by Ben O’Brien
Installing and Maintaining Landscapes
Proper installation and maintenance of the ecologically designed landscape begins a pattern in which each component in the landscape supports the others. Ecological methods can save you time, resources, and money by keeping water and organic material on site and by utilizing organic soil amendments and chemical interventions only when testing shows they are necessary.
Eco-Answers from the Pros: How Clean Should Fall Cleanup Be?
As I begin fall cleanup in my gardens, what are your recommendations? Should I clean beds off, cutting foliage and remaining seed heads off? Are there some plants best cut off and others that are good to leave until spring? Also, should I remove leaves entirely from the ground around plants? I didn’t get all the leaves removed from beds last year and had a lot of damage to plant roots from either voles or moles.
Advances in Organic Weed and Pest Control – Fall Treatments
by Joe Magazzi
Get the latest on organic treatments for lawns in autumn. No aspects of organics have come further along in the last couple of years than organic weed and pest control – with major advances in technology and knowledge available to growers, designers, and applicators.
Eco-Answers from the Pros: Help with Bishop’s Weed
Help!! I have bishop’s weed all over my yard. I don’t use pesticides and I’m afraid to use vinegar because I don’t want to kill any surrounding plants. I live in Litchfield hills in the north west corner of Connecticut. I’m looking forward to spring but dreading seeing the bishops weed. I hope you can…
Eco-Answers from the Pros: What Should I Do with Leaves?
I am a groundskeeper who is trying to manage my grounds in a more ecological manner. I currently mulch (chop into tiny bits with the lawnmower) my leaves and leave the mulch on the lawn. I’m wondering would it be better for me to leave the leaves whole and let them blow around where they may. Or perhaps collecting them and dumping them into nearby non-lawn naturalized areas? Any insight you can provide is very helpful.
The Orchard Ecosystem: Haphazard Mulching
by Michael Phillips
Orchard health isn’t about a tidy appearance, it’s about rich biology that feeds your trees. By releasing cultural notional about the manicured garden, you can find a way to please the neighbors while accommodating principles of health and diversity.
Maintenance Post SITES™ – Certification Journey at Dancing Tree, Part 2
by Margot Taylor
SITES certified six years ago, Dancing Tree is a model of a sustainable landscape, and the only residence with three-star certification. Now that the site is well established, the focus is on maintenance and resource management. This is the second part of an article about Dancing Tree; read Part 1 at Certification Journey at Dancing Tree.
Join Margot for an Eco-tour of Dancing Tree: Artfully Designed Pollinator Oasis on May 9, 4:30pm.
Eco-Answers from the Pros: Dreaming of an Eco-lawn
I would like to have an “eco-lawn” (some sort of fescue?) for my Martha’s Vineyard home. My goal is to have something that looks like a lawn, requires little mowing and water, ideally requires no fertilizer, can thrive in sandy soil, and handles salty air. Am I a crazy dreamer?
Maintaining Grounds Equipment, an interview with John Reilly
by Bruce Wenning
As the head mechanic at the oldest country club in the United States, John Reilly is responsible for a range of equipment and maintenance needs. Take a glimpse at the inner workings of an organization that requires meticulous lawn care and landscape maintenance.
Leave the Leaves!
by Justin Wheeler Reprinted with permission from the Xerces Society’s blog. Besides providing the right plants, and protecting your garden from pesticides, one of the next most valuable things you can do to support pollinators and other invertebrates is to provide them with the winter cover they need in the form of fall leaves and…
Book Review: Fruitful Labor
Fruitful Labor: The Ecology, Economy and Practice of a Family Farm Written by Mike Madison Published by Chelsea Green Publishing, 2018 Reviewed by Rhiannon Lewis Mike Madison is a farmer, a biologist, and an advocate for biota at all scales. From the soil fauna, to the cultivated crops and the native creatures, Madison espouses a…
Moving the Ball Forward: Making Green the Standard
by CJ Lammers In 1999, I started experiencing what Western medicine could only define as “frozen shoulder.” I couldn’t raise my arms above my head or dress myself. It was strange because it started in one arm and over time engulfed the other. My doctor kept saying, “You must have injured yourself at some point…
