Lawns are a huge part of Florida’s water quality and water shortage problem.

After a subdivision is built, lawns cause the most environmental impact over time as fertilizer, pesticides and water continue to be poured on, essentially forever. Floridians' penchant for perfectly manicured grass lawn communities puts a tremendous strain on our state's water quality and quantity problems.

In a recent article by the Orlando Sentinel, Mike Thomas writes:

Grass is destroying Florida, particularly St. Augustine grass. It belongs in the western Caribbean and West Africa, but not here. Here, grass is a transplanted organ. Florida is the host organism. It tries to fight off the infection with bugs, weeds, mold and drought.

To suppress this immune system, we use billions of gallons of water and massive quantities of herbicides, pesticides, fungicides and fertilizers. The worst fertilizers are synthetic fertilizers, mass-produced, water-soluble, unnatural concoctions. They rapidly release their nutrients, often faster than the grass can take them up. So the nutrients wind up in groundwater or the nearest lake, where they feed algae, foul the water and kill fish.

What have you or your community done to mitigate the impacts of grass lawns on Florida's environment? Have you researched how to make your lawn and yard Florida Friendly? If so - tell us about it on the Protect the WEB Facebook Page. Share your tips and photos so others can learn how to protect the precious water resources that Florida offers.