To the editor:

April 1 marks not only a day to goof on our friends or be goofed on by our library (Hi Dwayne!) — it is also the first day when fertilizing of lawns in Barrington is allowed.    

Yes, few may know it, but we do have a town fertilizer ordinance. 

Enacted in 2020, it provides a few rules and some great recommendations. Not to worry, your garden is exempt, and new grass plantings or repair areas too. In short, no fertilizing in late fall or winter when things stop growing anyway (Oct. 31 to April 1 — from Halloween to April Fools).   

And to help keep it from washing away immediately, fertilizer cannot be applied during a hard rain (Duh!) or just before a hard rain (hard = half inch expected in the next 24 hours). That’s it for rules — but note, the responsibility for following them falls on residents even if landscapers are doing the work.  

The ordinance provides also some good guidelines to use fertilizer responsibly and effectively. Firstly, apply nitrogen sparingly (0.5 pounds/ 1,000 ft2 in one go, and no more than 1 pound/1,000 ft2 total for the whole year). Do not apply phosphorous at all unless a test indicates you need it. How will you know if your bag from Ace has phosphorous? Check the middle number in the N-P-K values on the bag — usually this number is on a bottom corner, and not highlighted. Spring fertilizer is often something like 32-0-4. These are the percentages by weight of each of these elements. Look for a zero in the middle.  

If you think you need phosphorous and want to get your soil tested, you can send soil samples to the Universities of Connecticut or Massachusetts (URI tests only for pH and texture). Slow release fertilizers are much preferred as they lead to less run off, and are better too for the health of the lawn. 

Our ponds, like others across the state and nation, are becoming increasingly prone to nutrient overloads, principally the N and P from fertilizers, leading to algae blooms, including cyanobacteria. This process, called eutrophication, can make ponds not only disgusting, but hazardous to pets and humans, and lead to fish die-offs, as oxygen levels plummet.  We have seen each of these effects in Brickyard Pond — our largest and deepest.  Brickyard Pond and Echo Lake, beyond being recreational resources for our town,  also serve as breeding grounds for herring each year, thus supporting the larger water ecosystem of our Bay and coastal waters.  

Let’s do our best to keep all our water bodies as healthy as possible. 

Charles Paul

Barrington