Re: Reliable lawn-care stats?

**J* B* <j*@starband.net>**

Judy,
I've been dealing with lawn related statistics for 20 years and there  
are none I know of that can be considered accurate.  There is no one  
organization that has enough money to do a national level study.   
National Garden Association always has lawn questions in their annual  
survey but I have problems with their definitions and so I tend to   
ignore the data.  Private advocacy organizations are not ashamed to  
guess and estimate to make their points.

All of the industry organizations are self serving and will never  
publish any negative data.
Here are some examples I've seen published in the past year or two  
andI would love to firm up:

Only half of American homeowners with lawns use fertilizer (that  
would be 20 million use no fertilizer)
Women manage 50% of the lawns in America.
50% of American lawns are now cared for by lawn care companies.
This data is Accurate - Bonide, the second biggest consumer sales of  
pesticides and very close to moving to number one over Ortho report  
to me that only 6% of their sales are for organic products.  Where is  
this big movement toward organics?

I would offer from my modest experience that what's happening out  
there is 80% of individual homeowners are really screwing up their  
landscape and ecosystem and will continue to do so for many decades.   
80% (my number) cut the lawn too short, use fertilizers with quick  
acting nitrogen, use insecticides and herbicides as preventive tools,  
and generally over water their lawns in the summer.  Not much else  
you can do that is wrong.  Nice picture huh?

Later,

Jeff

On Jun 24, 2008, at 8:25 AM, Judy Lowe wrote:

Does anyone know of some accurate lawn-care statistics? I read these  
figures of how much water and fertilizer are poured on suburban  
lawns, only to find -- upon really searching -- that they're  
estimates or extrapolations or include farm use of fertilizer. Same  
with herbicides. The ones I've seen are simply not trustworthy.

I'd like some reliable picture of what individual homeowners are  
really doing. I figure I've missed the right studies somehow. Can  
anyone direct me in the right direction?

Thanks,
Judy Lowe in Boston

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