If you like a nice green lawn and live in Hernando County, a ban is still in place on fertilizing your lawn in both the summer and winter.
County commissioners on Tuesday rejected a motion to overturn the winter ban or change the times of the summer ban, which lasts from June through September. It was put in place to limit the amount of nutrients that leach into waterways from heavy rains.
Those nutrients feed an explosion of algae, which kills grasses that much of the marine life depends upon.
Jillen Crowley, of Hernando Beach, challenged anyone who thinks nutrients are not a problem to paddle the county's two springs — at Weeki Wachee and Chassahowitzka — for themselves.
“The Chassahowitzka by seasonality has thick ropey mats of algae that stink, are disgusting,” she told commissioners, “and if you fell out of your kayak, you'd want to have your bottled water on your body.”
Several commissioners had wanted to cut the number of non-fertilizer days, which they said is the highest in the state. They questioned whether such a tough ban is effective.
Commissioner Ryan Amsler noted that state environmental regulators might tighten restrictions in impacted areas along the county's two springsheds.
"I tend to think that it's only been in place for a couple of years, that we should just let it be for now and see how it goes, use it as a bargaining chip" with the state, he said. "I think if we want to remove it, if anything makes sense, maybe down the road, we could relook at removing the winter ban. But I think for now, it would be better just to leave it alone."
In 2023, commissioners voted to allow fertilizer to be applied only half the year.
Those changes included:
- Expanding the seasonal restrictions to prohibit the use of urban turf fertilizers containing nitrogen from Dec. 15 to March 15 and from June 1 to Sept. 30.
- Removing the exemption for commercial applicators.
- Increasing the distance that fertilizers can be used adjacent to wetlands and surface waters to 25 feet.
Eighteen Florida counties — including Hernando, Hillsborough, Pinellas, Manatee and Sarasota — have similar summer bans. Hundreds of cities have them.
