Want to talk more about Organic Turf Care?
Come visit us at NE Grows February 1-3 at the Boston Convention Center – Booth #2452!
PJC is a manufacturer and distributor of organic fertilizers and soil amendments. We provide product, consulting and business tools to landscapers, schools, and municipalities that want to transition from a conventional approach to an all natural organic turf care program for the maintenance of their lawns and athletic fields.
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…)
It is fall; so like many you are probably going to apply lime – but do you know why?
The function of limestone is to reduce the acidity of the soil and change the pH (potential Hydrogen). Liming provides three potential benefits important to growing healthy turf; improves soil chemistry, encourages beneficial soil biology, and improves soil structure.
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.
For many of us in the Northeast, the answer would be now. Or at least as soon as you can. Remnants of the April 1st snow storm have left. Longer, sunnier days are beginning to warm the soil temperature. In many areas soil temps are in the forties and inching up. For those that have been treating their lawns organically for several years the soil biology is already waking up and becoming active.
The advantage of fertilizing with Renaissance All Natural fertilizer now is due to its water insoluble nature the nutrients are going to stick around to feed the soil biology as they wake up. This allows you to put it down now without worrying that spring showers will wash it away. Let’s face it your schedules aren’t going to lighten up anytime soon, so those things that you can get done now, you should.
Feed the soil now so that you can set up your program for success later this season. For more information see The Value of Organic Fertilizers and How to Choose an Organic Fertilizer.
NOFA Massachusetts is running a series of workshops geared toward homeowners on organic lawn care at various locations around the state on Thursday, April 7th and Saturday, April 9th.
For more info click here
thegrassrootsblog.blogspot.com
As the crocuses and daffodils bravely make their way out of the ground to signal the start of a new season, we know that other, less welcome signs of spring are probably not far behind. Those bright yellow pesticide application flags that spring up on neighborhood lawns and playing fields this time are sober . . .For the Rest of the Story