After years of pitched battle, a homeowner reaches détente with her grass.This summer, all has been strangely quiet on my yard's southwestern front.
It's the site where, three years ago, I launched a campaign to convert my lawn to organic care. That meant substituting toxic or synthetic chemicals to combat weeds and foster growth with natural ingredients from plant, animal and mineral sources such as corn gluten meal, seaweed extract and worm waste. In the heat of battle, I tested some wild weapons -- a flamethrower to toast weeds known as plantains and a drill attachment called the Dandelion Terminator that rips out the hearts of those yellow intruders. When weeds fought back my neighbors mocked; more than once, I considered surrendering.
But now, a welcome détente has set in. My grass is holding its own and looks good enough that visitors offer compliments -- a first at my house. I accept, although a bit reluctantly, because the truth is, I've been an absentee lawn warrior this year. All I managed to do this season was to fertilize and toss down some corn gluten to inhibit weed growth. There are still some patches of surly plantains and crabgrass, but nothing that two hours of hand-weeding and some extra grass seed won't fix this fall. And no watering has been necessary -- we've had decent rainfall but organic lawns are also notably drought-resistant -- and I mow about two to three times a month. In short, my lawn regimen has become boring.
This is what the experts promised when I first started chronicling my foray in this newspaper. "Year three, that's your turning point," said Scott Meyer, editor of Organic Gardening magazine, back in 2006. Along the way, readers offered creative solutions to keep spirits high, from dousing weeds with boiling water to eating them.
Today, however, the industry is moving well beyond homespun remedies. By year's end, Home Depot says it will voluntarily stop selling traditional chemical pesticides and herbicides in all its Canadian stores, replacing them with green alternatives as more of that country's communities ban pesticides for residential cosmetic use. Here in the U.S., the retailer says the organic category continues to blossom, with "double-digit" sales increases in organic landscaping products. And industry leader Scotts Miracle-Gro, which already sells an Organic Choice lawn fertilizer, says it will launch a full U.S. line of natural lawn products as soon as next year, complete with weed and pest controls. The company already offers such products in Europe and Canada.
"The emerging technology is increasingly encouraging," says Jim King, Scotts's vice president of corporate affairs.
Just how well new products like Organic Choice work, and how much educational and marketing muscle the company puts behind them, will be critical to taking the organic lawn movement more mainstream. While interest has surged -- today, 12 million households say they use only all-natural products on their lawns and gardens, about double the number in 2004 -- that's still a small fraction of the 100 million U.S. households with yards or gardens, according to the National Gardening Association. Partly, people accustomed to quick fixes with traditional pesticides and fertilizers still don't understand how natural products work. When asked, a mere 14% of people said they felt knowledgeable about organic lawn care, according to a 2008 NGA study.
In fact, organic care is pretty simple: Get soil healthy and pH-balanced using compost and other amendments so it fosters grass growth; the grass then crowds out weeds and doesn't require chemicals. But some skeptical homeowners think going "organic" is the same as doing nothing. I wondered too, and so when I started my quest, I left a large test area of the lawn untouched. Today, it's almost all weeds and there's a noticeable line between where the organically treated lawn begins and ends.
Perhaps the largest hurdle organic proponents face are long-held attitudes about what makes an attractive yard. In Harmony Sustainable Landscapes Inc. in Bothell, Wash., has offered three tiers of service for 10 years: "No Weeds," "Minimum Pesticides" and "Completely Organic." Today, about 60% of customers are still in the middle, wanting to decrease their environmental and health impact but still asking for a spot application of herbicides once a year. While corn gluten inhibits root development of weeds when they are germinating, there currently is no truly effective organic herbicide that can kill existing weeds but not the grass around it. "Weeds drive people crazy," says In Harmony co-owner Ladd Smith.
This perception has pitted neighbor against neighbor, with organic advocates likening pesticide use to second-hand smoke and the other side complaining about dandelion drift from the au naturals' lawns. Unlike Canada, all but nine U.S. states currently forbid local lawmakers from enacting residential pesticides bans because they would pre-empt looser state laws.
But that could change as homeowners become increasingly concerned about the health ramifications of the paint they spread, the countertops they install or the glue in the cabinets they hang. Earlier this year, a bill was introduced in California to restore local communities' rights to ban pesticides. And data from institutions such as the Mayo Clinic and the Harvard School of Public Health linking pesticides to Parkinson's and certain cancers in pets are further fueling the organic movement.
Paul Tukey, founder of SafeLawns.org, has been on the road since 2006 promoting organics. Five years ago, he says, he'd have been "chewed up and spit out." Now, 38 states later, he says audiences "greet me like a hero with answers.'"
And in a growing number of areas, large lawns are simply becoming passé. At In Harmony, an increasing number of clients are requesting lawns be substituted with indigenous plants and vegetable gardens. For my part, that's starting to seem like a more interesting and financially fruitful challenge -- at day's end, I'd be rewarded with something I can consume, as well as gawk at. Talk about impressing the dinner guests.
By: Gwendolyn Bounds
Wall Street Journal; August 23, 2008
