Love Your Lake Tips
SPRING Tips
- Keep grass clippings on the lawn when you mow. They nourish the lawn and provide free, natural fertilizer.
-DON’T apply fertilizer to your lawn. Much of it washes off into the lake, polluting the water and encouraging the growth of algae. If you have a lawn service, make sure that they are NOT applying fertilizer and ask them to blow leaves and vegetative debris into garden beds, not the lakes.
-Plant a rain garden and/or a shoreline buffer garden along the lake’s edge. Rain gardens capture excess water and filters it clean before it enters the lake. Shoreline buffer gardens improve lake water quality, reduce erosion and provides wildlife habitat. The water/land interface is a critical habitat for wildlife by providing food and shelter for birds, bees, butterflies, waterfowl, fish, frogs, turtle and more. Did you know that 94% of all lake life is born, raised and fed within 30 feet of where water meets the land?
-Native plants can be purchased at very reasonable prices at the Horicon National Wildlife Refuge plant sale. The pre-order deadline is March 29.
-Native plants may also be available for free to FLPO members, grown by the Fox Lake Prison. They should be available in early May. Please contact the FLPO to request plants (FLPO@doubleberry.com).
Each individual property owner CAN make a difference! Because we are the “last line of defense” - right along the water’s edge- the effect of these small efforts are magnified by our proximity to the lake. These simple tips can make a big improvement on our lake.
“When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect”
-Aldo Leopold