“Almost one in 10 of Europe’s wild bee species is at risk of extinction because of threats from the spread of farms and pesticides among other factors, a first assessment of the continent’s bee populations showed on Thursday.” The bees are essential to crop production and feeding a growing world population. But they are also an indicator that these chemicals are harmful to all of us and to the wider ecosystem. This spring we can make our backyards refuges for bees, birds, and butterflies by simply refraining from using pesticides. Planting native plants gives them a big added boost, too.

So thrilled an honored to be a finalist for the Independent Book Publishers Benjamin Franklin Award in the Home and Garden category. I think women have an intuitive connection with both health and the environment, so it is particularly fitting that I published with a women’s press, She Write’s Press. Thank you to Brooke Warner and Kamy Wycoff for making that possible!

So thrilled to have an OpEd today in the Camden Courier Post! “The Philadelphia Flower Show’s focus on conservation is nothing new. Garden clubs and flower shows have always been about conservation, and Philadelphia has been at the forefront of the garden club movement since the Horticultural Society was founded in 1827.” I am a member of Bedford Garden Club in Bedford, New York. Along with the Philadelphia Garden Club it was one of the founding clubs of The Garden Club of America and has a long history at being on the forefront of conservation.
And congratulations to The Philadelphia Garden Club! Their entry at The Flower Show in 160 Gardens was award winning! Their club won a blue ribbon on Friday, received a special citation and won on Wednesday in the class.
Thanks to Laurie Marshall, the club president, for the wonderful picture.

Thank you for the wonderful coverage of The Great Healthy Yard Project today at 2pm in the Gardener’s Studio at The Philadelphia Flower Show!“We are at a tipping point with these dangerous chemicals….Dr. Lewis launched The Great Healthy Yard Project to show families how to get the green without exposing their children to toxic chemicals.”

The European Union is poised to pass sweeping regulations to restrict pesticides and other chemicals that disrupt hormones in order to protect the public health. To help in this assessment, the European Union requested a study to evaluate the economic cost of exposure to hormone disrupting chemicals. With the support of the Endocrine Society, scientists across the globe collaborated in this evaluation. Researchers concluded that these chemicals do indeed interfere with our hormonal balance, and the result is costly. Most expensive is the cost of neurodevelopmental problems from exposure to these chemicals. This was estimated to be $228 billion a year. Obesity and diabetes are also high ticket items at over $27 billion a year. These costs are calculated for the European Union, but would be expected to be similarly staggering in the United States.
The financial cost of these problems is borne by all of us, through higher health care costs, special education, and taxes. The personal cost can’t even be calculated.
While regulations are being contemplated, it is easy for us not to use these chemicals in our yards and gardens. This will go a long way to protecting our drinking water from these chemicals that we know are harmful. It will also save us money, both in terms of health costs, and in our yards.

A bill passed by the House (HR 212) on Feb. 23rd calls for the EPA to list toxins released by the algae and suggest effective means of treating water to remove them. The bill is introduced into the senate as S460. These are really important measures.
But even more important in the long run is preventing these algae blooms by preventing excess nutrients from entering our water bodies. An easy way for us all to help is to manage our yards sustainably without synthetic chemicals.
If we foster good soil culture our lawns will sustain themselves once they are established. If we plant lots of well adapted native plants, they will flourish without chemicals.
With rapidly encroaching development and because homeowners use more chemicals per acre than farmers do, we can make a big difference by how we take care of our yards.
We can save money doing this, and have more beautiful yards.

So appreciative of the wonderful article on the cover of the Life&Style section of The Journal News today!
“Dr. Diane Lewis has a simple message for all homeowners — stop putting chemicals on your lawn. The grass doesn’t need it and all you’re doing is putting dangerous chemicals into our water supply. In fact, she’s hoping that a perfect emerald-green lawn will become a new badge of dishonor in suburban neighborhoods….As part of the Great Healthy Yard Project, which she launched in February 2014, Lewis is also trying to get people to stop flushing pharmaceutical drugs or household chemicals down drains and toilets.”
Story Bill Cary, image Mark Vergari, Journal News.

Patrick Sullivan, Parks Director for Springfield MA has a background in agriculture, so he understands that soil culture is the foundation of healthy yards and gardens, not chemicals. I was thrilled to help launch the Springfield Organic Program, and look forward to continuing to work with the town for healthier yards and cleaner water.
The January 22 launch was covered on channel 40
Better Life Whole Foods and the City of Springfield won a $20,000 grant from Umass Lowell’s Toxics Use Reduction Institute (TURI). This will fund an organic fertilizing and maintenance practice pilot program at the Frederick Harris School grounds, Sweeney Playing Field at High School of Commerce, Forest Park Playing Field, Tree Top Park, Camp Wilder, and the terrace at Mason Square. experience from these pilot sites will provide the foundation for the program to expand into 50 school properties and 500 acres of public land.

An article in Science Magazine this week explains that despite gardener’s best intentions, back yard gardeners that are planting milkweed may in fact be endangering the struggling Monarch butterflies because they are planting the wrong milkweed. The only species of milkweed widely available in the US is Asclepias curassavica. It survives the winter in the southern US, tempting Monarchs not to migrate. It also harbors a parasitic infection that kills them. Monarchs infected with a parasite don’t survive migration down to Mexico, so this would normally limit any spread of the parasite. But since some of the Monarchs are spending the winter on the tropical milkweed in Texas and the gulf states, the parasitic infection is becoming rampant and threatening further a species already on the brink due to habitat loss.
The good news is that what backyard gardeners are doing is making a huge impact, and this is easy to solve: plant native milkweed.
Native milkweeds:
1. Common milkweed Asclepias syriaca L.
Synonym(s): Asclepias intermedia, Asclepias kansana, Asclepias syriaca var. kansana
2. Butterfly milkweed or Butterfly weed Asclepias tuberosa

Sally Peterson, an accomplished native gardener in Ashland, Oregon was given a stack of garden related books by “Homes and Gardens of the Northwest”. She chose two books to review that she thought would be helpful to other DIYers. One was “The Great Healthy Yard Project!” The other, “The Wildlife Friendly Vegetable Gardener” by Tammy Hartung sounds wonderful. Thank you for the wonderful review, Sally!