Occupy Watertown Training Session This Thursday

 Posted by Occupy Watertown
"The 99% Spring", a free education and training course designed to educate people about the Occupy Movement in the North Country, is set from 4:30-8 p.m. this Thursday, April at the Flower Memorial Library in Watertown.

People living in the North Country are invited to join in solidarity to share, learn, and take action to keep this movement growing, diversified, and leaderless.

This is a FREE education and training campaign on how individuals can use non-violent, direct action and coordinated community campaigns to create a new movement that addresses specific needs, resources, and well-thought out intentions; to develop a peoples-driven economy and voice of reason.

99% SPRING TRAINING GOALS

• To form a local community of people committed to non-violent direct action to forge a more just economy.
• To use storytelling as a means to find commonalities and connections as a method of creating solidarity.
• To analyze the past in order to understand how we got here.
• To create a vision for a new, more just economy.
• To prepare personally and as a community for nonviolent direct action.

This is the first stage of the largest-developing North Country peoples movement for economic justice, sustainable development, and social equality.

Watch the YouTube video by clicking here.

To learn more visit www.the99spring.com. Sign up for Thursday's education seminar by clicking here.
A participant guide is available here. The Flower Memorial Library is located at 229 Washington St. in Watertown, N.Y.

Earth Day Events Set for April 21 in the North Country

This year, you can help out on Earth Day with a neighborhood clean-up, upcycling project, commitment to eat more local, sustainable food, by signing a few petitions or volunteering for some outreach advocacy projects, or simply by stopping in at an Earth Day festival to learn more about the  environmental issues affecting you now. Whatever you choose to do, the North Country is rich with environmental events scheduled April 21.

Here are three activities that are sure to have you busy all day:

• Redwood Clean-Up     Better Farm, in conjunction with the Redwood Neighborhood Association, will be hosting an annual Earth Day cleanup in downtown Redwood in an effort to help beautify the neighborhood. Interested parties are to meet at the pavilion downtown (behind Felder's) at 10 a.m. and wear appropriate footwear (and gloves if desired). Bags will be provided. Groups will disperse among side streets and trails (adults will also cover either side of Route 37). A picnic lunch will follow in the pavilion. Email us for more information or to register.
• Earth Day Event in Watertown     The Mustard Seed Natural Market will host its Sixth Annual Earth Day Event on Arsenal Street in Watertown from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Event highlights include a kids' craft table sponsored by Better Farm featuring environmentally friendly craft projects utilizing upcycled household items; and a "how-to" composting display sponsored by Better Farm. There will also be plenty of free samples from Liberte Yogurt, Field Roast Sausage, Tofurkey, Shirataki Noodles, Mu Mu Muesli, and more. Click here to learn more.
• Third Annual Green Fest Expo     The Green Fest is set from 12-2 p.m. at Cerow Park Arena in Clayton and features vendors and exhibitors who relate to the five zones of local sustainability: eating, shopping, powering, moving, and acting locally. There will also be residential and commercial energy workshops, a health and wellness fair, volunteer fair, kids' bike rodeo, and more! Click here for additional information.

Why Organic?

The nutritional advantages of going organic.

When you're selecting produce for you and your family to eat, how often do you pick out generic fruits and veggies in order to save a little money?

What’s the difference between the shiny red apple in your right hand, and the identical organic red apple in your left? Is the organic apple healthier? With all the hooplah over organic foods—sales in the United States jumped from $23 billion in 2002 to $40 billion in 2006—and their increased availability, it’s worth knowing what makes them different from your average Granny Smith apple or Sunkist orange before you put them in your shopping cart.

Organic butter at a GreenWise store in Palm Beach Gardens, FL. Organic food is criticized for its cost, but it contains no pesticides, and farmers must follow environmental standards to become certified. SOURCE: AP/Luis M. Alvarez

If you're growing your own produce, expect to pay a little more for organic—but also expect a great return. With a packet of of seeds costing roughly $3.50, consider that your yield will be pounds and pounds of produce that would normally cost you roughly $3.50/pound in the supermarket. Even though the price-per-seed-packet is more than you'd pay for generic, consider the nutritional and environmental advantages of going organic (and keep in mind the money and resources you're saving by starting from seed).

From the Center for American Progress:

What does “organic” mean?
Organic refers to how farmers grow and process food. Organic farming methods differ from conventional farming in several ways:

• Conventional farming uses chemical fertilizers to promote plant growth, while organic farming employs manure and compost to fertilize the soil.
• Conventional farming sprays pesticides to get rid of pests, while organic farmers turn to insects and birds, mating disruption, or traps.
• Conventional farming uses chemical herbicides to manage weeds, while organic farming rotates crops, hand weeds, or mulches.
• When raising animals, conventional farmers give animals antibiotics, growth hormones, and medications to spur growth and prevent disease. Organic farmers feed their animals organic feed and allow them to roam. They also will make sure the animals have a balanced diet and clean housing.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture certifies organic products according to strict guidelines. Organic farmers must apply for certification, pass a test, and pay a fee. It’s important to note that this means not all organic foods become certified, even though all certified food is organic.

If you pick an item off the shelf and see the “USDA Organic” label, it means that at least 95 percent of the food’s ingredients were organically produced. The seal is voluntary, but many organic producers use it. Products that are 100 percent organic are labeled as such and given a small USDA seal. Some product labels may also state that the product was “made with organic ingredients,” which means the product contains at least 70 percent organic ingredients.

Is organic better?
Shoppers may choose organic foods for a variety of reasons. There are certainly environmental reasons to go organic. According to USDA guidelines, organic farming practices are designed to reduce pollution and conserve water and soil. They do not release synthetic pesticides, which can harm wildlife, and they also seek to preserve biodiversity and local ecosystems.

Many people choose organic foods to avoid any risks associated with the pesticides, herbicides, and other chemicals used in conventional farming. Parents may be concerned that exposure to these chemicals might harm the development of their children, and therefore they choose organic. Studies appear to support the fact that organic diets lower children’s exposure to pesticides.

As for organic food being healthy, some studies, including one at UC Davis, have demonstrated higher amounts of nutrients in some varieties of organic foods. Another study from Newcastle University in England showed organic milk contained 67 percent more vitamins and antioxidants, as well as more Omega-3s and Omega-6s (“healthy” fat) than conventional milk. Organic foods do not contain any additives or preservatives, and are not genetically modified. And when you buy organic, you’re also bypassing antibiotics and hormones given to animals in conventional methods, added to the fact that these animals are also treated in a more respectful and humane way under organic standards.

Controversy exists over whether all organic foods carry substantial benefits over their counterparts—organic onions, for example, might not be much different from their conventional cousins when it comes to health benefits—but in all cases, organic means the foods were grown on farms with USDA guidelines. 

Why it costs more
The biggest criticism of organic food is its cost. There are several reasons it’s more expensive. Organic farmers pay more for organic animal feed, and the farming is more labor intensive, since farmers avoid chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Because farmers don’t use herbicides, for instance, they rely more on hand weeding. And since they avoid chemical fertilizers, they use compost and animal manure, which is bulkier and more expensive to ship. This also means their crop yield is usually lower. Conventional farming also uses every acre of farmland to grow crops, while organic farmers rotate their crops to keep soil healthy.

All of these production costs mean organic farming tends to be more expensive than conventional farming, and this is reflected in how much you pay at the grocery store. However, when you take into account the true “cost” of food production from conventional farming, including replacement of eroded soils, cleaning up polluted water, health care for farmers who get sick, and environmental costs of pesticide production and disposal, organic farming might actually be cheaper in the end.

Probably the most “green” way to acquire your weekly provisions is through a local farmer’s market. The food travels a shorter distance, which means less carbon emissions and food that hasn’t been shipped hundreds of miles or processed to keep it preserved during transport. The food comes from small farms where the farmers are usually conscious of their impact on the earth and care about the food they’re producing. By purchasing food from them, you also support the local food economy and know where your food is coming from. According to the Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture, food in the United States travels an average of 1,500 miles to make it to your refrigerator. Why take an apple off the truck when you’re a step away from plucking it off the tree?

Building With Bottles

We've been brainstorming design ideas for a new structure to sit alongside the Birdhouse and greenhouse next to Better Farm's main garden. The long list of possibilities has been narrowed down to two: an earthship made from reclaimed tires, or a small cottage made entirely out of glass bottles and mortar.
To build a basic wall out of glass bottles, you lay the items out like bricks and use mortar between the rows. For a structure, you'd need to frame out windows and ceilings.

Photo from Instructables.com

Here are some great photos we found on unusuallife.com of particularly excellent bottle construction:


Instead of throwing those glass bottles away, many folks have wondered how to recycle and build with these ubiquitous items.
This photo show walls being constructed on a build in New Mexico by Mike Reynolds at one of his “earthships”.


Apparently back in the 60’s Mr. Heineken came up with the idea of makeing the beer bottles and size and shape of bricks, while concerned about the about of litter and wastage beer bottles were causing. They never came to be, however.

Building with bottles has often been a choice of folk artists, early settlers and the poor in some countries, as they used whatever resources they had to build shelter. Agility Nut has a wonderful website featuring bottle houses around the world.

The Airlie Gardens Bottle House was created by a local artist, Virginia Wright-Frierson in 2004. It is officially named the “Minnie Evans Sculpture Garden Bottle House” after an artist/gatekeeper that worked at Airlie for many years. This bottle house is also referred to as the “chapel”. Frierson used bottles of all shapes and sizes as well as cement and chicken wire in its creation.

Beer Bottle Chapel created by Martin Sanchez of Riverside California
Ann’s Bottle House B&B in Arizona
Tom Kelly’s Rhyolite Bottle House
The Bottle Houses of Prince Edward Island

Stay tuned for our own plans!

Vermicompost Project: Update

We reported in February on an upcoming vermicompost project to be undertaken by Matt Smith at Better Farm this year.

The scope of that undertaking is to develop a low-cost vermicomposting system that is scalable for municipal and commercial use. By collaborating with local supermarkets and convenience stores to pick up their food waste on a weekly basis, Matt's goal is to utilize earthworms to break food wastes down into dirt fit for potting soil that can then be sold and distributed to the public for low-cost.

Matt got started last week with his research, and began building the compost bins. Here are photos of him and volunteer Nick Bellman putting the project together:

 

The boxes Nick and Matt built last week will function as the bottom shelf of a multi-tiered system. The finished product will look something like this:

The next step was securing businesses to donate their food waste to Better Farm. Matt made some calls and visits to places in Alexandria Bay and Watertown, N.Y. Here's our list of confirmed businesses so far:

• Alexandria Bay Big M Supermarket
• The Mustard Seed in Watertown
• Great American Food Stores in Watertown
• Felder's Service Station in Redwood

We're expecting a few more to sign up this week. Stay tuned for more information!

Art Barn's New Deck

It was barely two weeks ago when the guys from Passerino Painting and Contracting stopped by to break ground on a new deck for the Art Barn at Better Farm. With construction now completed, we've got easy access to the second-floor studio spaces. That opens up the entire downstairs area for gallery and additional studio space, and gives us a great stage overlooking the natural amphitheater out back.

Here are some after shots (see the full album by clicking here):

To complete the Art Barn renovation, we'll be doing the folllowing in the coming weeks:

• Wiring the upstairs and deck for electric
• Installing a new ceiling downstairs to cover the spray foam insulation we put in last fall
• Putting in a new sliding glass door and steel exit doors downstairs
• Building a kayak and canoe rack to open up the carport space
• Brush hogging/borrowing goats to eat the burdocks and tall grass in the amphitheater
• Cleaning and organizing the studio and gallery spaces

Stay tuned for completed interior photographs!

To schedule an estimate for one of your at-home projects, contact Passerino Painting and Contracting at passerinojm@gmail.com or (315) 783-3994.

Hugelkultur for Your Garden

Hugelkultur is a form of sheet composting (also called mulch gardening and lasagna gardening) developed thousands of years ago in Eastern Europe. The process utilizes woody wastes such as fallen logs and pruned branches to build soil fertility and improve drainage and moisture retention.

Hugelkultur is nothing more than making raised garden beds filled with rotten wood. This makes for beds loaded with organic material, nutrients, air pockets for the roots of what you plant, etc. As the years pass, the deep soil of your raised garden bed becomes incredibly rich and loaded with soil life. As the wood shrinks, it makes more tiny air pockets—so your hugelkultur becomes sort of self-tilling. The first few years, the composting process will slightly warm your soil giving you a slightly longer growing season. The woody matter helps to keep nutrient excess from passing into the ground water - and then refeeding that to your garden plants later. Plus, by holding SO much water, hugelkultur could be part of a system for growing garden crops in the desert with no irrigation.

From HubPages:

If you walk through a natural woodland, you will see many fallen logs and branches on the ground. The older these logs are, the more life they sustain. A log that has rested on the forest floor for five or ten years will be covered in moss, mushrooms, wildflowers and even young trees. Poke at it a little and you will notice that the decaying wood is damp in all but the most vicious of droughts. Hugelkultur is designed to take advantage of the natural fertility and moisture-conserving qualities of rotting wood, while speeding the process of decomposition up. The heat produced by decomposition also helps protect cold-sensitive plants.

Living on 65 acres means we've got no shortage of downed trees and rotting logs. So yesterday I dragged a few over to an extension I built on our raised herb beds and plunked them down to create the first of many hugelkultur beds at Better Farm.

How to Build a Hugelkultur Bed

1. Gather woody waste materials such as dead logs, extra firewood, pruned or clipped branches, and more. The wood can be either rotting or fresh, although already rotting wood decomposes fastest.

1. Lay the wood in a mound about 1-2 feet high and stomp on it a bit to break it up. You can dig a trench to lay the wood in, if you wish.
2. Cover the wood with other compost materials such as autumn leaves, grass clippings, garden wastes, and manure. (This stage is optional if you aren't planning to plant the bed immediately.)

1. Cover the wood and compost with a few inches of dirt and/or prepared compost (we went with the dirt we shoveled out of the compost pit last week).

You can either let the bed sit for awhile to rot, or plant it immediately. Among the plants known to do well in hugelkultur beds are potatoes, squash, melons, and a number of different species of berries. Other gardeners plant the bed with cover crops for the first year to improve the fertility even more before adding vegetables or other plants.

Other Techniques

You can achieve similar results, though much more slowly, by simply burying logs and other wood waste in trenches around your yard in areas where you want to improve fertility and moisture control.
In swampy areas, buried logs will suck up significant quantities of water quickly and release them slowly, reducing the chance of standing water or flooding.

In drier areas, the logs will act in the same way, releasing stored water slowly into the surrounding soil and reducing the need to water.

Hugulkultur garden after one month

The Born-Agains

Garlic wakes up in the raised beds on Better Farm's property. We planted the cloves last fall.

We've spent the last several weeks raking out our raised beds, turning compost, and bagging our freshly made potting soil. Here's a pictorial of our born-again veggies and herbs we've found waking back up in the gardens:

Onions

Onions that were planted last October.

Sage

We planted sage in June of 2011 and it came back last week.

Asparagus

Garlic Chives

To get our soil aerated and chock-full of nutrients, we rake out the top layer of compost every spring and transfer it to our compost system out in the main garden. Here's what was revealed after the snow melted off: vegetable matter, wood ash, compostables like dog fur, pine needles and dead leaves

 

And here's what the ground looks like after we comb the top layer off:

Got a great gardening tip or question? Contact us at info@betterfarm.org.

DIY Organic Lawn Care for the Cheap and Lazy

Rick Lopez lets us borrow his goat, Tonka, to help mow the grassy knoll behind the Art Barn.

By Paul Wheaton

Lawn care in a nutshell:

Must do:
• Set your mower as high as it will go (3 to 4 inches).
• Water only when your grass shows signs of drought stress and then water deeply (put a cup in your sprinkler zone and make sure it gets at least an inch of water).
Optional:
• Fertilize with an organic fertilizer in the fall and spring. I recommend the Ringer brand.
• Have the pH of your soil professionally tested. Add lime if it is below 6.0 and gardener's sulfur if it is above 7.0.
• How much top soil do you have? See how deep a shovel will go into the soil. How deep can you dig a hole in one minute? Four inches of topsoil will make for an okay lawn. Eight or more inches of topsoil will make for a great lawn.

Now for the verbose details on lawn care:

A little knowledge makes it so damn near anything can qualify for the "cheap and lazy" label. Including lawn care. Organic is just a bonus.
The key to the lawn care game is competition. You want to make things favorable for the grass and unfavorable for the weeds so the grass will choke out the weeds. Naturally.

lawn care must do: mow high

There is a fight for sun. If the grass doesn't shade the weed, the weed will shade the grass. Sun is food. Food is strength and life. Shade is weakness, disease and death. Grass will shade the weeds only if it is tall enough. The shade of tall, dense grass turf will prevent essential light from reaching most weeds and, will aid in the destruction of new baby weed seedlings (such as the notorius dandelion). MYTH: "If I mow short, it will be longer until I have to mow again." False! Wrong! (SLAP! SLAP! SLAP!) Your grass needs grass blades to do photosynthesis (convert sunshine into sugar) to feed the roots. When you whack the blades off, the grass has to RACE to make more blades to make sugar. It then grows amazingly fast. This fast growth uses up a lot of the grass's stored sugar, and weakens the plant. It is now vulnerable to disease and pests! Tall grass is healthier and can use the extra sugar to make rhizomes (more grass plants) thus thickening the turf. Have you ever noticed that short grass in the summer is always riddled with dead brown patches? If you have a serious weed infestation, consider mowing twice as frequently as you normally do. The sensitive growing point for grass is near the soil. The sensitive growing point for most weeds is near the top of the plant. So when you mow, it's as if you are giving your grass a haircut and cutting the heads off of the weeds. Finally, when mowing, be sure to leave the clippings on the lawn. It adds organic matter and nutrients back into the soil. If you don't leave the clippings, your soil will begin to look more like "dirt" than soil. Soon it will be a form of cement that nothing will grow in and you will have the world's most pitiful lawn. Some people are concerned about "clumping" - that only happens when you mow too short or when you don't mow often enough. Mowing higher gives the following perks:
• more shade to the soil leads to less watering
• deeper roots which leads to less watering
• thicker turf which leads to fewer weeds
• slower growth which leads to less mowing
Check out this pic. Someone started to mow and then I convinced them, as an experiment, to set their mower higher. This pic was taken about six days later as summer is setting in. Can you see the difference?

lawn mower

My lawn care mower of choice? The "Scott's Classic" manual mower. When you mow high, it doesn't take much effort to mow. It is easier with a manual than a heavy, noisy, stinky gas mower. The Scott's Classic is the only manual mower that I know of that can mow three inches. The others top out at 2.5 inches or less. It's at amazon.com. Update!
A recent series of wacky events led me to try a cordless electric mower. Wow! Exceptionally lightweight and quiet! I definitely prefer it over the manual mower. Despite the higher price, I bought one! I like it that much! There is a bigger one with more whizbangery, if that's what you're into.
It is my opinion that when it comes to lawn care, mowing high is, by far, the most important thing. There has been a lot of discussion about this in our forum. Visit the thread about lawn mowers.

lawn care must do: water infrequently

This will force your grass roots to go deep into the soil. Deeper than most weed roots. As the top few inches of soil becomes bone dry, the weeds and weed seedlings up there die while the grass still enjoys moisture from a little deeper. Shallow, frequent watering encourages "thatch" (the grass propogates with above-soil runners (like strawberry runners) rather than rhizomes under the soil - there gets to be so many runners that they weave a mat that chokes out water and air). Since the roots are in the top inch or two of soil, a hot day will quickly dry the soil and much of the grass will brown. Weeds and weed seedlings looooove a daily watering. It's just what they need for a good start. Two methods to tell when it is time to water:
• The grass will start to curl before it turns brown. When it starts to curl, that is the best time to water. Anything after that is time for "intensive care watering" (water half an inch, wait three hours and water an inch).
• Take a shovel and stick it into the soil about six inches. Keep the sun to your left or to your right when you do this. Push the handle forward. If you can see any moisture, wait. If it's all dry, water. If you can't get your shovel to go into the soil this deep, you need more soil.
The first method is the best - especially if you have not yet trained your grass to make deep roots. Watering on a schedule does not help in the war on weeds. A tip for lawn care experts: If you have a good feel for how often your lawn needs watering and it is almost that time and there is a rain shower - maybe a quarter of an inch - that is the BEST time to water your lawn and give it that other 3/4 of an inch. Remember, the grass roots are down deep and most weed roots are near the surface. The idea is to keep the top three inches of soil as dry as you can for as long as you can. That quarter of an inch might make it so that your top three inches is well watered but the lower 9 to 20 inches is on the edge of being pretty dry. This gives the weeds some advantage over your grass! Another thing about lawn care watering: I have discovered that if you are going to water an inch, it is better to water half an inch, wait 90 minutes and then water another half an inch. Maybe do this once a month. Sometimes when the soil gets really dry, it will repel water. This is called "superdeflocculation" (I think Mary Poppins would be impressed with this word!). If you put a little water in first, wait, and then put more, the soil is better prepared to take in more water. Imagine a dry sponge - so dry it is stiff. And another sponge, slightly damp - soft and well wrung out. Now pour a cup of water onto each. The water runs off of the first sponge and all over the table. The water is soaked into the second sponge, not a drop is lost. Remember: water has a strange and powerful attraction to itself. It would much rather stick to itself than disperse through the soil. Another perk: every time you water, you wash away soil nutrients. So the less you water, the more fertile your soil! One last point about watering deeply: If your topsoil is only two inches deep, laying down an inch of water is a bad idea. An inch of water is good for watering 12 inches of soil. Further, an inch of water will effectively carry a lot of soil nutrients down deeper. So if your soil is only two inches deep, this rinses away a lot of your soil nutrients! So deep watering should be done only in conjunction with deep soil.

Lawn Care Fertilizer:

Grass is a nitrogen pig. Legumes (such as clover and black medic) can get their nitrogen from the air (remember that the air we breathe is 80% nitrogen!). So, when you see legumes taking over your lawn (clover, medic, etc.), you know that your soil is nitrogen poor. If your lawn needs fertilizer, sprinkle a little Ringer lawn fertilizer in the spring and fall. Why this brand? Well, there is nothing scary in the ingredients list; it is a very slow release fertilizer without salts; the company appears to have passions well aligned with my own; and it works great.
If your lawn is in serious need of fertilizer, use a third of what the package recommends every three weeks in the spring and fall. Otherwise, use half of what the package recommends at the beginning of spring and the beginning of fall.
Cool season grasses are semi-dormant in the summer. Fertilizing in the summer feeds the weeds, not the grass.
If your soil already seems like dirt or cement, add an inch of compost in the early fall. If you can see wood products in the compost sprinkle the Ringer fertilizer on top, otherwise, use only half as much of the Ringer fertilizer. (composts with wood products will feed your lawn for a week or two and then start sucking the nitrogen back out)
I've been getting heaps of e-mail asking about "where do I get the Ringer fertilizer?" I used to get mine at the local home improvement stores. Lately it has been harder to find. But if you need to, try this. I've also talked to people about finding it in thislawn fertilizer discussion thread.

A lot of folks ask about what difference it makes using organic fertilizers in lawn care. Consider a couple of things:

1) Ever hear about centuries ago when people would salt the land so nothing would grow? Nearly all chemical fertilizers are a salt. As you use it, year after year, your soil becomes poorer and poorer. 2) Healthy soil is loaded with heaps of microbial and macrobial life. Most of these critters are working hard for your grass. Most of those critters don't like salt.
Let's take a quick look at an earthworm. I'm going to call him ... Fernando. Fernando tunnels through the soil, eating as he goes. He gets to the surface and poops out a lot of dirt and digested organic matter. His travels make it so the grass roots get air and water. He eats organic matter like dead leaves and dead blades of grass. He converts them to materials the plants can take up as nutrients. In an organic yard, Fernando takes a decaying blade of grass down in his burrow and munches on it "These things are my favorite!" says Fernando. "I need some more!" Back at the surface, Fernando finds some home made compost "What is this? Oh my! This is my new favorite! (munch munch) It's so good! (munch munch) How can this be crunchy and chewy AT THE SAME TIME! Oof, I'm so full. I wanna have sex and have lots of babies so they can enjoy the crunchy chewy stuff." In a yard that uses chemical fertilizers, Fernando says "AAAIIIIIIIIEEEEEEE!!!! THE PAIN! THE HORRIBLE, HIDEOUS PAIN! I NEED TO GET AWAY FROM IT, BUT IT IS EVERYWHERE! ACK! ACK! HEEEEEELP MEEEEEEE! URK!" (this dramatization brought to you by ... compost! It's yummy!)

So I'm making a strong recommendation to not use chemical fertilizers. For lawn care or for anything.
Here is possibly the world's very best lawn fertilizer. I get tons of this stuff for free! Really! Tons! Free! Moldy hay:

lawn care pH:

Dandelions love a pH of about 7.5. Grass loves a pH of about 6.5. So if your pH is 7.5 or higher, your grass will probably never beat out the dandelion. Lower the pH to 6.5 and your grass has the advantage! Be sure to have your pH tested professionally. The kits that you can buy in the store will often give you the wrong information. I once spent $18 on a pH meter that told me that my lawn pH was 6.0 when it was really 7.8. So I should have added gardeners sulfur, but instead I added lime! Call your local extension office. My local extension office will test pH for free. I've heard of some that charge ten bucks. If you're going to buy a pH tester, be prepared to spend around $85 for the tester and the calibration solutions. A long time ago I bought the Oakton pHTestr 2 plus 4.0 and 7.0 solutions. I looked it up and found it here. I think most folks will wanna keep their $85 and just pack some soil samples to the local extension office. I wrote more on pH here A little side note: a dusting of lime on the soil surface has been shown, in most cases, to nearly double earthworm reproduction.

lawn care soil depth:

My soil was only half an inch deep. Even weeds had a tough time growing. Below my half inch of soil was huge river rocks seperated by smaller rocks, sperated by sand. It bore no resemblance to soil. I added four inches of topsoil. This was done with two dumptruck loads at $100 a pop. It covered all of the weeds with enough soil that they could not work through - I could start from scratch with my grass seed of choice! 18 inches or more soil would be optimal. I have a friend that has soil this deep. While everyone else waters a dozen times or more over the summer, she waters just once or twice. She uses no fertilizer or pesticides. She has thick, dark green, weed-free grass which requires frequent mowing. Her lawn is about as "no-brainer lawn care" as you could get. This is a good time to talk about soil quality too. There is a big difference between dirt and soil. Soil is rich in microbial life and has a lot of organic matter in it. Dirt comes in many forms and it's a challenge to get anything to grow in it. If you are getting "topsoil" delivered to your house, be prepared for it to bear more resemblance to "dirt". You may want to have compost also delivered to your house so that you can mix the two and have the beginnings for "soil". One part compost to two parts dirt is a good mix for lawn care.

lawn care weeds:

The above lawn care advice will eliminate 95% to 99% of your weed problem. But there are some weeds that are almost impossible to get rid of, no matter what. Some of these are even resistant to the chemical army. The two to be careful of in my area are BINDWEED (looks like white or pink morning glory) and CANADIAN THISTLE. These two have HUGE root systems that might go as deep as thirty feet into the soil. They spread with rhizomes, just like your grass. The above techniques will discourage them enough to go to your neigbor's instead. They don't like tall grass or mowing. They might try to pop up on fences or other lawn borders. Fifty outcroppings could all be part of the same plant, so you really have to get as much of them as you can. The key is to remove the green plant that provides it with sugar. It needs sun and sugar to support that massive root system. Repeated digging will weaken it to the point that bugs and bacteria can take over. I once moved to a house that was infested with both bindweed and thistle. Imagine my yard as a big rectangle. I started pulling weeds on the left and stopped about ten percent of the way across. A few days later, I started at the left again and picked out anything that cropped up in the last few days and then made a little progresss into the rest of the rectangle. Each brief weeding trip gets me another 5% of new territory. The important thing is to always weed the area you already weeded first. If I didn't do it this way, then the weed would recover in the first section while I was attacking another section. DANDELIONS are a sign of alkaline soil. Refer to the pH stuff above. The above methods will prevent dandelions from propogating. Since dandelions live about five years, the mature dandelions will struggle with the tall, thick turf and die off in two to three years. I now think that a few dandelions poking up once in a while are kinda nice and I leave them alone. BLACK MEDIC is a sign of low nitrogen soil. Refer to fertilizing above. The above methods will keep black medic in check. You will occassionally see a little once in a while, but it is kinda pretty when it isn't taking over your lawn. This stuff is sometimes called "yellow clover". When it's taking over, it will choke out grass and make flat mats about a foot in diameter. I found a litte in my current lawn and it was a single tiny strand with little yellow flowers. CLOVER is a sign of low nitrogen soil. Refer to fertilizing above. White and pink clover is often desired in a lawn. It contributes nitrogen to the soil and doesn't compete strongly with the grass. Yellow clover is actually "black medic" (see above). For more on controlling clover, see "getting rid of clover" in our lawn care forum. KNAPWEED tries to poison plants around it with niacin. A little water washes the niacin away and the plants around it can have a fighting chance. Especially if mowing is involved. Mow a little more frequently in late june and early july to wipe out knapweed.

Lawn Care Enhancements:

Now that you aren't dumping toxic gick on your lawn, you can enhance it with some other growth. CROCUSES: These flowers pop up in the spring while the grass is still dormant. They're done blooming long before the first mow. These are bulbs that are planted in the fall. Go ahead and plant a few dozen right in the middle of your lawn. To buy some bulbs, click here ROMAN CHAMOMILE: They look like little daisies. When you mow, it smells like green apples. To buy some seed, click here YARROW: This herb makes your grass extra spongy. It feels really cool to walk on with bare feet. To buy some seed, click here For more about fun stuff to grow, check our lawn care forum for this thread.

Lawn Care Summary:

With these methods you will mow less, water less, never buy pesticides and have the best looking lawn on your block. A little lawn care side trip: Some entertaining perspective on why you should care about how you care for your lawn. Before my master gardener training I thought that herbicide use had a time and place. The training covered not only the time and place, but also covered the details of toxicity. 2-4D is considered one of the safest herbicides. A quantity of 2-4D that would be about the same as a roll of life savers rubbed on the skin of four kindergarten children would kill two of them. This is not getting it in their mouth, but just rubbed on their skin. My reading on this subject has exposed far too many nightmares than I care to share here. My closing opinion is that I can see no time and no place to ever use herbicides. Especially not for anything as frivolous as lawn care. I would rather have weeds. I actively participate in these permaculture forums. And there is a whole forum dedicated to nothing but doing lawn care the way I advocate. Feel free to pop over and ask questions any time.

Lawn Care Providers

I am compiling a list of lawn care providers that fully subscribe to my philosophies and techniques! Please visit my lawn care providers page.

Frequently Asked Lawn Care Questions:

What variety of grass should I plant?
I recommend "tall fescue". Be sure to check the label and make sure it is pure tall fescue. Some outfits that sell seed mix in some annual ryegrass and call it "nursury grass - it will care for the tall fescue which takes longer to germinate." I don't agree with that. Note that tall fescue seed is significantly more expensive than annual ryegrass ... Tall fescue makes deeeeeep roots and is one of the most drought tolerant species. Combining this species of grass with the infrequent watering makes it one of the best lawn care species for fighting weeds. It also means you can have a lovely lawn using less water. Tall fescue is one of the most durable grasses. It stands up well to the abuse of football games and pets. It will also stand proud at three inches, four inches and five inches! Kentucky Bluegrass starts to waver at three inches. Tall fescue does well in shade and sun! Downsides of tall fescue:
It is slow to germinate. It could be two weeks until you see the baby grasses. In the meantime, weed seeds have probably germinated. Some people think it is not the prettiest type of grass. The fine fescues (very different from tall fescue) have thin blades and the tall fescues have broad blades. I have to admit that a lawn with the fine blades does look better - as long as nobody ever walks on it. But who wants grass that you're not allowed to walk on? Some people think that tall fescue doesn't feel as good under bare feet. This is true. Tall fescue is a stiffer grass. The grasses that feel better are the ones that won't compete with weeds as well. Besides, I think most folks won't notice the difference in feel between tall fescue and Kentucky Bluegrass.
Note that Tall Fescue is a cool season grass (for areas that get a frost). I'm not very familiar with warm season grasses to make a recommendation. You can get some tall fescue seed here.
What's an extension office?
Nearly every county in the United States has a county extension office. The word "extension" means that the office is an extension of the the state agricultural school. This office is staffed by people who are paid to answer questions about plant life in the county (including lawns). If people don't call, they could lose their jobs! Call! Ask lots of questions! Visit! Take weed samples to them for identification! Bugs too! Sometimes the phones are manned by volunteers. Folks that love gardening and horticulture so much, that they are itching to share their lawn care expertise with you. Many of these folks have completed the master gardener training offered by the extension office. If nothing else, a visit to the office can be worthwhile because they have loads of brochures about issues in your area. To find them, open your phone book to "the blue pages" (government listings) under "County Government" and look for "Extension Office", "Extension Agent" or "County Extension".
I think I have grubs. What do I do?
Grubs are the larvae of certain species of beetles. Grubs think grass roots are yummy. If you dig up dead patches of grass you just might see a bunch of grubs munching away. This is where birds are your friends. Birds think grubs are yummy. I have never had to personally deal with grubs. And I have yet to encounter an organic grower that has had to deal with them. But I have had many people write to me and ask how to deal with grubs organically. Nearly all of them have mentioned "Last year I sprayed toxic goo to get rid of the grubs and now they're back". While I did not see what happened, my guess is that birds and other natural grub control ate the dead grubs and died. No more natural grub control. So the trick is to kill the grubs, but don't harm anything that eats grubs. The answer is to bring in more grub predators. Having done a little reading on this topic, "Milky Spore" (Bacillus popilliae) and/or predatory nematodes appear to be the organic control. "Milky Spore" is a naturally occuring bacteria that makes the grubs puke their guts out, but it doesn't seem to bother anything else. So if a bird eats a dead grub, the bird will be fat and happy. Predatory nematodes (also called "beneficial nematodes") are like micro worms that crawl through the soil and eat a variety of different organisms, including grubs. Here it is for sale: click here
My soil is more like dirt. How do I improve it?
If you have an inch of "dirt" and everything under that is big rocks or rock-hard clay, improving your "dirt" isn't going to make much difference. You are probably going to need to import some top soil. If you have the bucks, you can have a foot and a half of topsoil dropped on your existing lawn and then plant new grass seed and start over. Soil on top of dirt ain't bad. If you have patience and think that your dirt can be renovated into soil, you can:
• fertilize and mow high. The fertilizer helps to make more grass. If you have any worms in your dirt/soil, they will take blades of cut grass down lower, munch on it, and leave organic matter down low. The fertilizer helps to make more grass.
• Add an inch of compost every spring and fall. It ain't cheap and it makes your lawn look like crap for a week or so, but again, the worms will work it in.
• I have this weird idea that I have never tried, but I've told several people about in e-mail and have yet to hear back from anybody if they tried it.
  
  Take a post hole digger and dig a hole about two feet deep. Re-fill the hole with 50% compost and 50% of what you took out of the hole. Stir a little grass seed into the top quarter inch of soil. I think that by doing this, you will create a wonderful home for worms and a great place for deeeeeep grass roots. Over time, the roots and the worms will convert the neighboring dirt into soil. If anybody tries this, I hope you'll write me and tell me how it turned out.
How do I get rid of mushrooms?
People that are trying to grow mushrooms will provide the mushrooms with rotting sawdust or rotting logs. Generous moisture and a lack of direct sunlight can help too. In the horticultural world "rot" almost always mean "composting". To properly compost, you need a certain mixture of carbon heavy organic matter (wood, dried leaves, straw, etc.) and nitrogen heavy organic matter (manure, grass clippings, table scraps, weeds, etc.). If you get just the right mix, you get hot composting happening. Too much nitrogen and it gets a little stinky. Too much carbon and the composting takes a very long time. To get rid of mushrooms, you just need to get your lawn to outcompete them. Grass loves a nitrogen rich soil. Mushrooms love a carbon rich soil. Lawn fertilizer has heaps of nitrogen and hardly any carbon. Time to fertilize! Twenty bucks and ten minutes of time will do wonders for your lawn care strategy. Here's something that can be a kick: take a close look at your mushrooms. If there are a bunch of them, are they growing in a circle? If so, this is called "fairy ring". The ring will grow larger and larger as the spores from the current mushrooms land just outside of the ring. Consider for a moment that if you have a lot of mushrooms in your lawn, this is most likely a sign that you have really excellent soil! Further, the mushrooms you see are the fruiting bodies of a much bigger fungus organism under the soil. Most fungus organisms help your grass be healthier - so I'm usually glad to see a few mushrooms in my lawn now and then. The mushrooms are usually gone as soon as things dry out a bit. For more on getting rid of mushrooms, see "mushrooms on lawn" in our lawn care forum.
How do I deal with burn spots in my lawn from my dog?
Dog poop and dog pee are both high in nitrogen. But if you give your lawn too much nitrogen, you'll kill it. Not the whole lawn. Just the spot with too much nitrogen. Usually there will be a load of dog poop and the grass under it will be dead. And the grass immediately around it will be greener, taller, thicker and healthier than all the rest of the lawn. So the stuff immediately under the crap is "too much" and the stuff surrounding the crap is "optimal". Same thing for pee only there won't be a pile of poop in the middle. Solution 1
This solution is reserved for the Zen Masters of the school of the cheap and lazy lawn care. Do nothing. For dog pee, the grass is tall enough that it hides the dead spot. Rain and irrigation will eventually rinse enough nitrogen out that they grass will grow back into that spot. I leave the poop to the worms and the microbials in the soil. Birds will also work it over a bit (looking for the worms and other bugs attracted by it). How quickly the poop disappears on its own shows how healthy your lawn is. Just be careful not to step on the fresh stuff. An added benefit is that you can remain on great terms with your neighbors. If your spousal unit says "go clean up that dog crap in the yard!" You can now say "I looked it up on the internet and it said the best solution was to leave it!"
Solution 2
Sprinkle a little sawdust on the spot and give the spot a little attention from your hose. The sawdust will hide the poop and it will counter the excess nitrogen. Combining with the nitrogen, it will, in time, turn into compost - enriching the soil. The sawdust will also reduce any odor by about 95%. The water will wet the sawdust and dilute the nitrogen source a bit, thus helping the beginning of the composting process.
Solution 3
Remove the poop, dig an inch into the soil and mix sawdust into the soil. This is the same as solution 2, but the sawdust will be more effective this way.
Anal Retentive Solution
Remove the poop and an inch of affected soil. Replace with compost and some grass seed. A lot of people do this. I think it's pretty dumb. I think that removing the dog poop and watering the area is more effective than this. The water will dilute the excess nitrogen in the soil. The surrounding grass will spread into the area using grass rhizomes. There is no need for seed. If you put seed here, you will be saddling yourself with the responsibility of watering it every day for two weeks. Reading the rest of this lawn care essay will tell you that that's a great way to get weeds. Plus, it's work! Now let's look at the compost: compost is wonderful, magical stuff. But in this case, you've just added nitrogen to an excess nitrogen problem. Further, seeds don't germinate well in a high nitrogen medium like compost. The germinate better in something like pH adjusted peat moss. Or plain topsoil. The plants like nitrogen after they've gotten past the seedling stage.
Some people have written to me asking about what to do about their dogs pee "burning" their lawn. They explain that female dogs have ultra acidic pee and it kills whatever it touches. I think the treatement is still going to be the same. Leave it and let the tall grass hide it. If it still bothers you, use a little sawdust and/or water.
My grass is all thin and dead-ish, what is your advice on overseeding?
Don't. I mean it. Put overseeding out of your mind. Your "dirt" has such terrible issues that adult grass is struggling to survive and now you want to put babies there? I am, right now, trying really hard to think of one case where overseeding will do any good for any lawn care situation .... nope - can't think of a single case. Seeding bare patches that are are at least a foot or two wide makes sense - but that's not "overseeding" (tossing seed onto an existing patch of grass). Improve your soil and your existing grass will thrive. Then there is no need for seed. Please take a look at this thread of discussion I've been in on overseeding in our lawn care forum.

Still not convinced? Here is a page called organic lawn care tips that I like.

This article was originally published at Permies.com by Paul Wheaton.

New USDA Plant Hardiness Map Reflects Warming

The new USDA plant hardiness zone map, unveiled in January.

As may or may not surprise you, the colorful United States map of planting zones is being updated for a warmer 21st Century.

Hardiness zone maps for the United States were developed during the 1920s and 1930s to help farmers plan for their regions' growing seasons. The first USDA Map was published in 1960 (USDA Miscellaneous Publication No. 814 "Plant Hardiness Zone Map.") and was developed by Henry Skinner while he was the Director of the U.S. National Arboretum. The map showed ten broad hardiness zones based on 10 degree F. gradients:

By 1990, the USDA version of hardiness zone maps became the primary source for zone identification. That same year, H. Marc Cathey completed a major overhaul of the USDA map using temperature data from 1974 to 1986. One new zone was added to coincide with adding Mexico and Canada to the map and the prior 10-degree gradients were broken down into 5- degree a and b zones. One of the primary reasons given for the update was that, "We have been losing from our landscapes plants that apparently survived the 1940's to the 1960's. Many of the hardiness zone classifications of plants are no longer considered valid. In North America, the ranges of temperature and moisture for the past decade were wider than those recorded for the 1940s through the 1960s."

That statement—made more than 20 years ago—is interesting for two reasons: One, it presages the current debate over the proposed update to the old 1990 USDA map—and two, for its implication that the hardiness zones need to reflect recent global warming.

The latest update to the hardiness zone map unveiled in January, is the first since that 1990 overhaul and includes two new zones added in hotter climates, bringing the number of mapped zones up to 13.

The new map is located on the USDA website and was designed for the Web, allowing people to enter their ZIP code and see their zone down to half-mile segments. That eliminates the guesswork for the nation's 82 million gardeners.

Catherine Woteki, agriculture undersecretary for research, education and economics, said the changes to the map don't indicate permanent climate change. No section of the country changed more than half a zone, according to Woteki. She says scientists used the latest complete data, adding they performed an analysis to see if incomplete data from the past five years would require alterations.

"We saw it would not change the map," she told USA Today.

The USDA website notes: "Climate changes are usually based on trends in overall average temperatures recorded over 50-100 years. Because the (new map) represents 30-year averages of what are essentially extreme weather events (the coldest temperature of the year), changes in zones are not reliable evidence of whether there has been global warming."

Needless to say, something's amiss. Check out this cheat-sheet of changes:

• Much of the Northeast is half-zone warmer. For example, Pennsylvania, which was about equally divided between zone 5 and zone 6 in the 1990 map is now about 70% zone 6 and 30% zone 5.
• Nebraska was mostly zone 4 and is now almost entirely zone 5.
• Ohio was mostly zone 5 and now is mostly zone 6.
• South Florida and Southern California have new hotter areas around cities, but California also has some colder areas in the mountains.

Check out this news report:

What do you think?

Getting Garden-Ready is a Snap with Mulch Gardening Methods

Old tires double as planters. Different layers of mulch gardening visible clockwise from top left: wood ash, grass clippings, cardboard, and worm dirt.

You wouldn't know it by this week's forecast, but last week's spring fever grabbed ahold of the North Country and sent people in droves out to their gardens to turn soil, mulch, plant, and even weed—in mid-March!

Having been warned of Mother's Day blizzards and three feet of snow in April, Better Farm just dipped a toe into the spring excitement by getting seeds out in the greenhouse and clearing out some raised beds for incoming leeks, carrots, potatoes, herbs, and beets. Here's what we've accomplished so far with our mulch gardening system at Better Farm:

Mulch Gardening: RESULTS
We've had a lot of posts on this blog about the wonders of mulch gardening; and in the fall we walked you through our winter-prep process of laying some old, degrading hay over our garden rows. Here's a shot from Nov. 3:

When we went out to work in the garden last week, here's what those same rows looked like:

Reduced from three fluffy feet of hay to about one foot, upon closer inspection here's the dirt we discovered underneath:

Black gold! This soil—derived from the rotting hay and layers of compost and cardboard, is rich in nutrients and ready to be planted.

We also weeded the raised beds—an easy job because of cardboard weed barriers, compost manure, and layers of compost:

Our upcycled tires, used last year for tomatoes and sunflowers, will grow potatoes this year. In them last fall we layered cardboard, hay, compost, wood ash, grass clippings and dead leaves, worm dirt, and a top layer of cardboard to encourage decomposition:

Next week we'll be layering more hay, compost, and cardboard in new garden rows we're creating, adding some sawdust into the mix, building new beds, and constructing a brandy-new composting system that will allow us to provide organic potting soil to the masses. Stay tuned!

betterArts Membership Drive: Support art and music outreach in the North Country!

Your membership contribution to betterArts will support vital services and events, increase economic vitality to the community, promote access to the arts in the North Country regardless of economic status, enhance cultural tourism, and improve the quality of life in our region. All membership contributions are tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law. Membership moneys go directly into our programming, which includes:

• Artist Residencies: betterArts seeks to provide an opportunity for creative exploration and growth to artists, writers, and musicians within the context of Better Farm's dynamic environment through a year-round, low-cost artist residency program. 
• Free and Low-Cost Music and Art Instruction: We are in the process of designing private music and art instruction for all age groups. These programs will be offered in Better Farm's Art Barn year-round. Moneys we raise allow us to pay teachers fair wages while offering the public reduced-cost or free instruction.
•  Workshops, Performances, and Events: As part of our outreach efforts, we offer concerts, gallery openings, and performances to the public for free. We also have studio space available for artists and musicians at low cost, and ongoing group art projects including murals and sculptures that we invite the public to participate in year-round.

All levels of membership include the following benefits:

• Online delivery of the seasonal betterArts/Better Farm newsletter
• Access to monthly membership meetings
• Invitations to members-only mixers, special events, and gallery previews

Rates are as follows:

• Individual, $25/year
• Family, $30/year
• Friend, $50/year: Also includes betterArts mug and one-of-a-kind betterArts postcard
• Arts Organization, $100/year: Also includes mug, postcard, 20% off coupon for the gallery, and free table set-up with your organization's information at betterArts events.
• Patron, $200/year: Also includes mug, postcard, 20% off coupon for the gallery,  free table set-up with your company's information at betterArts events throughout the year, and one free ticket to our annual, end-of-summer, formal dinner party fundraiser.
• Corporate Patron, $500/year: Also includes mug, postcard, 20% off coupon for the gallery,  free table set-up with your company's information at betterArts events throughout the year, and two free tickets to our annual, end-of-summer, formal dinner party fundraiser.

Click here to sign up!

Breaking Ground on Art Barn Deck

The men of Passerino Painting and Contracting dig holes for 6x6 posts that will hold up our new Art Barn deck.

It was a little more than one year ago when we began putting together plans for Better Farm's new Art Barn. Continuing from those ideas (several new banks of windows and sliding doors, gallery walls, track lighting, and recycled spray foam soy insulation), Passerino Painting and Contracting stopped by the farm yesterday to break ground on the Art Barn's brand-new custom, second-floor deck. Spanning more than 26 feet by 12 and overlooking a lovely natural amphitheater, this is going to be our new outdoor concert hall: bands on the deck, crowd on the hill...

The materials.

The decking material we decided on is MoistureShield, environmentally friendly composite decking that utilizes 95 percent recycled materials. Here are some fast facts about this company:

• No new trees are cut down to make MoistureShield Decking.
• Their process stops more than 270 million pounds of trash from entering landfills every year—that's 36 football fields of trash, each stacked 10 feet high!
• They save more than 5.3 trillion BTUs of energy per year.
• MoistureShield's process saves 1 million gallons of gas a year.
• Not only does a 12´ x 12´ MoistureShield deck save 110 gallons of gas, but it also reduces greenhouse gas by 619 lbs. CO2 equivalent.
• The plastic and wood A.E.R.T. recycles annually is comparable to taking 54,000 vehicles off the road.

Here's what goes into each board of MoistureShield:


The deck is going to run up the side of the barn:

Then across the entire back of the barn:

And overlook a natural amphitheater behind it:

As the guys get the deck in ship shape, we're going to bring in a friendly neighborhood goat to clear out all that brush and burdock (seriously). Stay tuned for more photos!

To schedule an estimate for one of your at-home projects, contact Passerino Painting and Contracting at passerinojm@gmail.com or (315) 783-3994.