We CAN Be Green

Green Quick Tips: Fall Lawn Care

Be Green: Use organic lawn fertilizer for your fall lawn care

Now is the best time of year to lay the foundation for a strong and healthy lawn for next spring. Stop the damaging cycle of using chemical fertilizers and make the switch to an organic lawn fertilizer for this fall's application.

Many major name brands like Scott's have a general organic fertilizer and can easily be found at your local Home Depot or Lowe's. If you want a more specific fertilizer for your soil type or region, try a search on google as there are plenty of smaller companies now offering shipping on their organic lawn fertilizers.

Thank you for reading and here's to Being Green!

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Green Quick Tip: Give Dead Plants New Life

Go Green: Compost, compost, compost

With fall quickly approaching, I'm sure I'm not alone watching my garden slowly die away. But just don't let those plants sit there all winter slowly rotting away. Give them new life by pulling them out of the ground and adding to your compost bin or compost pile. They will add vital ingredients to your compost and help breath life into your spring plantings.

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Going Green: 8 Lawn Mowing Tips

Go Green: 8 Tips For Mowing Your Lawn

1. Check your mower - sharpen the blade as necessary; check gas and oil levels before each use; clean out undercarriage
2. Pick the right time to mow - early evening is best and always try to avoid the heat of the day
3. Adjust height of mower - vary height according to season. lower in spring, raise for summer, back down in fall
4. Change directions - each time you mow, you should mow in a different direction
5. Overlap - overlap the tire track by about 2 inches as you mow in the opposite direction
6. Mulch, mulch, mulch - if your lawn isn't too long, don't bag your clippings. just let them stay on the lawn to decompose
7. Watch how much you cut - never cut more than a third of the grass height on any one day
8. Proper maintenance - keep your mower in good working condition by changing the oil and filter as well as hosing off the entire mower several times a year

What other tips would you add?

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Green Quick Tip: Eco-Friendly Lawn and Garden Tools

Go Green: Replace Your Old Lawn & Garden Tools

Most of us that mow our own lawns and tend to our own gardens have been using the traditional gas powered tools since we learned how to push a mower. However, nowadays, there are many options available to us like tools that are powered by electricity, lithium batteries or even propane.

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Going Green: 12 Tips On Watering Your Lawn

Go Green Grass Care: Water Your Lawn Correctly and Responsibly With These 12 Tips

1. Water your lawn in the early morning hours.
2. Factor in soil type, grass species, rainfall, evapotranspiration, amount of sun & shade to help you determine how much & how often you should water.
3. Buy a timer to turn your watering system on and off.
4. Pick the right sprinkler for your needs (ask your local garden center for help).
5. Use wetting agents if your soil is not absorbing water efficiently.
6. Check on local ordinances before using gray water (recycled water from clothes washers, bathtubs, etc) to water your lawn.
7. Dethatch and aerate if there is too much dying grass which can lead to soil becoming compacted and less able to absorb water.
8. Match the correct grass species to your climate which will help cut down on watering.
9. Raise your mower blade so your grass stays healthy and requires less watering.
10. Consider your source of water when determing how often and how much to water your grass.
11. Plant drought tolerant plants rather than lawn grasses to decrease your water use.
12. In drought like conditions, let the grass go into dormancy. You can wake it up next year.

Have any other tips to add?

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Thank you for reading and here's to Going Green!

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Going Green: Talking Dirt(y)

Go Green: Expand Your Soil Vocabulary

Before you start to add any compost or organic fertilizer to your garden or yard, you should have a basic understanding of soil, soil color, soil texture and soil structure. 

• Soil - A loose mixture of sand and organic material, used to support plant growth. Soil is mostly a product of weathering.
• Soil Color - Indicates soil moisture status and is often described by using general terms, such as dark brown, yellowish brown, etc. Soil colors are also described more technically by using Munsell soil color charts, which separate color into components of hue (relation to red, yellow and blue), value (lightness or darkness) and chroma (paleness or strength).
• Soil Texture - There are three types of soil texture: sand, silt and clay. It describes the relative proportion of different grain sizes of mineral particles in a soil. Below is an example of a soil texture diagram courtesy of the Scottish government.

• Soil Structure - Determined by how individual soil granules clump or bind together and aggregate (in other words, their shape). Soil structure has a major influence on water and air movement, biological activity, root growth and seedling emergence.

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Green Product(s) of the Week: 2 Books to Help You Understand Your Soil & Lawn

Go Green: Team with microbes for healthy soil & grow a beautiful organic lawn

This spring, I ordered two books from Amazon to learn more about the soil in my garden and yard and how I can transform my lawn from one that was treated synthetically for years by the previous owner to one maintained organically.

After much research, I found the following two books that met my personal needs.

Teaming with Microbes is more technical than the The Organic Lawn Care Manual and is, in my mind, a prerequisite. It will help you understand in more detail on what is actually going on in your soil and what constitutes healthy soil. Then once you are armed with that knowledge, and applied it to your garden, you should pick up the Organic Lawn Care Manual. This book will teach you how to grow healthy and organic grass that fits with its use.

I hope you enjoy these two books and learn as much from them as I have.

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Here's to Going Green!

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Green Quick Tip: Natural Lawn Care

Go Green: How Natural Pesticides, Native & Companion Plants Can Give You Green Green Grass

Stop treating your grass with harmful chemicals that kill 60% to 90% of the earthworms in the treated area. Natural pesticides and herbicides are safer for your kids, pets and the aforementioned earthworms.

Check out the following sites:

highcountrygardens.com

beyondpesticides.org

ghorganics.com

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Here's to Going Green!

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Green Tips: Gardening: 7 Tips For Starting A Family Garden

Going Green: 7 Tips for a Family Garden

These days, it seems that kids spend most of their time indoors playing video games or watching television. A great way to get your kids off of the couch and save some money at the same time is to start a family garden.

The benefits of a garden are numerous. First of all, you get to save money on food. In a garden you can grow fruits and vegetables which are the staples of a healthy diet.

Number two, a garden is very eco-friendly. By growing your own food you save on trips to the grocery store which saves gas and decreases pollution. It also saves on the effects of trasporting fruits and vegetables to your local supermarket. Also, fresh foods contain more of the vitamins and nutrients your body needs so you’ll be getting healthy.

Introduce your kids to nature in a way that shows how it directly benefits them. If you take the care to tend your garden, you will have delicious food to eat anytime. There’s nothing like feeling hungry and going outside to pluck a juicy red tomato off the vine.

Here are 7 tips for families who want to “go green” by producing their own food in a family garden.

1.    Get everyone involved. Tilling the soil is a big job for one person; have the entire family help prepare the ground for the garden.

2.    Read up on gardening. The reason so many people don’t have vegetable gardens is because they don’t know what’s involved. When you start without a plan, you are soon to fail.

3.    Decide what you will plant. Most gardens are begun at certain times of the year depending on what vegetables you choose and where you live.

4.    Use organic fertilizers and insect repellents. Organic gardening products are eco-friendly and allow you to eat foods right off the vine or out of the ground if you choose. Adding friendly insects to your garden, like ladybugs, will take care of undesirable pests without any chemicals.

5.    Weed the garden. Weeds can choke growing vegetables and ruin a garden. Regular weeding is a necessary part of bringing your vegetables to harvest. Take turns so no one feels like they are doing all the hard work themselves.

6.    Freeze or give away extra vegetables. You will have enough for the months when nothing is growing. Sharing your vegetables with friends and neighbors might inspire them to begin their own garden.

7.    Watch your garden grow. There’s nothing wrong with taking a daily tour of the garden with your kids. They can see the fruit of their labors as the vegetables enlarge and push through the soil. You have a front row seat to see nature at work.

Do you want a family activity that is environmentally sound and saves money? Start a family garden using the 7 tips above. Also contact your local cooperative extension office for more on gardening.

Here's to going green!
Follow me on Twitter @jaygregory