by Mary Travaglini
Sometimes people ask, “Aren’t lawns bad for the environment?” Turns out that’s not true, especially if the lawns are organic and have healthy soils.
Lawn Care
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: 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.
Facing Drought? Rip Up Your Lawn!
by Jessa Kay Cruz This 2015 Xerces Society article is reprinted with permission. If you live anywhere in the western United States, you are probably feeling the effects of the ongoing drought. The National Drought Mitigation Center reports that 11 western states are currently in a state of severe or extreme long-term drought. California is in…
The Art of Lawns at Chanticleer
by Scott Steinfeldt Chanticleer is a public garden located in Wayne, Pennsylvania. It is a garden of pleasure and learning, relaxing yet filled with ideas to take home. As the home of the Rosengartens, Chanticleer was beautiful and green with impressive trees and lawns. Most of the floral and garden development you see today has…
Lawn Gone: Nourishing Our Ecosystems with Meadows
by Mary B. O’Neill, Ph.D. Reprinted with permission, this article first appeared in the July 2017 issue of Main Street Magazine. The American Dream of homeownership, good fences making good neighbors, and lush, rolling lawns – it’s the mythic trifecta of life in these United States. Or is it? Homeownership is down, while fences and…
Our Lawns Are Killing Us. It’s Time to Kick the Habit
by Mark Richardson This article was reprinted with permission from Native Plant News (Spr-Sum 2017), the member magazine of New England Wild Flower Society. Pristine turf grass lawns are as synonymous with America as baseball and apple pie. For those of us who grew up in the suburbs, waking up to the lulling drone of lawnmowers…
Five Reasons the Use of Synthetics Is No Longer a Best Practice
by Chip Osborne All industries eventually arrive at best practices that represent the most productive and efficient method to deliver desired results while at the same time minimizing negative impact. Our industry is no different. We have adopted protocols and products to deliver the green lawns and turf spaces our clients and end users expect.
Organic Turf Maintenance on a Large Scale at the Rose Kennedy Greenway
by Anthony Ruggiero Anthony is a panelist at ELA’s Large-Scale Landscapes Symposium at Wellesley College on January 18th, 2014. The Greenway is a mile-and-a-half-long public park that stretches from Chinatown to the North End in downtown Boston. It is a linear series of small parks that sit above the I-93 tunnel totaling approximately 15 acres,…
Celebrity Rehab for Lawns and Soil
by Phil Haynes Everyone can empathize with the trauma a person must go through to withdraw from chemical dependencies, and I believe there are some real similarities with rehabilitating your lawn and soil, though not as bad as what you might see on Celebrity Rehab! Converting a lawn from traditional (chemical) care to organic care…
Ecological Lawn Care
Maintenance dilemmas of a modern obsession by Nick Novick A bizarre and wasteful fetish to some, a proud achievement of a caring property owner for others, our modern “boring carpet of green” has become ubiquitous, accepted, and in some circles has even achieved status as an object of envy and desire. How we have come…
