners shift habits to protect the land we all love and the natural resources upon it.
-Laura Littlefield Kelley littlefieldlandscapes@gmail.com