How to Care for Your Lawn Without Hurting Your Pool

You want a beautiful green lawn, and you want a crystal clear swimming pool. Do these things go together well? Lawn fertilizer can cause problems for your pool.

Why? It’s because what makes your grass green makes algae grow in your pool.In this article, we look at how to care for your lawn without hurting your pool.

Lawn Fertilizer Can Damage the Pool

You should definitely keep pool fertilizer away from your swimming pool. The chemicals you lose on your lawn can cause you major headaches.

If you’re doing your own lawn maintenance, take special care to keep the fertilizer away from the pool. If you’re using a lawn service, talk to them about how and where to apply the fertilizer to keep it away from your pool.

What’s more, if you use too much fertilizer on your lawn, it causes runoff from sprinkler water and rain. These runoffs make their way into storm drains, lakes, streams, and even your inground swimming pool.

Most fertilizers contain nitrogen and phosphorous. These will send your pool’s chemical levels into a tailspin while depleting the oxygen in your pool.

The end result is algae and cloudy water.

If you have this problem, we encourage you to add phosphates and more chlorine with BioGuard pool chemicals.

Be Careful with Blowing Grass

Many lawn services are guilty of mowing and then blowing all the grass clippings all over the neighborhood. We encourage you to not do this as well.

Do try to pick up your grass clippings, at least in your backyard, so they don’t blow into your pool.

All of that organic material will also cause your pool problems.

Once the grass clippings fall to the bottom of your pool, they decompose and oxidize. If you’ve recently fertilized you end up with algae issues and phosphates in your water.

Phosphates cause algae growth, and algae eat up your chlorine.

We advise you to be careful if you’re handling your own grass clippings and talk to your lawn service about avoiding these issues by blowing grass clippings away from the pool or using a bagging mower.

You can also try skimming the grass clippings from your pool with a net after you mow.

Add Landscaping Between the Pool and Lawn

Another way to keep yard waste out of your swimming pool is to create a natural buffer.

A good rule of thumb is to keep your grass at least three feet away from your pool. You can do this with landscaping and patio space.

Final Thoughts

Caring for your pool and your lawn is a delicate balancing act.

Lawn maintenance season and pool season are intertwined, and with a little planning and communication with your lawn crew, you can make sure your grass and your pool thrive all summer long.

Need pool service? Our expert staff is here to help. Give us a call, text us, or stop by!