3 Easy, Natural Ways to Stop Yard Runoff

By Josh Peterson: Los Angeles, CA, USA | Sat Oct 04 12:00:00 EDT 2008 — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 11:35:56 EST

I had this next-door neighbor when I was a teenager who might have been clinically obsessed with his lawn, and his obsession didn't just stop at his lawn. My family became beleaguered with complaints, and eventually this guy would cite code on us and notify the city and force us to trim a tree or build a fence or do some annoying little chore that we didn't really have time to do because we all had lives outside of our yard.

We lived in Omaha, Nebraska, and in that place at that time, people were not on the lookout for polluters. This neighbor, obsessed as he was with his "environment," was a mini-polluter. He relied heavily on fertilizers and pesticides to make his yard look immaculate. He also lived on a slope. When it rained, all that pesticide and fertilizer would trickle down into the rain gutters and pollute the water supply. I won’t even go into his riding lawn mower, his leaf blower and his snow blower.

Here are three ways do deal with yard runoff. If only there was some way to deal with difficult neighbors.

Don't use fertilizers or pesticides on your lawn and garden. I realize that this might make your lawn and garden less green in color, but it will be more green in spirit, and chemicals won't pollute the water and kill fish and other marine life.
Bag or mulch your yard waste. As long as yard waste ends up somewhere appropriate, bagging your yard waste for composting is a way to keep your yard runoff clean. Excess yard waste can clog up a city's runoff removal system. Mulching it is probably the best plan.
In areas with high rainfall, yard erosion is a huge problem. Plants with a sturdy root structure can help keep the yard in place. Native plants are usually more beneficial for this procedure than plants from afar.

Need proof that it's possible to balance being green and still be a supportive partner and parent? See how Ed Begley, Jr. does it on Planet Green TV's Living with Ed.

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3 Easy, Natural Ways to Stop Yard Runoff