[caption id="attachment_978" align="alignnone" width="533" caption="Clover plants store atmospheric nitrogen in tiny pink root sacks known as nodules. "][/caption] Tomorrow it will be March and that means, in many parts of the country, the call will go out: Ready . . . Set . . . Fertilize. Whether we're planning tomatoes or a lush green lawn, our nature is to help Mother Nature by adding a bunch of stuff to ...

We're on the ground in Los Angeles today to prepare for the Hollywood premiere of A Chemical Reaction at 1 p.m. tomorrow (Sunday, Feb. 28) at the New Beverly Cinema at 7165 West Beverly Boulevard. It's a fairly large theater and seating should not be a problem, but both Seventh Generation and MovieMaker Magazine have sent out personal invitations and many of those folks have reserved seats. You can, too, by ...

Thanks to our partnership with Seventh Generation, an overall growing awareness of the dangers of pesticides, and the onset of the lawn and garden season, the traffic to our web site and this blog is at an all-time high. The most common question right now to my personal Inbox is "How do we get the movie to play in our town?" That answer is simple, really: Make it happen! SafeLawns.org is a small organizatio ...

NOTE: This is an update of a position paper I first published in 2007 As I’ve traveled around the nation to talk about our nonprofit organization SafeLawns.org, I’ve sensed a tremendous amount of confusion about organic products. “What’s really organic, and what isn’t?” people ask. Though chemical companies will say that an organic product is anything that contains a carbon molecule, the real definition is ...

I've long had a section in my lawn care talks titled "Grow the Right Grass." The shpeel emphasizes the fact that not all species of grass are created equally, much to the surprise of the average homeowner. Most people do know that some grasses grow well in sun and others are better suited for shade. Other profound differences exist, however, in the amount of fertilizer, water and mowing they require. A stud ...

Dr. Alan Greene, among the leading pediatricians practicing in North America today, posed this question on his web site today: http://www.drgreene.com/blog/2010/02/22/your-lawn-safe-your-kids. Alan appears in the movie, A Chemical Reaction, to address the question of how and why lawn chemicals are dangerous. ...

Those of us who advocate for pesticide-free lawn care are constantly met with the same responses from the chemical industry: "Our products are safe when used as directed" or "We apply our pesticides in such small doses they couldn't possibly be dangerous." In what can only be called a ground-breaking debunking of those myths, the American Chemical Society — a non-partisan, non-profit organization chartered ...

[caption id="attachment_948" align="alignnone" width="432" caption="Tom Kelly, founder of Fire Belly Organics"][/caption] A Conversation With Tom Kelly To the outside world, Tom Kelly of Milford, N.H., has turned the lawn care industry on its ear in remarkably short period of time. Seemingly out of nowhere, his new company, FireBelly Organics, had the trade show known as New England Grows in Boston abuzz wi ...

KIRKLAND, WA. — Displaying an impressive array of printed materials, enthusiastic professionals and dedicated non-profit organizations, the organic landscaping community of Greater Seattle stood tall Saturday during the latest leg of the 2010 North American Spring Tour of the award-winning documentary film A Chemical Reaction. The afternoon crowd of approximately 100 gave SafeLawns founder Paul Tukey a rous ...

Recently, courts in France gained worldwide recognition by finding the manufacturer of Roundup guilty of making false safety claims. Earlier this month, the French also broke new legal ground by awarding sick farmers financial damages due to their pesticide exposures. If this type of legal judgement were to find its way to courts in the U.S. and Canada, it would significantly tip the scales in favor of a mo ...