OLC Articles

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Daniel MacPhee

NOFA Accredited Organic Land Care Professional, 2008 
Yale Sustainable Food Project Manager
New Haven, CT

By Kathy Litchfield

The gentle snow of early March emphasizes our crab apple’s arching limbs, the dogwood’s gracefully spreading branches, and the ash’s stiff uprightness.

Once upon a time, in what feels like a lifetime ago, AOLCP Camilla Worden worked as a polymer chemist researching epoxy resins in the plastics and additives division of a large Swiss firm. She earned her master’s degree in business at New York University and then worked in marketing and product management, getting out from under the chemistry laboratory hood.  Then one day, she found herself staring out the window, and wondering what it was like outside.

"Many US cities and some states, even in the Northeast, report that 50% of residential water use goes to lawns and landscapes," says Amy Vickers, author, Handbook of Water Use and Conservation (WaterPlow Press),  "Over 75% of the river drainage basins assessed in Massachusetts are classified as 'flow stressed,'

Must do:

• Set your mower as high as it will go (3 to 4 inches).
• Water only when your grass shows signs of drought stress and then water deeply. (Put a cup in your sprinkler zone and give your grass about 1" inch of water.)

Many so-called “weeds” are beneficial to the lawn ecosystem and weeds are tolerated in an organic lawn to varying degrees. It wasn’t until the advent of selective herbicides that a lawn consisted of only grasses. Before that, any plant that lived under the mower blade was considered “lawn.”  This diversity of species led to lawns which were more tolerant of adverse conditions.

In an attempt to attain the perfect lawn, Americans are using enormous quantities of water, fertilizer, herbicides, pesticides and fossil fuels to make grass grow more vigorously, then spending time and money on a weekly basis to keep it short.

http://www.fosterfollynews.com/news/2011Jan4Savemoneybyusingleavesasamulch.php

Save Money by Using Leaves as Mulch

Mulch is any material placed on the soil surface to moderate the soil environment and enhance landscape aesthetics.

Before we ask, “What perennials should we plant?” we may want to ask the larger question, “Why do we plant perennials?” In the past, herbaceous plants

It’s one of the worst possible itches, and most of the time, you don’t even know where or how you picked it up. Poison ivy, Rhus radicans, is a native plant that is usually less than welcome in the suburban yard or garden.  While its fruits provide valuable food for birds, its oil, urushiol, secreted by its leaves, stems and roots causes an allergic reaction in many humans. 

By Alex Beguin

The process of naturally breaking down organic matter into soil has been around since our planet first started sprouting plants. Humans have used composting since the days of hunting and gathering. One could imagine families and villages throwing all of their organic waste into a pile to rot and soon realizing that it made terrific soil to plant with. Thousands of years later, we still find a large amount of the population who take advantage of this natural process to help their gardens produce more, their house plants grow stro

Adapted from a factsheet by the Organic Lanscape Alliance, Toronto, Canada 
http://www.organiclandscape.org/ (Used with permission.)

Lawn chemicals are unnecessary. Historically, organic lawn care has been practiced for much longer than chemical lawn care and it can easily be implemented on any lawn. Safe and effective alternatives exist for most chemical pesticides and fertilizers. There is no need to expose our families, communities and local wildlife to chemicals that are known or potential hazards.