Droughts on the West Coast, epic snow and flooding rain on the East Coast, and fertilizer fueled algae in the Great Lakes and the Gulf, if we didn’t realize how important water was, we do now.
But did you know that there are really fun and easy things we can do with our kids to teach them where their water comes from and how to protect it? See our article in MindBodyGreen, and send it around. Water is a shared resource, we need all of our friends and neighbors to take care of it, too!
What we do in our yards matters. If we work together we can make a huge improvement in water quality, easily.
http://goo.gl/t3puIj

The World Health Organization labeled glyphosate as a probable carcinogen because it causes cancer in laboratory animals and damages the DNA in human cell cultures. Also because it has been linked to non-Hodgkins lymphoma in agricultural exposures in the US, Sweden, and Canada. If we use this chemical in our yards it will be in our drinking water. We don’t need it!
The best way to fight weeds is by having good soil culture and outcompeting them with the plants (including grass) that you want. Pulling them out with a great weeder can work. But sometimes they pop up on our driveways and patios, or are resistant and invasive and we need a little help. Cutting the weed back and painting the stump with horticultural vinegar (20% acetic acid) or clove oil is a good solution. But if you want to just reach for a bottle of something, here are some options. Burnout is citrus oil and clove oil, Avenger is citrus oil, and A.D.I.O.S. is sodium chloride-salt. I would limit A.D.I.O.S. to spot treatments to limit the salt load to wells and streams.

Thrilled to be a guest on Mike McGrath’s You Bet Your Garden. His Saturday radio show is a great place to get information on how to care for your garden naturally.
Here is the link. The interview is from 13:57 to 25:35, but the whole segment is wonderful with great information about snow mold, especially important after this harsh, snowy winter.

Thank you to the Akron Beacon Journal for the wonderful article about The Great Healthy Yard Project! “Lewis said many people think they can’t be exposed if they don’t use them in their own yards, but the effects don’t stop at the property lines…(they) make their way into our drinking water supply. Even though water treatment removes most of them, Lewis argues that even tiny amounts can be dangerous because they have a cumulative effect in our bodies.”

1. Aerate to relieve compaction.

2. Overseed to outcompete weeds. Choose the right seed for your area.

3. Test the soil for nitrogen, phosphorus and pH with a soil testing kit or with the help of a university cooperative extension. Use compost to replete nutrients only if necessary and lyme to adjust the pH if needed.

4. Leave the grass clippings to replace nutrients and help retain moisture.

5. Add clover, alfalfa, or cowpea to your lawn. They have bacteria and fungi on their roots that can take nitrogen from the air and change it into a form plants can use. They are a natural, ongoing, and healthy way to feed your lawn and garden.

Caring for our lawns and gardens is all about nurturing our soil culture. Well, almost all about soil culture. It is also about changing our mindset so that we are happy with a few weeds because we know it is healthier for our families.

New baby chicks came the last week of February. They lived in water troughs on our breezeway where it was warm and sunny until this week when our new, larger coop arrived. And just in time, they are so much bigger! Soon they will be all over our yard eating lots of insects. The Welsummer chick in the top picture has most of her first feathers now. Below, she looks almost like a chipmunk.

Thrilled that The Great Healthy Yard Project is included in excellent Consumer Reports Magazine article that will get many, many yards off to a healthier start this spring! A great 7 Step guide to sustainable lawn care, with tips about how to fertilize if you need it, protecting our precious Monarch butterflies, and even great recommendations to decrease water use-a must in many parts of the country. I even learned that there are rechargeable electric mowers that help keep our carbon footprint down!

A bill introduced by Ohio State Senator Randy Gardner passed in the assembly and is headed to the Governor. The bill aims to decrease phosphorus going into the lake by 40 percent. Measures to decrease fertilizer and manure runoff from farms by prohibiting the application to fields during the winter when they are snow covered or frozen, or to water saturated ground in the early spring.
We can all do our part, too. Development is rapidly encroaching on farmland in Ohio, and what homeowners do matters, too. See my op ed in the Cleveland Plain Dealer June, 2014.
I will be at the Cleveland Botanical Garden April 10th and 11th with Alec McClennan to talk about how we can have really beautiful yards without the chemicals that tarnish our drinking water. Alec is an expert in making this work. An athlete and a dad, he says “Stay on the Lawn!”

Thrilled to have an op ed in the Baltimore Sun! Maryland is ranked fifth highest in population density in the country and large lots are the rule. The chemicals we put on our yards wind up in drinking water and in the Chesapeake Bay where they hurt crabs and feminize small mouthed bass. We can have beautiful