Category — Living Now

I admit it: I really don’t enjoy lawncare. But while I do like to have a nice-looking lawn, I certainly won’t use poisons just to grow something that rivals Augusta National. My neighbors seem to try, usually by piling on a mishmosh of pesticides and insect-repellant so they can have a “killer” lawn, so to speak. Once in a while I see those trucks dumping gallons of the stuff – you know, that company which has transformed themselves - in true “Clear Sky Initiative” fashion that’d make Dick Cheney blush - from “ChemLawn” into “TruGreen”.

But the frightening thing is that those pesticides have a devastating impact on our health and planetary welfare. You don’t have to read Silent Spring;just Google “pesticide lawn care danger” and see for yourself. Alternative Lawn Care has a nice, frightening summary, or check out Safelawns, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting natural lawn care, which has some great resources.

Anyway, since I’m always pushing organic, sustainable, green approaches to modern living, I figure I have a responsibility to prove it with a green, healthy weed-free lawn. And I’ve been able to do this with alternative, non-toxic, organic fertizers. They’re pretty cheap, very easy to use, and really do the trick. You just put the stuff down a few times in spring and summer, and that’s it.

Now, I’m a busy guy, fulltime job, two kids; finding an hour just to mow the lawn is challenging enough. Pulling weeds is not going to happen. What’s beautiful about organic weed control is that these products (I’ve provided links below) follow a preemergence model; this means that you put it on before weeds sprout. You use these as a replacement for “weed and feed” products that traditional garden centers sell.

The magical thing about this – and it is truly magical, if you ask me – is that corn gluten meal, a by-product of cornstarch manufacturing, inhibits seed growth naturally. I don’t know if you’d want to eat the stuff, but it’s totally safe to have around yourself, your kids, your pets and the planet. And it makes a beautiful green lawn to boot.

There’s a nice overview of the science behind corn gluten meal here; the only warning I’ve seen is for folks with corn allergies.

There are several ways to use these products, and the manufactures often suggest alternating treatments between their weed preventer and their natural fertilizers. But I’ve had very good success just using the weed preventer by itself, because it also includes lawn food (the “feed” side of weed and feed). I start early in spring, just before the forsythia bloom (I’m in central New Jersey, which is zone 7), and before the crabgrass starts (this will be the last you see of that stuff too, trust me). For me, this is around the second or third week of March; I’ve also waited until early April with success.

To put it down you use a standard fertilizer spreader; the weed control manufactures often suggest which settings to use according to your spreader type. You can’t use too much of the stuff; it’s so mild there’s no chance of “burning” your lawn. It’s best to do this on a day it may rain, but in truth I’ve never worried too much about this. The stuff starts breaking down in a few days, and you’ll know because it smells, well, none too appetizing, let’s say. To me, this is the only drawback. A minor inconvenience.

Then you wait about five weeks and do it again. I usually do three applications per season.

And that’s it; the only other lawn maintenance I do in early spring is to aerate the yard with those funky spiked shoes (just do a Google search for Lawn Aerator Shoes). True, the neighbors may think you’re nuts as you walk across your lawn but it does start conversations. So think of it as community building.

Now I’m just waiting for a neighbor to drop a complement, at which point I can whip out my stash of Cockadoodle Doo, or Wow! Plus and tell ‘em they could eat their lunch off the lawn, if they wanted to. And their dog won’t drop dead from walking through the backyard, either.

Resources

There are many places to find corn gluten meal on the web; two sources I like very much are:

• Corn Gluten Meal from Amazon
• Wow! Plus from Gardens Alive
• Cockadoodle DOO from Purebarnyard

There are pros and cons to each of these companies; Amazon’s probably the cheapest; Cockadoodle DOO has the advantage of being available in stores; check their site for a store locater.

On the other hand, Gardens Alive has a terrific “Gardens Solution” program - sort of like a frequent-flyer program - which you can use to buy any of their excellent organic gardening products at a discount.

Good luck and healthy gardening!

This post was submitted by Eric.

If I could change any one thing, I would…

Explain to producers that going green saves them $$! Organic prices will come down and then people without Trust Funds can eat healthy foods too.

Producing products in a “green” way is more than playing nice with the earth; it may be a cost-effective business strategy. This is the essence of a new book by the founder of Stonyfield Farms (yes, the yogurt company), Stirring it Up: How to Make Money and Save the World. It’s a fascinating idea.

Now, before getting too excited with things like Walmart’s latest foray into the land of sustainability (summarized nicely at the Huff Post here) there’s still the fact that saving energy, packing smarter, producing organically is - in the long run - less expensive than the “scorch the earth” method. And that’s good news for us “regular folks” who shop at Whole Paycheck Foods whenever possible, and who are concerned about the fate of the planet…

This post was submitted by Eric.

If I could change any one thing, I would…

Start a ”green” home improvement chain where I could buy natural, non-toxic products to fix my house without killing the people who live in it.

This post was submitted by Eric.

If I could change any one thing, I would…

Get people at restaurants to ask - or just get up and turn off - those wall-mounted TVs that have invaded the ”dining experience”. Is there no escape anymore?

This post was submitted by Eric.