Did You Know

QDPI Redlands Research Station, Cleveland

  • A good lawn can add as much as 15% to the value of a house.
  • A good fine textured lawn has at least 10,000 shoots and over 5,000,000 km of roots per square metre.
  • Roots make up 90% of the weight of grass plants in the lawn.
  • Turfgrass acts as a natural filter by reducing pollution by purifying the water as itpasses through the root zone.
  • Turf is four times more effective than a hay field in controlling erosion.
  •  Sediment losses from turfed areas are 10 times less than from straw covered areas.
  •  Runoff from turfed areas will take at least 28 times longer than the most popular erosion control material.
  •  Turfgrass traps and removes dust and dirt from the air.
  •  250 square metres of lawn can absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and release enough oxygen for a family of four.
  •  An average size lawn of a house has the cooling effect of about 9 tonnes of air conditioning.
  •  On a hot day, a grass lawn will be at least 15°C cooler than asphalt and 8°C cooler than bare soil.
  • The lawn is also effective in reducing noise. In studies at the Riverbank Acoustical Laboratory in Illinois, turfgrass proved to be more sound absorbent than a heavy carpet or a felt pad.

© The State of Queensland, Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries 2008 (work reproduced with the kind permission of the Department of Primary Industry and Fisheries).

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