"Hey Water Sweepers! I'm Percy, and today we need to talk about something that's in almost every Florida yard — fertilizer. It makes grass green and gardens beautiful, but when it rains? That stuff ends up in my home: the Indian River Lagoon. Let's find out what happens next."
Fertilizer & the Indian River Lagoon
Your lawn and the lagoon are more connected than you think. Fertilizer is in almost every Florida yard — it makes grass green and gardens beautiful, but when it rains, that stuff ends up in the Indian River Lagoon. Florida has 5 million acres of lawn, and homeowners apply billions of pounds of fertilizer every year, more than any other state. Up to 50% of applied fertilizer never reaches plant roots — it washes into storm drains and directly into waterways. The IRL receives runoff from over 2,000 square miles of land, meaning every lawn in Brevard County drains toward it. Excess nitrogen and phosphorus from fertilizer fuel massive algae blooms that rob the lagoon of oxygen and kill marine life. In this lesson, we'll learn the science of how fertilizer reaches the lagoon, what happens when it gets there, the laws that regulate fertilizer use, eco-friendly lawn care, buffers and rain gardens, and how you can make a real difference.
