Grow

Taking care of your lawn the organic way can save you both time and money. Plus, it allows you to do it in an environment-friendly setting.

With chemical fertilizers such as pesticides, herbicides, and commercial fertilizers, you run the risk of not only harm yourself but the environment as well. Sure, they seem to do the job, but do you really want a “chemicalized” garden or a healthy place for you and your family to walk, play, or picnic on? In the long run, organic fertilizers are more cost-effective as they don’t destroy the natural nutrients present in your lawn soil.

Ever wonder what farmers did hundreds of years ago to fight off crop pests? Long before the invention of harmful chemical pesticides (yes, the kind that is linked to cancerous cellular activity), farmers and householders came up with multiple remedies for removing insect infestations from their garden plants.

The following list will offer some of our favorite, all-natural, inexpensive, organic methods for making bug-busting pesticides for your home garden.

Gerald Prolman has a long and successful history of developing and introducing innovative organic perishables on a large scale.He founded Made In Nature, the first company to successfully market a line of organic produce to mass-market retailers in the United States. In 1995, Prolman created "Guidelines for the Development for National Standards for Organic Production" to facilitate the acceleration of a global organic movement. Prolman also led the initiation of Veriflora, an international eco-floral certification adopted by some of the world's largest flower growers.

DYERSBURG, Tenn. — For 15 years, Eddie Anderson, a farmer, has been a strict adherent of no-till agriculture, an environmentally friendly technique that all but eliminates plowing to curb erosion and the harmful runoff of fertilizers and pesticides.

But not this year.

On a recent afternoon here, Mr. Anderson watched as tractors crisscrossed a rolling field — plowing and mixing herbicides into the soil to kill weeds where soybeans will soon be planted.

Lush green.
 
That's the way Jane Witmer describes the lawn around her Seattle house. But if you look closely, there's some moss and some clover. "Wildflowers are beginning to bloom pink in the grass," she said.

The small imperfections are the price she pays for keeping her lawn organic.
 
"It's better for my health, and the health of my pets and my family," Witmer said. "It's better for the health of the bugs and the birds in the yard."

 Peter DiClemente spent his whole working life in the family lawn care business, mowing some of the same lawns his grandfather mowed in the 1930s.

But something nagged at him. More of his customers were voicing concerns about the pesticides he was applying to their lawns. DiClemente, of Newton, Mass., had young children and was worried about the effects of the chemicals on them.

Three years ago, DiClemente put his last flag in a lawn that read: "Caution: Pesticide Application KEEP OFF."

Comfrey is a perennial herb that has been used medicinally for centuries for its healing properties in treating wounds, arthritis and even broken bones. More recently, a strong hybrid has been developed called ‘Russian comfrey.’ Russian comfrey is now widely available and the best choice for maximising the yield, as its leaves that can be harvested up to four times in a growing season.

With the move in all areas of our lives today to become more and more self sufficient and relying less and less upon non renewable energy resources, organic gardening has seen a tremendous re-discovery that has not been seen before. In the past century, it has been more or less a fad that has definitely come and gone many times. But today, the move is more of a way of sustainable living and not a fad anymore.

Most days, Ed Murtagh spends hours behind his desk in Suite 1028 of the south building at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, trying to figure out how to conserve energy, reduce waste and make other environmental improvements.

But starting this month, Murtagh will regularly get up from his desk, walk outside and literally make the department greener.

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