It’s easy to ignore the details of your lawn. Generally speaking, you look outside, see green, and that’s good enough. But there’s a whole lot more to it than just letting grass grow. While not everyone needs to outsource their landscaping, lawn care service can be a worthwhile hobby — or expense.
A healthy lawn is not just good for your peace of mind, it’s good for the planet. A good lawn absorbs rain about four times as effectively as a field of hay and up to six times as effectively as a field of wheat. Furthermore, grass helps cool the air and reduce pollution. An average lawn absorbs enough sunlight to reduce temperatures by roughly the same as an in-home air conditioner while also trapping an estimated 12 million tons of dust and dirt (nationwide) which is released annually into the atmosphere.
These numbers can be intimidating, as environmentally responsible lawn care service can be more work than you might initially expect. For example, many people like to use fertilizers and pesticides but don’t realize that more than 50 million birds die from pesticide usage every year in the United States. Furthermore, about half of the nitrogen from fertilizer ends up as runoff or simply seeping back into our water supply.
Again, lawns are more complex than they seem at first. If you can afford it, you may consider searching your local area for a company that advertises organic lawn care services to make sure that you’re not doing more harm than good. As for simply having a lawn, there is a lot of personal good that comes from having green space around your house.
While there’s the aforementioned environmental positives that a green lawn provides, landscaping and a well-maintained lawn can increase the sale price of a house by 15 to 20%. If you don’t think that’s a huge difference, you’ve never sold your house. The value increase and the psychological gain of having a healthy and clean lawn do wonders. Being surrounded by nature is proven to help reduce stress and decrease a person’s chance of depression or other mental conditions.
Taking care of your small section of the world has some wonderful perks, but it can be a lot of work. Whether you’re a DIY type or want to find someone to handle your lawn care services, it’s important to live somewhere that gives you peace of mind. A good lawn does just that.