Orleans Pond Coalition

Orleans, Massachusetts

  • OPC March 2023 Bulletin - Things to do this Spring
  • OPC February 2023 Bulletin
  • OPC Ponderings - Fall 2022
  • Home
  • About
    • Overview
    • Mission/Vision
    • Board of Directors
    • Business and Community Members
  • Our Waters
    • Orleans’ Watersheds
    • Freshwater Ponds
      • Baker’s Pond
      • Boland Pond
      • Cedar Pond
      • Crystal Lake
      • Deep Pond
      • Gould Pond
      • Icehouse Pond
      • Meadow Bog
      • Pilgrim Lake
      • Reubens Pond
      • Sarah’s Pond
      • Shoal Pond
      • Twinings Pond
      • Uncle Harvey’s Pond
      • Uncle Israel’s
      • Uncle Seth’s
    • Estuaries
      • Cape Cod Bay
      • Nauset
      • Pleasant Bay
        • Lonnie’s (aka Kescayogansett) Pond
    • Drinking Water
    • Wastewater Challenges
    • The Orleans Blue Pages — A Guide to Protecting Cape Cod Waters
  • Programs
    • Overview
    • Oxygenation Demonstration Project
    • Cyanobacteria Monitoring Program
    • The Orleans Blue Pages
    • Fertilizer
    • Mutt Mitts
    • Oysters
    • Our Upweller
    • Plastics
    • Water Sampling
    • Member Photo Submissions
  • Celebrate Our Waters
    • 2022 Celebrate Our Waters – A Look Back
    • 2022 Celebrate Our Waters Event Activities
    • 2022 Celebrate Our Waters Event Schedule
    • 2022 Celebrate Our Waters Event Locations
  • Get Involved
    • 2022 OPC Annual Meeting Recap and Thank You
    • Submit Photos
    • Volunteer
    • Subscribe
    • Join/Renew
    • Contact Us
  • News
    • 📌 Bulletin
    • Ask the Osprey
    • Ponderings  
    • Water, Water, Everywhere
  • Donate
  • Follow
    • Facebook
    • Instagram

Water Water Everywhere: Feed Your Soil, Not Your Plants

July 21, 2016 By Orleans Pond Coalition

By Laura Littlefield Kelley   &nbsp

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

Filed Under: Water, Water, Everywhere

  • Facebook
  • Instagram

About Orleans Pond Coalition

Orleans Pond Coalition, Inc. is a volunteer organization dedicated to protecting and enhancing the saltwater estuaries and freshwater ponds and lakes of Orleans. Our work includes offering educational programs to encourage mindful land use practices, sponsoring water quality research, working with community, regional and state organizations to formulate constructive policies to protect our … Learn More

Our Mission

Orleans Pond Coalition is dedicated to the protection and health of our shared watersheds, estuaries, ponds and lakes.

Orleans   Pond   Coalition

PO  Box  2485

Orleans,   MA   02653

OrleansPondCoalition@gmail.com

Copyright © 2023 Orleans Pond Coalition. All Rights Reserved. · Website By: A. Piper Creative