As I watched the Red Carpet last night I saw several new commercials. A couple were quite funny! I love the new commercial for JC Penney with Ellen DeGeneres that spoofs coupons in the wild wild west.
But I was also a bit dismayed to see the Scott’s Turf commercials with a smarmy Scottish character berating his neighbors to “Feed Your Lawn”, “Feed It”, “Feed it”….
They even went so far as to highlight a broadcast spreader that has a simple plug in bag of their turf chemicals – making it “easy” for the average homeowner to plug in a new bag of toxins every season.
“Feed Your Lawn” is like living on Big Macs
I want to help all the Charlotte NC homeowners out there understand exactly what the Scott’s Turf Company is telling you to do to your lawn by translating the message from lawn feed to human feed. They are telling you to live on Big Macs. It’s simple. Just drive through and pick up a load of Big Macs and live on them for the year. Makes perfect sense right?
Of course not.
A Big Mac is a nutritionally void substance. It may give you a shot of instant energy as the over-processed carbohydrates and protein inject themselves into your blood stream but the idea of living on a diet of this nutritional equivalent of cardboard would seem ridiculous to anyone who applies consciousness to eating!
If you “Feed Your Lawn” with an annual program of chemical turf products, you are basically condemning it to a life of eating nothing but Big Macs. Let me try to explain.
Like your body, your lawn needs a complex mixture of nutrients, many more than the N-P-K (nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium) that chemical fertilizers provide. N-P-K is the equivalent of the fast food burger – quick energy that creates a habit forming need for more!
You see, when you “feed your lawn” nothing but a diet of N-P-K, it throws into hyper action the biological process that makes the lawn green and fast growing. Remember the “rush” of energy you got when you wolfed down your Big Mac? Same idea. You inject your lawn with substances that give it an immediate dose of green and growth that can only be sustained by more and more injections (thus the “program” these chemical turf feed companies want you to “feed your lawn” or the 7 or more commercial treatments your Charlotte NC lawn service wants you to subscribe to each year).
You and Your Lawn Need a Better Diet.
On the surface, you get a really green lawn that grows faster than anyone else’s on the block but underneath the blades of neon green, the root system and soil are thin, deteriorated and suffering. While the fast food addiction is feeding you energy, your systems are breaking down due to the lack of nutrients. You need B vitamins, you need Folate you need vitamin A – all things that you aren’t getting from your Mac attack. Your lawn needs a healthy, balanced soil full of nematodes, organic biologicals and a perfect mix of sulphur, iron, and other nutrients to build a strong healthy root system – all things it’s NOT getting from the “feed your lawn” products.
So the opposite of “feed your lawn” would be “feed your soil”. The opposite of the fast food burger is the completely loaded salad or veggie sandwich. Feeding your soil provides nutrients that help the grass blades be green but are more adept at building a healthy base for them to grow in. Over time, this lawn needs less and less feeding and watering because a healthy soil holds and distributes nutrients more efficiently than a dead, chemical-laden one.
Your body, fed on high nutrient delicious salads and veggie sandwiches gives you longer, sustained energy and creates an internal environment that fends off disease and keeps the whole system healthy and working in harmony..
Ok, I’m not a Doctor and I don’t play one on TV but I AM a lawn and turf guy who is encouraging you to “Feed Your Soil” and get your lawn off the fast food burger addiction!
Mow Green, Breathe Clean, Go Organic!
by Phil Haynes, Natural Awakenings Magazine
Original Story: “Feed Your Lawn” and Big Macs
Source: Natural Awakenings Magazine, Monday, February 27, 2012
http://awakeningcharlotte.com/2012/02/27/feed-your-lawn-and-big-macs/