[caption id="attachment_3332" align="alignleft" width="526" caption="Skip Shorb said the recurring incidence of cancer in his family led to the ground-breaking decision to send pesticides packing and adopt compost tea as his garden center's primary product."][/caption] American Plant's Top Product? Compost Tea In my career in the horticulture industry I would guestimate that I've been to at least 2,000 gard ...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE National Leaders Headed to Seattle June 4 With the goal of bringing the anti-pesticide movement from East to West in the United States, leaders of the natural lawn and garden industry will converge in Seattle June 4 for the first Northwest Lawn & Garden Pesticide Summit. "We see the region of Washington state, Oregon and Idaho as both environmentally sensitive and aware," said keynote ...

[caption id="attachment_3301" align="alignleft" width="526" caption="To make a garden bed over an existing lawn, simply cover the mowed area with six pages of newspaper and cover the paper with compost. "][/caption] Checking off the items on my Mother's Day honey-do list I found expansion of a garden front and center. For years, converting lawns to gardens was one of the most back-breaking tasks of the year ...

You may recall that SafeLawns ignited an international stir that became a furor back on Feb. 16 with the release of this letter by noted scientist Don Huber: http://www.safelawns.org/blog/index.php/2011/02/researcher-roundup-may-be-causing-miscarriages-in-cattle-humans/. The scientist, who warned of the existence of a new pathogen with almost unthinkable consequences, has since been lampooned, shunned by so ...

[caption id="attachment_3292" align="alignleft" width="432" caption="This photo, from a year ago, tells me this spring has been colder than last year in Maine 'cause the dandelions just aren't this large this year!"][/caption] We're on the road today at SafeLawns, all the way down to Florida. In honor of the season, though, we wanted to recall one of our favorite photos from last season: http://www.safelawn ...

My personal email was flooded this weekend with a historic number of natural lawn care questions. The queries were all over the map (or lawn, so to speak), but a disproportionate number came from people concerned about all the moss on their lawns. If you've been reading this blog for long, you know I'm: a) not a big fan of getting rid of moss, which never needs to be mowed and b) moss, like other so-called ...

Tukey to Appear at Several Green Week Events Paul Tukey, North America's leading advocate for natural lawn care, will make several appearances this week as part of a Green Week celebration in southern Maryland. On Thursday, May 5 at 7 p.m., the City of Gaithersburg and the Kentlands Community Foundation GO GREEN Group will present a free screening of the Emmy nominated film, A Chemical Reaction. The screeni ...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Groups Proclaim May 6 Lawn Pesticide Awareness Day Physician Cited for Leading Role on 20th Anniversary of First Chemical Ban It’s high spring across much of North America. That means the dandelions are in full bloom, the plantain is starting to flush out and the clover isn’t far behind. That also means it’s peak season for lawn pesticides, those sprays and granules used to stop weeds ...

As reported here in February, TruGreen (ChemLawn) will bail out of the landscape construction industry. In a deal that will reportedly close Friday or Saturday of this week, TruGreen's parent company will receive $38 million from a Los Angeles private equity firm — which represents a $212 million loss. ServiceMaster paid $250 million for TruGreen-ChemLawn Landcape in 1999, just 18 months before a unanimous ...

I've told this story in countless speeches and articles for the past few years, ever since I interviewed the heirs of the founders of the original ChemLawn company of Troy, Ohio. This newspaper writer from British Columbia was particularly fascinated with how the lawn chemical industry fully launched in the United States and Canada: http://www.bclocalnews.com/community/120653734.html ...