My PEP Badge Tracker: An easier way to track your PEP Badge Progress
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Barbara Simoes wrote:James, thank you for that. Yes, I have done quite a bit, and I've had many garden clubs reach out to me and ask for tours. Just last week, I gave three or four tours; one group consisted of at least thirty people, so there is interest out there and people want to be or are becoming educated on better gardening practices.
There is a quiet revolution brewing, especially being people are also starting to eat better and are taking to heart the saying, "You are what you eat." After having supply chains so disrupted during Covid, prices of groceries sky-rocketing and artificial everything being put into what is sold as food, say nothing of soil depletion, bird flu or even just the love of birds and butterflies, people are wanting better. The lady across the street, although she still has all lawn, is raising chickens.
Getting rid of some lawn and growing your own is having a moment. I try to live by example--this is a big reason why I planted out the entire swath in front butting right up to the sidewalk where people pass every day. I constantly see people stop and point--usually at all of the strawberries or the asparagus but as the apple trees grow along with the persimmons, medlars and paw paws, I bet there will be a whole new discovery. A lot of people have said to me that they never thought of growing asparagus/strawberries/mushrooms/rhubarb/figs etc. until they saw mine. In the spring, I offer strawberry runners, I bring extra fruit to the food shelf and give away elderberry and rhubarb starts. As I talk with neighbors, I have them taste serviceberries and offer them some suckers to plant. They just need to start growing something and see that they are able...it's an addictive hobby for sure. I just try to give them a little nudge by offering what I can for free.
The pic I've included is from when the garden was just a year or two old. You can't see the strawberries that covered the ground or the fruit trees planted because they always come as sticks and take a while to grow. It was a very conscious decision to plant recognizable flowers by the sidewalk because of dogs, curb appeal and attracting beneficial insects. Right now, the asparagus has ferned out and is 8' tall, but it's behind the Regent serviceberries which are planted the entire length and help support the fronds from tipping over. I now use mulched leaves and raw wood chips, but I was getting ready for Charlie Nardozzi, to come over to see it, so I used up some purchased mulch.
Barbara Simoes wrote:While all of this is true, I'm sure, many don't use chemicals, fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides or gas-powered equipment. I've never watered my lawn and it is seeded with lots of clover and other weeds which help to release nitrogen when cut. I harvest plantain and other beneficial weeds from it for salves and medicines.
Your message would be better received if you used a less lecturing tone and instead made positive suggestions: As equipment breaks, think about converting tools to electric as you can, invest in solar--there are lots of grants and electric companies are offering help.
Personally, my heating system is geothermal powered by solar--over twenty years ago, I had a well dug just for the geothermal heating and cooling. I haven't bought oil in over 20 years; I drive electric, and I have permaculture gardens all over my property with hundreds of fruit and nut trees, thousands of smaller fruit producing shrubs, etc.
The implication that all lawn is bad is getting really old for me. It's nice to have a soft area to walk on, a lot of wildlife use it--robins gathering worms, rabbits eating clover, etc., it's calming to my eye, and, by comparison, it is quite low maintenance (I'm 65 so these things matter.) Using an electric mower is a compromise that I think is valid. I live here and maintain it all by myself; appealing to my aesthetic is a real factor as well as attracting wildlife. I don't use outdoor lights at night unless I'm expecting someone; because of this, I have a healthy population of lightning bugs, moths, bats, etc. I have frogs and foxes and even an occasional bear. I have people on all sides who just have lawn, so I am a wildlife oasis. I will not apologize for the bit of lawn that I do have, though. Balance and a few niceties are important. The militant no lawn attitude is just not working for me when all of the negatives have been removed. It's sort of like "No Mow May" that was all the rage. I did some research about it, and it started in England and it was where people just asked that the hell strips and public roadside areas not be mowed until after insects could hatch and fend for themselves. It was never meant to be a replacement for people's lawns. They then discovered that creatures would live in these unmown areas assuming safety, only to be mown down come June, removing their habitat and therefore killing the very things that people were trying to protect. Even Doug Tallamy has come out to say that this is not a good practice.
I've read Doug Tallamy and Robin Wall Kimmerer who were both life-changing for me, and I agree with everything they talk about. Tallamy talks about striving for 70% natives. That's great. Some people might only have ten plants on their property, so seven of them being native qualifies. I have 40 blueberry bushes alone, all sorts of elderberry, paw paw, and persimmon ...the list goes on and on. I have lots of native flowering plants like asters, Joe Pyeweed, monarda and shrubs like viburnums, witch hazels, chokeberries and dogwoods as well. (There are too many to name, so this is a very incomplete list.) I let some milkweed and goldenrod grow and I mulch with wood chips and leaves. I don't till my vegetable garden and I let things go to flower and seed in the fall...I've inoculated most areas with wine cap mushrooms. Many people do these things.
Remember, you'll attract more bees with honey than you will with vinegar!james matalik wrote:Best mowing alternative is not to have a lawn.. plant trees or natives.. or at least something that needs mowed less.
https://www.opnseed.com/collections/eco-friendly-lawn-alternatives
Lawn Turf Facts:
- It's the number one irrigated crop in the US
- It's the number one fertilized crop in the US
- It's the number one crop for pesticides in the US
- It's the number one crop for herbicides in the US
- Homeowners don't need licenses to use these chemicals (farmers do!)
- Many of these chemicals end up in landfills and waterways.. and eventually in our groundwater and oceans.
- A gas-powered mower emits as much pollution per hour as 11 cars.
- Most common lawn grasses are not native to North America.
- With 85 million home lawns and over 16,000 golf courses, you have close to 50 million acres of cultivated turf in America.