An international team of 22 researchers released a report yesterday that reiterated the overwhelming evidence that a commonly used synthetic chemical weed killer causes birth defects and other problems related to reproduction in many forms of life including mammals. Here is the link: http://www.newsroomamerica.com/story/195601/herbicide_spurs_reproductive_problems_in_many_animals:_research.html ...

While those of us in the North are primarily concerned with collecting those last few leaves from the lawn to avoid winterkill next spring, many folks in the South are actually preparing to plant. When December arrives, the cooler temperatures turn many Southern lawns brown — which is the natural dormant state. To combat that appearance, the planting of annual and perennial ryegrasses is common. Ryegrasses ...

Purdue University professors Angus Murphy and Wendy Peer, partnering with scientists at the Institute of Experimental Botany at the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, have revealed the mechanism by which the popular weed killer 2,4-D also harms grass plants, in addition to killing the surrounding weeds. Since the mid 1940s, 2,4-D's claim to fame is that it kills dicot weeds such as plantain and dand ...

One of the few issues I can agree on with folks on both sides of the organic vs. synthetic chemical lawn debate is this: Artificial grass has no place in our society. Giant petroleum-based blankets that will never biodegrade in anyone's lifetime, artificial lawns emit all sorts of toxins, reflect heat that increases the earth's temperature and are generally an environmental nightmare. One California town ap ...

Citing the precautionary principle invoked in the historic Supreme Court Hudson v. Spraytech and ChemLawn decision in 2001 — profiled in the documentary film, A Chemical Reaction — a Canadian federal justice has ordered a full review of the impact of the herbicide Roundup on frogs and other amphibians. Justice Michael A. Kelen, who has served on the federal bench since 2003, quoted the Hudson decision in or ...

The SafeLawns fall tour of the Midwest unveiled numerous examples of landscape sustainability in recent days. Hosted by our sponsoring partners at Calcium Products/NatraTurf and Purple Cow Organics, we visited installations at state capitols, college campuses, golf courses, public gardens and private residences during our whirlwind tour. Here are just a few examples: [caption id="attachment_4549" align="ali ...

The Ecologist is reporting that the world's six largest pesticide manufacturers will collectively be put on trial by a long-standing tribunal that will convene in India next month. Though the group known as the Permanent Peoples' Tribunal, created in 1979, has no legal standing, its hope is to bring worldwide exposure to what it refers to as atrocities committed by Monsanto, Dow, Bayer, Syngenta, DuPont and ...

Our friends at Beyond Pesticides are leading a national call to action to stop a bill that would gut the Clean Water Act of a key provision regarding the discharge of pesticides into open water. Here's the background: http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/7106/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=6307 ...

Stops Include Iowa, Wisconsin, California and Florida The coming week, even by our standards, will be feature a whirlwind tour that crisscrosses three corners of the nation and several points in between in the pursuit and promotion of natural lawn care. The plane leaves Providence later this morning for Fort Dodge, Iowa, the home of Calcium Products Inc. and NatraTurf. The folks at CPI manage one of the lar ...

[caption id="attachment_4533" align="alignleft" width="288" caption="The Fiskars Momentum mower, the best reel machine on the market today."][/caption] Here's a link sent to us by Katy Moss Warner, the emeritus director of the American Horticultural Society and the woman who built and oversaw operations at the Walt Disney World landscape in Orlando for a quarter century. She's a huge proponent of sustainabl ...