After a sum­mer of sig­nif­i­cant weed growth, we are ask­ing for your help!

In a con­tin­ued effort to main­tain the health and via­bil­i­ty of our lake, we are repost­ing the list from our fall newslet­ter of the most effec­tive ways we can help pro­tect the lake and poten­tial­ly pre­vent fur­ther weed growth. We tru­ly appre­ci­ate your diligence.

How you can help:

1. Use Phos­pho­rus-Free Fertilizer

The three num­bers in fer­til­iz­er bags show the N‑P-K nutri­ent analy­sis. The mid­dle num­ber is the phos­phate (phos­pho­rus) con­tent. A “zero” in the mid­dle means it is phos­pho­rus free. Soils in most parts of Mass­a­chu­setts already have an ade­quate amount of phos­pho­rus to grow a healthy lawn. In these instances, adding more phos­pho­rus with fer­til­iz­er is not need­ed and will not ben­e­fit your lawn. If you are con­cerned that your lawn may need phos­pho­rus, you can have your soil test­ed. Soil test­ing is avail­able at a rea­son­able price through the Mass Depart­ment of Agriculture.

2. Fer­til­iz­ing at the right time

• Fall is the time to apply fer­til­iz­er for the best results in spring.

• Don’t fer­til­ize before a storm.

• Nev­er apply to frozen ground.

3. Take care of Yard Waste Properly

Nev­er blow or rake leaves, grass clip­pings, and sim­i­lar debris direct­ly into the lake because they will use pre­cious oxy­gen as they decompose.

Keep soil, leaves, and lawn clip­pings out of the street, ditch­es, storm drains, and streams by bag­ging them, com­post­ing them, or leav­ing them right on the lawn as a nat­ur­al fer­til­iz­er. Yard scraps that enter rivers absorb oxy­gen as they decom­pose which can strain or kill aquat­ic life.

4. Pick up pet waste

Pet waste can con­tain harm­ful bac­te­ria as well as phos­pho­rus. Use news­pa­per, bags, or poop­er-scoop­ers to pick up pet waste. Place wrapped pet waste in the trash or unwrapped in a toi­let. Nev­er dis­card pet waste near or in a storm drain or in the lake.

5. Con­trol soil ero­sion around your house

When left bare, the soil is eas­i­ly washed away with rain, car­ry­ing phos­pho­rus with it. Soil ero­sion can be pre­vent­ed by cov­er­ing exposed soil with veg­e­ta­tion or mulch.

6. House­hold Clean­ers and Oth­er Chemicals

It’s impor­tant to dis­pose of clean­ers and chem­i­cals in the prop­er man­ner. Read the instruc­tions on the con­tain­er or con­tact your local trans­fer sta­tion or waste man­age­ment district.

*Upcom­ing Lake Maspenock Weed Advi­so­ry Group (a.k.a. Cit­i­zens Input Group (CIG) Meeting

On Thurs­day Oct 27th, CIG will be meet­ing at 5pm via zoom (link can be found on the town cal­en­dar page) to con­tin­ue their dis­cus­sion as to which tool will be pre­sent­ed to Con­ser­va­tion Com­mis­sion to be used in the Spring to man­age the weeds.

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