Calendar

Have you heard that our traditional way of yard/garden work, involving the heavy use of pesticides and herbicides, is on the way out?   The April 24 Pesticide Action Network e-newsletter states: 

Home Depot "will voluntarily stop selling traditional pesticides and herbicides by the end of the year and will replace these products with less environmentally harmful alternatives." The move coincides with the April 22 Earth Day announcement that Ontario will join Quebec as the second province to formally ban the use of so-called "cosmetic" pesticides on residential lawns, gardens and parks. "Now that we have Quebec and Ontario, there is huge pressure on the other provinces," said Gideon Forman, executive director of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment. "The next obvious one would be British Columbia."

Our May 22 Sierra Club program will feature two speakers who will help you as you move towards less or no use of toxic chemicals on your lawn. 

Andy Szatko, landscape designer with CM Custom Lawn and Landscape, will describe landscaping features that help with storm-water management, such as rain gardens, the use of permeable surfaces, and using native plant materials that require less watering, fertilizing, and chemical treatments. 

Paul Gilligan is the founder and owner of Natural Turf Care, a lawn-care application company that doesn’t use synthetic fertilizers or toxic pesticides and herbicides.  Paul will give tips on how you can care for your lawn in an organic and sustainable fashion.

We’ll learn about some environmentally-friendly ways to design our landscape, and care for our lawns, without the use of toxic materials that are not only harmful to people and pets, but also cause run-off that degrades our water quality.

Sierra Club programs are free and open to the public.  For more information contact Mary Green at 556-1830, or mary.green@nebraska.sierraclub.org