As promised, here is another excerpt from my book, the Organic Lawn Care Manual (Storey Publishing, 2007). This relates to natural products that can be used as fertilizers: Animal By-Products Call me old-fashioned, but I still take all the manure I can get from the local farmers in my town. I grew up on a dairy farm and helped my grandfather spread cow manure on everything from the cornfields and hay fields ...

Wouldn't it be great if you could feed your lawn and landscape without ever going to the garden center? Nothing against garden centers, mind you. If I have to shop, that's where I like to go. My point for this post, though, is that you don't necessarily HAVE to buy bagged products to apply to your gardens. All sorts of naturally occurring materials can be used as fertilizers. Here are just a few (as culled ...

(NOTE: This interview was conducted by Canadian journalist Mary Romanowski, who is allowing me to post it here) An Interview with Activist Paul Tukey, Narrator of A Chemical Reaction A new documentary film, A Chemical Reaction, is set to make the rounds at the film festival circuit for the next few months and then be released on DVD in 2010. Centering on the anti-pesticide movement that has swept across Can ...

The news arrived yesterday that the state of New Jersey is about to enact bans on phosphorus in lawn fertilizer. This will no doubt anger the chemical fertilizer industry, which continues to suffer hit after hit in Canada and the U.S. Their lobbyists will send out all sorts of information to explain why this is a bad idea. Even people who aren't lobbyists are not quite sure the phosphorus in lawn fertilizer ...

Scientists at the University of California-Davis released a study this week that suggests environmental changes including pesticides are likely at the root of the increase in autism. "It's time to start looking for the environmental culprits responsible for the remarkable increase in the rate of autism in California," said Irva Hertz-Picciotto, an epidemiology professor at University of California, Davis wh ...

For those of you who live in the warm-season areas of the country as it relates to lawn grasses, you'll want to take note of what's happening in Tampa, Fla. A local lawmaker, Karl Nurse, was able to push through an ordinance limiting the amount of St. Augustine grass in any new landscape to 10 percent. St. Augustine has been the lawn grass of choice for much of Florida for the last several decades. Landscap ...

If you checked out the segment on Good Morning America that was co-produced by www.SafeLawns.org on Friday, July 24, these are the products that were mentioned: 1) Dr. Earth — http://www.drearth.com/products/lawn-food/. 2) Bradfield Organics — http://www.bradfieldorganics.com/corngluten900.html 3) Bradfield Organics — http://www.bradfieldorganics.com/lawnandgarden315.html Both of these brands, although now ...

My friend Virginia Smith of the Philadelphia Inquirer posted this article today. It offers both sides of the issue with regard to lawn care: http://www.philly.com/philly/home/gardening/51373677.html ...

From the New England Cable News Network today: http://necn.com/Boston/New-England/2009/07/21/Organic-movement-changes-lawn/1248212508.html ...

  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (www.njfilmfest.com) Film Asks: Banned in Canada, Why Not Here? A Chemical Reaction Set for New Jersey Film Festival NEW BRUNSWICK, NEW JERSEY — Aiming to bring Canada’s lawn and garden pesticide revolution to the United States, the producers of the controversial documentary movie “A Chemical Reaction” announced a work-in-progress premiere at the New Jersey Film Festival. Centered on ...