Happy Holidays . . . Louise Quigley has the seventh day of her Advent calendar marked for a not-so-warm celebration. She's headed to court to defend her right to grow native plants on what some in the neighborhood think should be a traditionally mown lawn. While she claims that in the past 20 years numerous people in her suburban Shorewood neighborhood have stopped by to tell her how much they love her road ...

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 ...

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 ...

Do you like knowing that your organic food was grown with the appropriate safety measures? Do you feel comforted knowing that the government takes real, tangible steps to ensure poisons are kept out of food labeled as "organic?" The National Organic Standards Board is considering numerous changes to these safeguards and is accepting public comments through this Sunday. Please stay informed and pass this lin ...

The popular Internet radio program Ecoman and the Skeptic will air a 30-minute live interview with SafeLawns founder Paul Tukey on Wednesday, Nov. 9, at 3 p.m. Eastern time. Hosted by professors Rob Fleming and Chris Pastore, the long-running show can be reached at 888-346-9141 and listened to live at http://www.voiceamerica.com/show/1463/ecoman-and-the-skeptic ...

As reported here last month, a group of Illinois residents successfully fought a plan to spray local playing fields for weeds. To show they're serious, those same folks are offering to pull the weeds by hand to satisfying the aesthetic expectations of the community at large: http://highlandpark.suntimes.com/news/8526419-418/park-board-rounds-up-volunteers-to-weed-fields.html. ...

I had six cubic yards of compost delivered today that needed spreading across my lawn. Not to worry, I had plenty of help . . . ...

[caption id="attachment_4404" align="alignleft" width="324" caption="California led the charge to ban methyl bromide, but stockpiles still remain that may be used in certain situations."][/caption] In Maryland, where we have more SafeLawns followers than any state outside of New England, folks are asking us to get involved in a growing controversy surrounding the planned use of the toxic methyl bromide on a ...