How to change your life - change your lawn!

The Case for Change

An organic organic approach to lawn care is over-due for so many reasons:

• Lawns are depleting our groundwater supplies:  Some estimates indicate that lawn care uses 50% of our county’s potable water. Lawn irrigation, particularly in-ground watering systems, increase summer water use to levels three to five times higher than winter water use. Use of nitrogen-rich chemical fertilizers and fast-growing shallow-rooted grasses exacerbates the problem. Water shortages from your neighbors lawn care lead to increased water prices for everyone, water bans and enforced conservation.  Many of the non-native lawn seeds from Europe or Kentucky, with very shallow roots, are naturally adapted to environments that are wetter than ours.  In New England, and most of North America, these foreign, shallow root, high maintenance grasses leads to a pattern of frequent watering and frequent mowing, particularly if chemical fertilizer is used.
• Wasting energy and adding to greenhouse gases:  Watering lawns with water that is filtered for human consumption and pumped to our homes wastes huge amounts of energy. Producing commercial fertilizers from petroleum is energy intensive, and costs are rising as oil prices rise. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, running a typical lawn mower for an hour is eleven times more polluting than running a mid-size car full of people and luggage for an hour. So, the energy-intensive fertilizer, water from the town and lawn mower pollution in a standard lawn greatly increases your family's carbon foot print.

• Run off and unnecessary health risks: A stagering amount of chemicals are used every year on lawns. Between 50% and 80% of lawn care chemicals run off lawns with the rain and into storm drains, ending up in the watershed or local ponds, causing algal blooms and feeding the invasive weeds out of control. Again, the majority of lawn chemicals is feeding the invasive weeds in our ponds, not on your lawn! Then, local communities use expensive herbicides to get rid of the invasive weeds in the ponds and low levels of both the fertilizer, pesticides and the herbicide may end up in your drinking water.  Use of pesticides and fertilizer in urban and suburban communities contributes significantly to contamination of our drinking water and other surface water supplies.  This also increases health risks to children, pets and the elderly and increases school department budgets from learning and behavioral disorders caused by the lawn care chemicals. So, chemicals put on your lawn impact the whole community in many ways, including finances, clean up, invasive weeds and health.  
• What ends up in our homes affects children, animals and others: Lawn care chemicals and pesticides get carried indoors into homes on shoes, paws and air currents. Once inside, pesticides linger in carpets, dust, on toys and in the air we breathe. These chemicals normally break down outside over time with sunlight. However, away from sunlight and water, pesticides persist for many months, resulting in longer exposure to these chemicals indoors. According to health experts at the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection prolonged exposure to the pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers in lawn care chemicals is responsible for an alarming increase in the risk of learning and behavioral disorders in children and increased risk in adults for asthma, Parkinsons's disease, cancer and a number of other ailments. The increased health risks are much higher for children, the elderly and our pets. According to Dr. Margo Roman, a veterinary expert, "50 years ago, only 5% of dogs got cancer. Today, over 46% of dogs get cancer, and there is evidence suggesting this alarming rate is caused by the widespread use of lawn care fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides." In response to these concerns, "a new era in pesticide use has begun in Quebec with the banning of many domestic products that have chemicals considered toxic to humans and the environment." Read the report from the Organic Consumers Association.

Pearl's Premium provides a compelling value proposition for residential, commercial and municipal property managers:

• Cut mowing costs by up to 75%
• Cut chemical use
• Reduce or eliminate irrigation/watering

Selected Pearl's Premium commercial and municipal installations and their primary benefit:

• Park - reducing mowing and maintenance costs in low traffic areas
• Traffic Circle / Median - minimizing mowing in dangerous area
• Public Service Building - reducing mowing and maintenance costs
• Assisted Living Facility - avoiding investment in irrigation, creating healthy environment for seniors
• Utility Sub-station - reducing mowing and maintenance costs
• Swim & Tennis Club - elminating chemicals around pool and play areas
• Cemetery - reducing mowing time

Purchase Pearl's at World Class Supply

How to mow once a month, not water and save the planet

An organic organic approach to lawn care is over-due for so many reasons:

• Lawns are depleting our groundwater supplies:  Some estimates indicate that lawn care uses 50% of our county’s potable water. Lawn irrigation, particularly in-ground watering systems, increase summer water use to levels three to five times higher than winter water use. Use of nitrogen-rich chemical fertilizers and fast-growing shallow-rooted grasses exacerbates the problem. Water shortages from your neighbors lawn care lead to increased water prices for everyone, water bans and enforced conservation.  Many of the non-native lawn seeds from Europe or Kentucky, with very shallow roots, are naturally adapted to environments that are wetter than ours.  In New England, and most of North America, these foreign, shallow root, high maintenance grasses leads to a pattern of frequent watering and frequent mowing, particularly if chemical fertilizer is used.
• Wasting energy and adding to greenhouse gases:  Watering lawns with water that is filtered for human consumption and pumped to our homes wastes huge amounts of energy. Producing commercial fertilizers from petroleum is energy intensive, and costs are rising as oil prices rise. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, running a typical lawn mower for an hour is eleven times more polluting than running a mid-size car full of people and luggage for an hour. So, the energy-intensive fertilizer, water from the town and lawn mower pollution in a standard lawn greatly increases your family's carbon foot print.

• Run off and unnecessary health risks: A stagering amount of chemicals are used every year on lawns. Between 50% and 80% of lawn care chemicals run off lawns with the rain and into storm drains, ending up in the watershed or local ponds, causing algal blooms and feeding the invasive weeds out of control. Again, the majority of lawn chemicals is feeding the invasive weeds in our ponds, not on your lawn! Then, local communities use expensive herbicides to get rid of the invasive weeds in the ponds and low levels of both the fertilizer, pesticides and the herbicide may end up in your drinking water.  Use of pesticides and fertilizer in urban and suburban communities contributes significantly to contamination of our drinking water and other surface water supplies.  This also increases health risks to children, pets and the elderly and increases school department budgets from learning and behavioral disorders caused by the lawn care chemicals. So, chemicals put on your lawn impact the whole community in many ways, including finances, clean up, invasive weeds and health.  
• What ends up in our homes affects children, animals and others: Lawn care chemicals and pesticides get carried indoors into homes on shoes, paws and air currents. Once inside, pesticides linger in carpets, dust, on toys and in the air we breathe. These chemicals normally break down outside over time with sunlight. However, away from sunlight and water, pesticides persist for many months, resulting in longer exposure to these chemicals indoors. According to health experts at the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection prolonged exposure to the pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers in lawn care chemicals is responsible for an alarming increase in the risk of learning and behavioral disorders in children and increased risk in adults for asthma, Parkinsons's disease, cancer and a number of other ailments. The increased health risks are much higher for children, the elderly and our pets. According to Dr. Margo Roman, a veterinary expert, "50 years ago, only 5% of dogs got cancer. Today, over 46% of dogs get cancer, and there is evidence suggesting this alarming rate is caused by the widespread use of lawn care fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides." In response to these concerns, "a new era in pesticide use has begun in Quebec with the banning of many domestic products that have chemicals considered toxic to humans and the environment." Read the report from the Organic Consumers Association.

 Purchase Pearl's Premium Grass Seed Here

Overview:

Pearl's Premium Saves Time, Money & Water

• Saves hundreds of dollars in lawn watering, fertilizer and mowing each season
• Never / seldom needs watering once established (drought tolerant grass seed)*
• Grass grows so slowly, only needs cutting once a month
• Thrives without chemicals and pesticides
• Eliminates hours of lawn mowing and lawn maintenance each month
• Cuts your carbon footprint
• Stands up to heat (sunny mix); grows in deep shade (shady mix)
• Creates a lush beautiful organic lawn
• Eco friendly lawn stays green all year long

Pearl's Premium also provides a compelling value proposition for commercial and municipal property managers:

• Cut mowing costs by up to 75%
• Cut chemical use
• Reduce or eliminate irrigation/watering
• Park - reducing mowing and maintenance costs in low traffic areas
• Traffic Circle / Median - minimizing mowing in dangerous area
• Public Service Building - reducing mowing and maintenance costs
• Assisted Living Facility - avoiding investment in irrigation, creating healthy environment for seniors
• Utility Sub-station - reducing mowing and maintenance costs
• Swim & Tennis Club - elminating chemicals around pool and play areas
• Cemetery - reducing mowing time

Save Water via Xeriscaping

How to Xeriscape

Edited by MA, Paul D, Cipher_nemo, Webster and 9 others

Posted on WikiHow.com

Xeriscaping is a conceptual form of gardening that uses drought-tolerant plants and grasses to beautify a home or business. Xeriscaping may become the method all future gardeners will use to develop their gardens as water becomes an increasingly precious asset to the world, especially in arid climates such as the desert. The term Xeriscape was coined by the Front Range Xeriscape Task Force of Denver Department in 1978 as a way to promote water efficient landscaping. The name Xeriscape is a registered trademark of Denver Water. The root word Xeros is from the Greek language and means dry. Xeros was combined with the term landscape (which means to modify land). ^[1] Xeriscape gardening is as varied and beautiful no matter the location. It does not mean gardening with only cacti, succulents and rock. It means to landscape a garden with plants that use lesser amounts of water to help people lower their water bill and reduce maintenance.

STEPS:

1. Analyze the site: The key to xeriscaping is to understand which plants' needs are satisfied easily by the site, and the only way to know this is to determine what the site provides naturally, with minimal effort. Draw a map of your yard (try to keep it to scale, if you can) and gather the following information:
   
   
   Make a sun chart. Find out which are the sunniest and which are the darkest parts of your site. Every few hours, record where the sun is shining on your map. Keep in mind that the site's exposure to sunlight will also vary at different times of the year, as well as different parts of the world (the sunniest part in one person's garden may still get much less sunlight than the darkest part of someone else's yard).
   • Perform a soil analysis. Which nutrients are readily available (or deficient) in the soil? What is the pH? What kind of soil are you working with--clay? silt? loam? gravel? All of this will affect which plants can thrive on the site. You might consider amending or tilling the soil to "jump start" the soil processes that create healthy soil, but don't try to dramatically alter the nature of the soil you're working with or else it's becoming a time-consuming, high-maintenance effort (the opposite of xeriscaping).
   • Study the rainfall patterns for your site. How many inches or centimeters of rain does the site get per year? Is it spread out through the year, or is it concentrated in a short, "monsoon" period?
2. Classify the zones: There should be three ways to classify every zone in your site:
   
   
   • Oasis - Close to a large structure; can benefit from rain runoff and shade (which reduces evaporation, keeping more water in the soil); can also exist surrounding a large tree or at the edge of a forest/orchard
   • Transition - A "buffer" area between oasis and arid zones
   • Arid - Farthest from structures, low-traffic, receives the most sunlight
3. 
   

   A lush desert garden
   Select plants: Obtain a list of plants appropriate for your region. Use the USDA guidelines or the Sunset Western Garden book for zone information. From that list, choose a variety of plants that will tolerate drought conditions. Consult the list below for suggestions. Another way to approach it is to find out which plants are native to your area.
   
   Remember that your site should be planted in receding "layers". Think of each structure (the house, a large tree) as a focal point. At each focal point, you add a few bright, eye-catching species that are still well-suited to local conditions. As you get further away from the focal point, the plants become more subtle and also more drought-tolerant. As you're browsing lists of plants that are suitable for your area, keep these design guidelines in mind, as well as the sunniness, rainfall, and soil type of your site.
4. 
   

   A bluebonnet lawn.
   Fill large areas with a lawn substitute. The typical green lawn is a thirsty and high-maintenance "carpet". You can replace that carpet by restoring a native prairie or planting ground cover (such as a clover lawn), or you can use ornamental grasses which grow in clumps, surrounded by mulch (the idea being to only use grasses as an accent, rather than make them the major focus of the garden). The area that would normally be the lawn is usually classified as arid, so covering that area with low-maintenance plant species makes a big difference.
   
   
   • If the "lawn" area is so expansive that the low-maintenance plants draw too much attention, consider creating a focal point at the center. This can involve planting a drought-resistant tree or shrub, a raised bed, or a decorative structure (such as a wheelbarrow overflowing with flowers). It may require a little additional watering (try to minimize this) but at least it'll keep the site aesthetically pleasing while the surrounding area "rests" with low-maintenance species.
5. 
   

   Group water-needy plants together near structures.
   Group water-needy plants together near structures. Preferably, plant them in containers so the roots will get more water (rather than it seeping into the surrounding soil, where it can encourage the growth of weeds); you may even consider using self-watering pots. The pots themselves can be decorative accents.
   • 
     

     Notice the plant groups based on water needs.
     An alternative to using containers would be to create a retaining wall (essentially a very large container), which has the added benefit of making your oasis plants stand out more.
     
     
   • Arrange plants based on the amount of sunshine available. Some sides of the structure will get a lot more sunlight than others. Since some plants can take more sun and heat than others, plant the more sun-friendly, drought-tolerant plants where most of the afternoon sun will be located.
   • Develop a water thrifty irrigation system if necessary. Install drip irrigation to water plants. Water evaporation is minimized thereby saving precious water for other uses. Also, the slower you water, the less run-off there is.
6. 
   

   Petunias mediate between the tall bustling plants and the walkway
   Soften the boundaries. Fill the transition areas between arid and oasis zones with plants that fall in the middle of the spectrum in terms of water and sunlight needs and aesthetics. One way to do this is to create a "cascade" effect from the oasis plants (tall and bright) to the transition zone (a little shorter, catching attention by texture rather than color, such as shrubs, bushes, or ornamental grass clumps) to the arid zone (low-lying, subtle and very drought-resistant). If there is a retaining wall, however, a transition zone may not be necessary. Ultimately, see what looks best to you.
7. Another type of Xeriscaped lawn based on location. Notice the retaining wall for soil retention.
8. Mulch.

Choose an appropriate mulch to help reduce erosion and suppress weeds. Organic, wood-based mulch will also retain moisture. As it decomposes, it'll improve the soil over time, but it needs to be replaced regularly. A stone or gravel mulch, on the other hand, does not need to be replaced, but it should be lined with landscape fabric in order to keep weeds from growing through the mulch, and it will retain a good deal of heat (which can damage delicate plants). It also attracts fewer insects.

Purchase eco-friendly materials and supplies for your building, lawn and garden needs at World Class Supply.

Sustainable Lawncare Information and Solutions

Millions of dollars are spent each year designing, implementing, and maintaining urban landscapes. Unfortunately, long-term problems are caused when these processes are not carried out properly. Many of these problems can be avoided or reduced by utilizing sustainable landscape practices. A landscape developed with sustainable practices will improve the environment by conserving resources and reducing chemical applications. A sustainable landscape will also reduce labor inputs making it less expensive to implement and maintain.
The key to creating a sustainable landscape is understanding that the design process should be considered first. Plant selection, implementation, and maintenance build on the design process, each having sustainability as a major consideration.

According to one estimate, 40 million acres of land is devoted to turfgrass in the United States with nearly 75 percent in home lawns and more than 30 billion dollars spent on annual lawn maintenance1. It is no wonder that the large amount of resources allocated to lawn care and the impact that they have on the environment has called the sustainability of lawns into question. This critical attention has challenged lawn managers and turfgrass research programs across the country to develop and work toward more sustainable, lower input turf/lawn ecosystems. While SULIS defines sustainability in a general way, sustainability as it relates to lawns can be defined as a lawn area that requires few material inputs while having a positive impact on the environment. Creating and maintaining a more sustainable lawn begins with proper selection of the best adapted grass species and varieties. Proper site preparation, lawn installation, and appropriate follow-up care will help reduce the need for inputs of the established lawn. The Sustainable Lawn Care Information Series (SLC) consists of the following chapters.
	Upper Midwest Home Lawn Care Calendar for Cool Season Grasses The lawn care calendar is a guide for maintaining lawns in the upper midwest area. It covers the general care needed to maintain an average home lawn typically found in this geographic area. It is not intended to cover all aspects of lawn care, or to cover all different growing conditions that may exist on a specific property.
	Environmental Benefits of a Healthy, Sustainable Lawn As a groundcover, healthy lawns provide important environmental benefits to our communities. Properly established and managed lawns, combined with good sustainable landscape design, can help protect and preserve water quality.
	Grass Plant Growth and its Relationship to a Sustainable Lawn Understanding a few basic principles of grass plant biology is important. Planning maintenance to take advantage of the natural growth cycles and habits of grass is the first step in developing a more sustainable lawn care approach.
	Turfgrass Selection for a Sustainable Lawn Lawn sustainability begins with good landscape design. Selecting the best adapted species and varieties for particular areas of the landscape is just as important as choosing trees and shrubs best adapted to the different locations within a landscape.
	Establishing a New Lawn to Achieve Sustainability The best time to build in sustainability is when an area is first being prepared for a lawn. Following tried and true methods for site preparation and grass establishment will help insure a successful and sustainable lawn for many years to come.
	Renovating an Existing Lawn to Achieve Sustainability Introducing lower input grasses into an existing lawn will often be the first step in establishing a more sustainable lawn cover. Also, using the elements of sustainable landscape design to evaluate appropriate locations for lawn areas will help create a more overall sustainable landscape.
	Understanding and Using Lawn Fertilizers A vast array of fertilizers are available for use on lawns. Choosing those best suited to your site (such as near water bodies) or to the plant species and varieties in your lawn, does not need to be intimidating. A healthy lawn, achieved with modest inputs of the proper materials, can be very satisfying.
	Mowing Practices How a lawn is mowed largely determines the need and frequency of maintenance required by that lawn. Sharp blades and proper height of cut will help keep grass growing vigorously and maintain adequate shoot density to completely cover the soil surface.
	Watering Practices Efficient watering practices are important to all homeowners who want to conserve water, maintain a sustainable, healthy turf and reduce maintenance costs. Understanding how grass plants use water and their ability to tolerate dry conditions is the first step to putting the right plant in the right place to perform the right function. This is a key concept in establishing a more sustainable lawn.
	Weed Management Too often, the term "sustainable lawn" has been associated with lawns allowed to become neighborhood weed patches with no resemblance to a "maintained" lawn. While lawns maintained on very low inputs may have a few weedy plants in them, having well-adapted grass species and varieties will help keep significant weed infestation to a minimum.
	Home Lawn Disease and Insect Pests Properly maintained and healthy turfgrass will tolerate the presence of low levels of pest populations without suffering permanent damage. Healthy turfgrass usually recovers more quickly from insect and disease infestations. However, there may be times, even in healthy lawns, where some pest control is needed to prevent significant damage.

World Class Supply carries Pearl's Premium grass seed, which once established requires no watering, is ever-green, only needs to be mown once a month.  This translates to the saving of  time, equipment, gas and machine pollution from the usual 7-10 day grass mowing.