HeraldNet: Gardeners leading the eco-friendly way



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Eco Geek

May 13, 2008

The Herald (click to enlarge)

This daylily was grown in Arlington without pesticides or chemical fertilizers.

Gardeners leading the eco-friendly way

Posted at 12:01 am by Sarah Jackson

Green thumbs, it seems to me, are often more in tune with the earth than the average, brown-thumbed Joe.

Digging around in the dirt, being outside, tending delicate seedlings and working with — not against — Mother Nature often does that to a person, especially gardeners who go through the Master Gardeners training program, which offers a practical approach to sustainability.

Unfortunately, not all gardeners are thinking green when it comes to the health of the local environment. They dump weed-and-feed products on their lawns in a quest for better grass, effectively overfeeding and overweeding, which causes harm to local water and animals. (There is no better definition of overkill than misapplied weed-and-feed products.)

There is good news, however, according to a recent survey sponsored by the Garden Writers Association Foundation.

TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence, a national consumer polling organization, asked gardeners: "When making purchases for your lawn or garden, how concerned are you about the environmental impact of the products you buy?"

Sixty eight percent of household respondents with a lawn or garden said they were either very concerned (34 percent) or somewhat concerned (34 percent).

Households that expressed a neutral stance totaled 21 percent while 5 percent said they were not very concerned and 4 percent said they were very unconcerned.

Pardon me, but how chemical happy or blissfully unaware do you have to be to be in that last group, “very unconcerned” about the environmental impact of the products you buy?

Do you want to find alternatives to insecticides, pesticides and weed-and-feed products?

Check out this page from the King County hazardous waste department today.

You can read the entire 2008 Late Spring Gardening Trends Research Report here.

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