Fall into lake-friendly yard maintenance practices

The nights are getting chillier, the leaves are starting to turn, and many of us are sadly saying goodbye to summer as we transition into fall. For a lot of us (myself included), this means turning our attention to getting our yards and homes ready for winter.

Raking leaves, cleaning out gardens, cutting back plants and preparing for snow may seem like routine fall maintenance. But around the Lakes Region, the choices we make on our properties are important and can have an impact on water quality long after our rakes and mowers have been put away. Here are a few quick tips to make your fall cleanup more lake friendly.

Keep leaves, yard waste out of the water

Leaves are natural but blowing or dumping piles of them into the lake, streams or drainage ditches adds organic matter and nutrients to the water as they decompose. not to mention it’s illegal. Instead, consider mulching your leaves, composting them, using them around garden beds or leaving them as a blanket under trees and shrubs for a little extra protection this winter.

Think twice about fall fertilizer

More fertilizer is not necessarily better for your lawn, and excess nutrients can wash off your property and reach the lake. Whether you live on the shoreline or miles away, runoff can carry nutrients through ditches, streams and other waterways. A soil test can determine what, if anything, your lawn needs. Consider alternatives like dethatching and aerating instead to keep your yard in tip-top shape.

Cover the bare soil

Fall rains and spring snowmelt can carry exposed soil downhill and into nearby lakes and streams. If you have leftover bare soil from a summer project, stabilize it with appropriate erosion-control measures before winter.

A perfectly manicured shoreline is not necessarily a healthy one. Native trees, shrubs, groundcover and even fallen leaves help slow runoff, keep soil in place and absorb nutrients before they reach the water. If you are pruning or cleaning up this fall, consider what can stay rather than assuming it all needs to be cleared.

Follow the rain

The next downpour is a great opportunity to walk your property. Is water rushing down the driveway? Cutting a channel through the lawn? Flowing toward the lake? Small changes to redirect that runoff into areas where it can slow down, soak in and be naturally filtered can benefit both your property and the lake.

Get winter-ready

Once you are done with your fall checklist, it’s time to move on to winter. Make sure gutters and drainage features are clear and directing water to appropriate areas. When the snow and ice arrive, hopefully not with another freak late-October storm like we had last year, shovel early and often and use only as much salt as necessary.

Preparing for winter is part of living in New Hampshire. But fall cleanup does not have to mean clearing every leaf, cutting back every plant or treating every inch of lawn.

In fact, some of the best things we can do for the lake are surprisingly simple: keep leaves and soil out of the water, let native vegetation do its job, reduce fertilizer and salt, and give rain and snowmelt a chance to soak into the ground rather than run off our properties.

Individually, these may seem like small choices. But multiplied across the thousands of properties throughout the Lake Winnipesaukee watershed, they can make a meaningful difference.

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Bree Rossiter is the associate director of the Lake Winnipesaukee Alliance, the only nonprofit dedicated to protecting the water quality and natural resources of Lake Winnipesaukee and its watershed through science, education, advocacy, and collaborative solutions. Her work focuses on advancing long-term watershed protection initiatives and connecting science with practical solutions to help preserve the lake for future generations. To learn more, visit winnipesaukee.org.