[caption id="attachment_5511" align="alignleft" width="540"] This photo, from 101 years ago, shows families gathered on the organic lawn of the White House for an Easter Egg hunt. [/caption] Raise your hand if, like me, you're over the age of 50. If your hand is in the air, that means you recall a different time and place with a whole lot less stuff. You probably remember not having a cellphone, a Wii or an ...

We go through a debate every few weeks at our house until my wife overrules my daughter and forces me to mow the lawn, including the areas we endeavor to keep "nice" and the outlying areas where I like to call it "naturalized." To my daughter all the non-grass plants that pop up are more flowers for her bouquets. Eventually, for my wife (and me), the weeds become a bit too much of a symbol of our independen ...

[caption id="attachment_5489" align="alignleft" width="563"] Please take a moment to let the EPA know how you feel about the pesticides known to cause colony collapse disorder in bees. [/caption] As we reported late last month, the EPA declined to ban CLOTHIANIDIN, one of the compounds most responsible for the bee deaths that have plagued U.S. farmers and gardeners for the last six years. Now the EPA has op ...

[caption id="attachment_5477" align="alignleft" width="540"] This photo was sent to us from Jeff Borkowski of Massachusetts, where the lawn is watered daily — contributing to the massive population of crabgrass. Ironically, this stand of crabgrass in the North looks a lot like a healthy carpet of St. Augustine or centipede grass in the South. [/caption] By this week in August EVERY YEAR almost universal aff ...

[caption id="attachment_5469" align="alignleft" width="544"] Even if you catch my (pesticide) drift in your lungs or on your skin, it's not my problem according to a Minnesota court (National Pesticide Information Center photo).[/caption] Second-Hand Pesticides Are An Unfortunate Fact of Life If someone fires a gun or an arrow in your direction that's clearly violating your space. If someone tosses garbage ...

[caption id="attachment_5462" align="alignleft" width="540"] The organic lawn makeover at Glenstone, a modern art museum in Potomac, Md., is showcased by Joe Lamp'l's Growing a Greener World on PBS.[/caption] Barely two years from the initial phone call for our consultative services, one of our primary clients — Glenstone — takes a bow today with the airing of an organic lawn care special on Growing A Green ...

As we reported earlier this week, the Environmental Protection Agency has decided to ignore the pleas of beekeepers and farmers and allow synthetic nicotine pesticides to stay on the market — despite overwhelming evidence that proves the materials are the primary catalyst in Colony Collapse Disorder in honeybees. That's not a good enough answer for Kirsten Gillibrand, the United States Senator from New York ...

[caption id="attachment_5451" align="alignleft" width="540"] This is the appearance of a typical drought-stressed lawn in many parts of North America right now. In all likelihood, however, it will recover when the weather cools and rain returns.[/caption] As the news continues to build about the now-epic drought conditions sweeping the nation, my neighbor was outside this afternoon applying more fertilizer ...

[caption id="attachment_5421" align="alignleft" width="540"] Poor installation and/or maintenance of a sprinkler system causes excessive weeds (unwanted plants including grass) to grow on this school track in California.[/caption] This post comes with a warning: we are going to pick on some people. Some folks in California apparently hold themselves up as grounds professionals and caregivers of children. We ...

Two weeks since SafeLawns announced the historic pesticide protection legislation passed at the Nation's Capitol, numerous other municipalities have been calling us for information about how it happened. We won't mention them here; at this point that would only tip the hand of the chemical pesticide lobby groups. Your every step is important. First off, here's the DC bill; the wording is critical: dcpestbil ...