So far we've covered watering techniques and soil management for drought tolerance. A major factor in water management also comes with your choices of plants. Many lawn grasses are water guzzlers and, in many municipalities, folks are being discouraged from growing lawns altogether. It will never be the goal of SafeLawns to eliminate lawns entirely, but we do recognize that in many situations, better choice ...

OK, so I wanted to get your attention with that headline . . . but, sadly the correlation between pesticides and developmental abnormalities in boys and girls may be true. When you get the chance, check out this recent column in the New York Times: June 28, 2009 New York Times Op-Ed Columnist It's Time to Learn From Frogs By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF Some of the first eerie signs of a potential health catastrophe ...

Gardening success in the summer typically comes down to water management more than any other factor. Two days ago we posted some application tips from RainBird and those are all essential. Even more important, though, is the medium upon which the water lands and is absorbed — or not. The soil, in other words, is absolutely critical. I tell people to think of soil as a sponge. The idea is to build up the thi ...

Water conservation takes many forms. There's the water you apply around your lawn and landscape. Then there's the water supply at large, the groundwater, lakes, rivers, oceans etc. that can be impacted by the lawn and garden products that we use. To better understand how many common products can harm water, check out this article from The Environmental Magazine: By Editors of E/The Environmental Magazine Ea ...

The name of the organization in charge of regulating pesticides in this nation is the EPA, the Environmental Protection Agency. If you ask most people, they'll tell you the EPA really does protect us. As I've learned in recent years, the EPA is often more concerned about protecting the interests of big business. Today I came across an insiders' account of the history of the EPA since its inception in 1970. ...

Do you want to see our movie, A Chemical Reaction? Dozens of people have visited either www.pfzmedia.com or YouTube, watched the trailer, and then contacted the director, Brett Plymale, about obtaining a copy of the movie for screening in their community or to their group. We're thrilled when that happens, but we do have to be judicious in saying yes. For now. Our plan is to enter film festivals, many of wh ...

From my personal perspective up here in Maine, it's odd to be talking about how to conserve water. We just came through one of the wettest Junes on record and definitely the most depressing in recent memory. Yesterday and today mark the first consecutive days of decent weather since May. In much of the country, though, the opposite problem exists. It's drier than usual and lawns are frying in the process. T ...

In Canada, much of the nation has banned most of the common lawn and garden pesticides we still use here in the U.S. What most Americans don't know is that banning pesticides at the town and city level is illegal in 41 of 50 states due to "state preemption laws" that were passed in 1991 — the same year Hudson, Quebec, became the first town in North America to ban pesticides (see www.pfzmedia.com). The lawn ...

As I told everyone last week, I was invited to talk about eco-friendly lawn mowers on Good Morning America. In case you missed the brief segment, here it is: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/JustOneThing/story?id=7982173&page=1. One of the companies, www.EcoMowers.com, told me I could bring their mower home with me for trials. Yesterday I put the Brill model to the test. Within two minutes I could see why this mow ...

Yesterday on Good Morning America the weatherman, Sam Champion, told viewers we would have information about converting lawn mowers from gas to propane on our web site. Propane is said to be 30-50 percent cleaner for the environment than burning gasoline. It also extends the life of the engine and crankcase oil. Many organizations sell conversion kits and, though I can't speak from personal experience on an ...