The Fairy Ring Phenomenon: Don’t Panic
Mother Nature rarely offers up a mystery any more intriguing than the phenomenon known as fairy ring. One can only imagine what our ancestors must have conjured up as the reason for giant circles that seem to appear from nowhere in the middle of stands of grass in the summer. At a recent consulting job in [...]
Continue reading...Beware: RISE Gets New Leader Tomorrow
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
The lawn and garden pesticide industry will soon have a new front man to claim its products are safe. Aaron Hobbs is slated to replace Allen James as the head of the propaganda organization known as The Responsible Industry for a Sound Environment effective tomorrow, Sept. 1. Announced in a press release published today by [...]
Continue reading...Boulder Embraces Organics
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Considered to be one of the “greenest places to live in America” by numerous publications, the city of Boulder appears poised to live up to its reputation with garden to lawn care. “It’s exciting out there, it really is,” said nationally recognized organic turf expert Chip Osborne of Osborne Organics of Marblehead, Mass., after his [...]
Continue reading...Michigan Phosphorus Data: The Fertilizer Ban is Working
Monday, August 30, 2010
Citing data that shows a 17 percent reduction in phosphorus runoff in a local river, a University of Michigan professor told SafeLawns.org that three years of studies indicate a ban on phosphorus in lawn fertilizers is working as intended. Bans of phosphorus in lawn fertilizer have become hugely controversial across the United States in the past [...]
Continue reading...Word of the Day: Agnotology
Monday, August 30, 2010
Pardon me for my ignorance and excitement, but today I’m newly enthralled with a word that I’m sure some of you have heard before: agnotology. Not yet recognized by my spell-check, agnotology is defined by Wikipedia as “the study of culturally-induced ignorance or doubt.” Now, one might ask at first blush: Why on earth would anyone [...]
Continue reading...Research Unearths Complexities of Organic Systems
Monday, August 30, 2010
Those of us who preach organic gardening and farming in religious tones almost always buck up against science, which has forever struggled to explain what we accept as innate understanding. In other words, the scientists usually denounce what they can’t prove beyond a shadow of a doubt. That’s why the study out of the University [...]
Continue reading...Death of a Lake: Lessons from the Midwest
Sunday, August 29, 2010
An article today from an Indiana newspaper is worthy reading for anyone in any states where lakes and ponds are a factor. The article doesn’t deal specifically with fertilizer runoff from lawns, but it does specifically cite phosphorus as the major culprit in the death of a major lake: http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20100829/EDIT10/308299957/1021/EDIT
Continue reading...Weekly Video TIp: Don’t Let Those Weeds Drop Their Seeds
Saturday, August 28, 2010
http://www.wcsh6.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=125722&catid=2
Continue reading...Huffington Post Review: The Organic Lawn Care Manual
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/annie-spiegelman/the-organic-lawn-care-man_b_691377.html Thanks, Annie!
Continue reading...Beware: ‘Tis the Season of Seeds
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
With ambient temperatures on the rise across the U.S. this season, almost everything in the plant world is early. Plants bloomed ahead of schedule, insect infestations ignored the calendar and, now, weed seeds that usually come at the end of the year are beginning to creep into lawns early. That makes it time to trot [...]
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