ANTC™ All Natural Turf Care Clippings

We’re approaching the second week of May. Timing is critical in the success of your organic lawn care program.  By now hopefully you have:

• Taken your soil tests
• Put down your 1st application of Renaissance® All Natural Organic Fertilizer
• Limed according to your soil test results (though this is helping get things ready for late fall and next season)
• Repaired any bare areas of your turf coverage by top-dressing and over-seeding
• Put down Hum-Amend or pelleted compost to help improve CEC
• Begin raising mowing heights to 3 1/2″

If you haven’t, you’ll want to get going and a minimum get the above steps completed in the next week.

STURBRIDGE, MA – Nationally renowned organic turf grass educator Chip Osborne will present the “Natural Lawn and Turf Management Training” on Monday and Tuesday, March 12 and 13 at the Sturbridge Host Hotel in Sturbridge, MA from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Geared towards lawn care professionals and municipal officials, this two-day program will cover all aspects of how to transition properties from conventional programs using synthetic and chemical products to a natural organic system. The training will present the building blocks of establishing and maintaining a natural turf system.

Additionally, the program will include problem solving sessions, how to set client or end user expectations and the economic costs and benefits of introducing a natural program into one’s business, municipality or school district.

Presenter Chip Osborne does a great job presenting information that is relevant and applicable to the turf manager. We highly recommend this course for those interested in starting or improving their Organic Turf Care Program.
Class starts Monday and there is still time to register. Tuition Price: $350.00

Contact: Chip Osborne (781) 631-2468 or info@osborneorganics.com

PJC will be exhibiting at the New York State Turf & Landscape Show at the Westchester County Center, White Plains, New York on January 11, 2012. PJC will also be discussing building your landscape maintenance business by offering All Natural Organic Lawn Care.

January 9-13, 2012 at Worcester State University, Massachusetts

This 5-day intensive course covers all aspects of designing and managing naturally- beautiful landscapes that protect the health of people, pets, and local ecosystems. Thirty hours of instruction include site analysis and design, organic turf, soil fertility, water conservation, and the control of pests, diseases and invasive species.

For more information, visit www.organiclandcare.net or contact the Program Coordinator, Caro Roszell at (508) 360-0874 or caro@nofamass.org. Registration is $520 if registering by Dec 17 (includes daily locally-sourced lunch). Professional Accreditation is optional. 15% off total registration for groups of three or more.

Mowing: Assuming you allowed turf to grow to 3-3.5”, slowly begin reducing height of cut to prepare for winter. Finish the season at approx. 2 inches high. Grass that is kept long over the winter promotes snow mold in the spring. (more…)

According to BioCycle the United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) sent a letter to DuPont August 11, 2011, ordering the company “to immediately halt the sale, use or distribution of Imprelis®, an herbicide marketed to control weeds that has been reported to be harming a large number of trees.”

As such, DuPont is implementing a “voluntary” suspension of sale of Imprelis® herbicide, and will soon be conducting a product return and refund program for the product.

The New York Times reported on July 14, 2011, that the new Dupont herbicide Imprelis® is suspected in the deaths of thousands of Norway spruces, eastern white pines and other trees on lawns and golf courses across the country.

On May 25, 2011, the U.S. Composting Council (USCC) began warning composters to watch out for grass clippings contaminated with a new herbicide from DuPont – Imprelis®.

Somewhat ironically; Dupont states in their FAQ that when disposing a tree damaged by Imprelis® “do not chip the tree for use in mulch or compost.”

NOFA/Mass will host two “Organic Lawns & Landscapes Refresher” workshops, on Friday, August 12 from 8am to Noon at UMass Amherst, Campus Center Room 904-908, with Chip Osborne, in conjunction with the NOFA Summer Conference; and again Friday, August 19 from 9am to 1pm at the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge in Newburyport, with Javier Gil. Practical skills and problem solving will be the focus of these four-hour intensive workshops. Beginning with an overview of the systems approach to organic landscaping; soil testing; soil amendments; managing nutrition; grass types; and compost tea, Osborne and Gil will then delve into practical solutions for real-life landscape
problems. Case study examples will be explored in depth within small groups, with the goal of boosting students’ hands-on knowledge of organic lawns and landscaping and how to transition to organic management with success, cost-efficiency and grace.
Cost: $100 for the general public; $75 for NOFA members and NOFA AOLCPs. Register online at www.nofamass.org. More info: Kathy Litchfield at (413) 773-3830 or Kathy@nofamass.org.