TheMondayGarden.com

Eco-gardening is at its best in The Monday Garden
May 18, 2003, issue 60

Remember when a prefect tan and a prefect lawn were good things? A self -seeded Johnny jump-up in my mother's yard is the reward for banning the weed killers.

After DDT was banned, the butterflies came back. So did ticks. Likewise, skip the broad-leaf plant killer, and the good, the bad, and the ugly all show up: clover, buttercups, daisies, veronica, violets, oxalis, dandelions, ground ivy, plantain, nettles, knotweed, spurge, roundleaf mallow, purslane, nutsedge, fleabane, chicory, chickweed, and crab grass. Frequent weeding, over a year or two, will minimize the bad and the ugly.

We, the suburban landscapers and gardeners, have a terrifyingly huge impact on the environment.

Eco-gardening is at its best in The Monday Garden
January 4, 2003, Issue 93

<----Go to the end of this article for your New Year's Present--

This article is about clover, still cheerful despite snow and freezing temperatures, in the alleyway behind my condo.

If you read last week's comments, you'll see that the pictured location was immediately "outed" as my mother's backyard, complete with its share of non-migrating Canada geese. The local belief is that Canada geese like only mowed grass and are, accordingly, a suburban enhanced species So, we neatly combine two suburban ecology issues: our love-hate relationship with lawns and Canada Geese.

The Monday Garden, November 7, 2004, Issue 137
Eco-gardening at its best
the FREE weekly email

Look closely at the picture; this Stamford CT homeowner isn’t a “Red” or a “Blue” voter; look at the lawn – they’re clearly voting for “Green”.

Almost half of us who live in the USA , and perhaps more elsewhere, were disappointed by the results of this past week’s election where the big issues were war and terrorism, economy and “values” (whatever that means—I’m for tolerance, personally).

Unfortunately the environment wasn’t on the A list. I do suspect, though, that many of those who voted for both Kerry and Bush would also vote for a cleaner environment for us and our kids, even if it means slower economic growth, personal inconvenience and higher prices.

picture: This Stamford, CT, homeowner shows support for the environment with a lawn full of clover and broadleaf weeds with bare patches from lack of supplemental water; probably has grubs, too.

The good news is that we don’t have to wait for the politicians to do something about the environment. We can make a difference by how we conduct our lives. The really good news is that there are so many things that each of us can do every day.

The Monday Garden, Eco-gardening at its best

July 10, 2005, Issue 172

My main personal problem with the all-American all-grass turf lawn is not that it is a chemically-dependent water-waster that requires seemingly constant attendance by persons using annoyingly loud machines which excrete noxious fumes into the air and equally attractive chemicals into the ground. It is true that just one of our local plant nurseries got a seasonal delivery of something like 18 tons of pesticides and fertilizers (I could be mis-remembering the actual amount, but, could that number conceivably be right or even too low? I’m afraid so). It is true that, no matter how you slice it, this year’s lawn run-off from this year’s 18 tons or whatever isn’t real good for the water supply and all the creatures that depend on the water supply (e.g. you and me). It is also true that, because all-grass lawns are monocultures (i.e. large amount of one kind of plant), they can’t help but be magnet for plagues of bugs and disease, which, of course, then have to be kept at bay with the on-going “IV drip” of supplemental food, water and bug- and weed-suppressing chemicals.

Be that all as it may, my main problem with a perfectly manicured sweep of lawn is that it is boring, boring, boring. There is no way around it: the oh-so-neat-and-uniform all grass-lawn is the green equivalent of aluminum siding.

Picture: Dutch white clover and a Johnny jump-up in my mother’s chemical-free yard. Stamford CT, June 2005.

Test this for yourself: Walk across a field of blooming clover interspersed with violets and Johnny jump-ups; find some tiny white, yellow and purple wildflowers you can’t identify. Check out the butterflies. Now, check your heart rate and your mood. Feels nice, huh? If you don’t have such a space near by, close your eyes and pretend. Alternatively, if you happen to own a yard, you can make this happen (yes!).

TheMondayGarden.com, Eco-gardening at its best

April 16, 2006, Issue 202

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD PRINT-QUALITY COPY OF THIS ARTILCE

GOOD NEWS: Now you can get rid your lawn of weeds without chemicals or a backache. Indeed, it doesn't even cost much to become the envy of your neighbors. Not only that, your community group can help spread the good news by selling the product as a fund raiser!

This past week, I cleared the undesired broad-leaf weeds and the crabgrass from ¼ acre of lawn in an hour flat, leaving plenty of time to over-seed with new grass, weed the garden, and actually enjoy the spring flowers. Imagine that!

This "better mouse trap" of weed and invasive plant control, dubbed "The Dandelion Terminator" or the "DLT-100", is the invention of Ed Reed, a Montana carpenter. It is a special drill bit-like device that fits into the average electric drill and that effortlessly cuts the broad-leaf tap rooted weeds away just below the root crown, making it hard for the weeds to regenerate.

The DLT-100 costs $25 and change -- about the price of a ½ gallon or less of nasty weed killer. Further, there is no way that the DLT-100 can cause cancer or asthma, or result in dangerous chemical residues building up in your water or your lung tissue. The DLT-100 also totally selective -- you decide which plants to keep and to kill. Some may even find the DLT-100 so much fun to use that they'll be praying for weeds.

PICTURE: My mother, who normally doesn't operate an electric drill, having no problem taking out some fleabane.

I did two days of testing on untreated lawns that had plenty of "weed" samples. I found that the DLT-100 works even better than the inventor claims in that it handles a much wider variety of plants than just the broad-leaf tap-rooted lawn critters like dandelions and plantain. I also found the DLT-100 extremely easy and safe to use (but please, READ THE INSTRUCTIONS!).

Now, here's the even better part: anyone can use it, regardless of bicep circumference and mechanical inclination. And the guys love the DLT-100! In my second trial, at a friend's house, her husband tested the DLT-100 and was absolutely sold -- he's getting one pronto. So if you're trying to wean your man off the lawn chemicals, buy him a DLT-100. In no time, he'll be skipping the herbicides and encourage the weeds so that he can impress the neighbors with his very own Dandelion Terminator.