It's the perfect venue. Lots of families with children eager to participate in kid-friendly activities. Well-clipped, dandelion-free lawns as far as the eye can see. But beneath this mirage of innocence and good ole American past-time fun lurks something lurid. East coast to west, Responsible Industry for a Sound Environnment has been making the Little League rounds. Traveling around in a giant, green RV an ...

With California's consistent drought troubles, you'd think cities there would encourage residents to limit water use and replace resource-dependent lawns with native plantings and landscape structures. Not so in Alhambra, California, located in western Los Angeles County. According to an article written for the Alhambra Source, when Alexis Moreno and her husband stopped watering their lawn in order to repla ...

Among the many hazards posed by insecticide use is that of evolutionary pest resistance. Eventually, Mother Nature outsmarts us again, creating what are often called, "super bugs", that survive insecticide application. But it looks like the University of Florida has discovered a way to work with Ms. Nature. According to an article by Robert H. Wells in the University of Florida News, whiteflies- known for a ...

Knapweed, leafy spurge, and other unwanted plants are growing fast and furious along the Wood River Trail in Blaine County, Idaho. But it's not pesticide application that will be taking care of the problem. Rather, the solution walks on four feet and goes, maaaaaa... A partnership between Blaine County's Pesticide Action Network and local citizens are piloting a project that will employ the use of 700 goats ...

[caption id="attachment_3788" align="alignleft" width="526" caption="From the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service"][/caption] In Maine, where I lived for more than 50 years, Japanese beetle season was easy to remember . . . because it coincided each year with tourist season. In other words, when the cars came through the toll booths on July 4 weekend, we knew the Japanese beetles would soon ...

[caption id="attachment_3784" align="alignleft" width="548" caption="Blue grama grass is low-growing, drought-tolerant and ideal for low-maintenance lawns."][/caption] Some folks in the nation are desperate these days for any plant that will survive historic droughts. Others are just sick and tired of mowing their lawns by now, in late June, in areas where rainfall has been far above average. Therein lies t ...

Reducing lawns needn't mean reducing beauty, and going organic needn't mean going ugly By Ava Middleton Special to The Commercial Appeal Posted June 17, 2011 at midnight Photo by Kyle Kurlick // Buy this photo Ann Frogge had her Germantown front yard designed to resemble the Middle Tennessee terrain she remembers from growing up. The lack of a turf grass lawn eliminates some maintenance, but presents its ow ...

[caption id="attachment_3740" align="alignleft" width="960" caption="Organizers and volunteers took a bow after the first Awakening Festival in Hudson, Quebec, on June 18."][/caption] It was, in at least a decade of retrospection, one of the most amazing events in terms of tenor, aim and ambiance that I've attended. The Awakening Festival, held this past Saturday in Hudson, Quebec — the birthplace of the na ...

Local Organizer Offers Shining Example of Successful Activism Joe Speeney is a dynamo, the kind of guy who get things done. Galled by the pesticide spraying that he saw as a threat to his son's health several years ago, he has since taken action by organizing lectures, creating other educational campaigns, helping to pass local legislation. A writer was so impressed by Joe that he became the lead item of a ...

A few weeks ago a SafeLawns follower caught our attention with her photo . . . which has apparently caught the attention of another fan of au naturel grass!!! ...