Yes, Maryland has a fertilizer law. And it’s protecting local streams
When the weather warms up, homeowners who have visions of lush lawns in their heads may be going to their neighborhood garden centers to stock up on fertilizer, but Maryland’s Department of Agriculture is asking residents to reconsider.
The department is reminding Marylanders that state law limits the amount of nutrients that can be applied to lawns, whether it’s a lawn service doing the application or the homeowner themselves.
The law isn’t new. It was passed in 2013. But Miri Talabac, a horticulturist with the University of Maryland Extension in the Home and Garden Information Center, said the goal is to limit the amount of nutrients that run off into the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
While fertilizer — when applied correctly — can benefit lawns, Talabac explained, “as it trickles through the ecosystem and works its way into waterways, it’s a pollution problem.”
In Maryland, there have been public education campaigns aimed at homeowners on the impact that overuse of fertilizer can have on the Chesapeake Bay, but Talabac said those impacts extend beyond the Bay itself.
“Even if you’re not sure what watershed you fit into, maybe it’s not the Chesapeake Bay, the impacts you’re having on local ecosystem water sources is important, and that’s the focus of the law as well,” she said.
Fertilizer and nutrient runoff can harm “all of the beneficial insects, like dragonflies and things that prey on other insects that live in those waters, the birds that feed on them,” she said.
“It certainly has cascading (effects) and it starts on the local level,” she added.
The Maryland Department of Agriculture suggests skipping spring fertilizing, noting that fall is the best time to fertilize lawns that include fescues and Kentucky bluegrass. The department also recommends contacting Talabac’s workplace, the University of Maryland Extension, for soil testing to see what nutrients, if any, may be needed.
Part of Talabac’s job is answering the inquiries they get about lawn and garden care.
“We address any home gardener questions from around the entire state,” she said. “And we also prepare hundreds of webpages that we maintain about any home gardening topic.”
Talabac said some homeowners are rethinking not only their fertilizer use, but whether they would like to change from having a traditional lawn on their property.
“There is more of an acknowledgment of the environmental impacts. I’m seeing more interest in when it’s weed control, for example, avoiding herbicide use, and with lawns, maintaining them in a more sustainable way,” she said.