Organic Gardening For Babies

My home office has big windows with views of my yard, which is usually filled with birds, butterflies and beautiful blooms. The view always reminds me of both the reasons and the results of being an eco-friendly gardener. I’ve often said that I do it for the wildlife (I’m a real nature nerd) and the water (my husband is an avid fisherman who gardens green to keep the waterways healthy).

Inside my office, I have photos of the other important reasons for being a “green gardener” – the wee ones of the next generation. Three of them are in the beautiful photo above of my niece’s triplets.

As more and more of my friends and relatives are welcoming children and grandchildren, the importance of eco-friendly gardening becomes more evident to me.

Just in case you need any reminders, here are:

10 Reasons that Eco-Friendly Gardening is Good for Babies

1) Eco-friendly gardening means gardening without chemicals. Eliminating chemicals from our landscapes makes our gardens safer places for children to play. Because babies, kids, and pets spend most of their time playing outdoors on the grass, or indoors on carpets, where lawn chemicals have been tracked in on shoes, the tiniest members of our family are also the most vulnerable.

2) Eco-friendly gardening conserves water. Conserving water in our gardens helps to insure that we preserve the world’s water supplies for future generations – water is not a renewal resource.

3) Eco-friendly gardening creates wildlife friendly spaces. Creating wildlife friendly landscapes allow children a bird’s eye view of all of the wonders of the world.

4) Eco-friendly gardening insures that these wonders, such as hummingbirds and butterflies, will be around for them to appreciate and share with their own children.

5) Eco-friendly gardening prevents storm-water runoff. Preventing storm water runoff helps us maintain clean drinking water and provides beautiful recreational resources for future generations.

6) Growing food in eco-friendly, organic gardens provides healthier food sources for children.

7) Eco-friendly gardening saves time, which leaves more time for you to play with your kids (or grandkids). Choosing plants which are compatible with your site conditions will require less work.

8) Eco-friendly gardening saves money which you can spend on your kids (or grandkids). Learning to work with Mother Nature, Not Against her, will save money on water, chemicals and plants that don't flourish and need to be replaced.

9) Eco-friendly gardening decreases energy use (and air pollution associated with its generation) because less pumping and treatment of water is required.

10) Eco-friendly gardening is good for your soul. And good souls are important for raising good kids.

World Water Day - Rain is a Terrible Thing to Waste

In honor of World Water Day 2011, I wanted to remind everyone to put out some rain barrels and not waste any of the wonderful Springtime rain!

I've said it before, but it's worth repeating: "A rain is a terrible thing to waste."

So I hope you have your rain barrels up and functioning. If they are already full, get more barrels or open the spigots and fill up all of your watering cans.

And if you don't have any rain barrels, the obvious question is Why Not?

Rain barrels collect and save rain, which provides wonderful pure fresh water for plants and landscapes. A rain barrel will save most homeowners about 1,300 gallons of water during the peak summer months.

Which means, of course, that rain barrels save money by allowing homeowners to use rainwater rather than tap water, cutting down on utility bills.

If you make your own rain barrel, you are saving space in a landfill by keeping a nice big plastic barrel out of there.

Rain barrels also help prevent stormwater runoff which can pollute our waterways.

To encourage more property owners to reap these eco-friendly benefits, many local Maryland and D.C. government programs offer discounts as an incentive to get even more of these water savers into backyards across the DC region. Some of these programs are listed in our previous post How to Earn Green by Going Green.

For information about buying supplies and instructions to build your own rain barrel, visit my previous post on rain barrels.

Tips from Maryland Home and Garden

The Spring 2011 issue of Maryland Home and Garden, a publication of the University of Maryland Extension, is chock-full of great information for creating eco-friendly landscapes, including a detailed article about getting your soil tested.

The article starts out by saying:

The importance of soil to plant growth can be summed up in the aphorism "it’s better to plant a $2 tree in a $25 hole, than a $25 tree in a $2 hole." Soils contain the nutrients, water, and living organisms that help create healthy and sustainable gardens and landscapes. The first step to improving your soil is to invest a small amount of time and money to have your soil tested.

Other highlights from the current issue include:

Soil 

• Many home gardeners over use fertilizers. This results in excessive nutrient runoff and water pollution. Over-fertilization especially with fertilizers high in nitrogen, can lead to overly-succulent, weak growth and encourage sucking insect pests like scales, aphids and adelgids. Most landscape plants get adequate nutrition from a healthy soil rich with organic matter. 

• Poor, compacted soils can be improved through the generous addition of organic matter. This spring, spade or till in a 6-8 inch layer of leaf compost or well-rotted manure. If you want to grow vegetables, flowers or herbs this year and your soil is especially poor, consider building a raised bed and filling it with a purchased mixture of topsoil and leaf compost. 

Lawns 

• April marks the beginning of the mowing season. The height and how frequently you mow your lawn is very important. Cool season grasses such as tall fescue, creeping fescue, and bluegrass should be maintained at 3.0 inches. Try not to remove more than one third of the leaf surface at any one time, repeated mowing that removes this much of the blade will ruin the lawn. 

Mulches should be applied only 2-3 inches deep around ornamental plants and kept away from direct contact with shrub and tree trunks. Mature trees do not benefit much from being mulched except to provide a protective barrier around their trunks from riding lawn mower damage. 

Click here to download the entire newsletter: Spring 2011 Maryland Home and Garden

#1 Happiest Large City - Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV

According to a post on CBS MoneyWatch.com called  The 10 Happiest (and Saddest) Cities in the U.S., the Washington Metro Area is #1 on the list of the 10 Happiest Large Cities.

It's probably because of all of the Bare Naked Gardening!

DC Water Hosts World Walks for Water 6K

DC Water Understands that Water is Life. That's why they are hosting the World Walks for Water 6K this weekend on Sunday, March 20th in Support of World Water Day 2011.

The walk will begin at Archives Metro Station - 701 Pennsylvania Avenue NW.

For more information, visit World Walks for Water or the DC Water Press release.

Wildlife Moves Me! - LET'S MOVE Butterflies to the White House Garden

Wildlife Moves Me!  

The idea for this  post sprouted from many fertile seeds:

1) Mrs. Obama recently replanted the White House Garden for 2011. The White House garden is a part of Mrs. Obama’s "Let’s Move!" campaign to get kids outdoors to help combat childhood obesity.

2) March 14th – 20th is National Wildlife Week - a week designated by the National Wildlife Federation to teach kids about wildlife.

3) Sunday, March 20th, is the first Day of Spring

4) My fellow garden blogger Jan Huston Doble is running a campaign called the Gardener's Sustainable Living Project to encourage people to post what they are doing for Earth Day, which is April 22.

5) Marc Daniels is encouraging kids to email the president about a White House Peace Seed Planting to help Weed Out Hate

6) America's Great Outdoors Campaign , an effort of the Council on Environmental Quality, is looking for ideas to get kids to interact with and appreciate nature

7) The Children and Nature Network is kicking off their Let's G.O. Campaign in the month of April, to get more kids to Go Outside!

8) I believe that butterflies can help save the planet.

That's right. I said butterflies.

So I decided to create my own post called Wildlife Moves Me to help combine all of these efforts.

I believe that encouraging kids to create an eco-friendly garden to attract wildlife is one of the simplest and, by far, the most fun way to inspire them to take care of the environment. It is also an excellent way to combine the efforts of many organizations into one goal:  getting kids outside to move them, inspire them, educate them and encourage them to protect the planet.

There is just something magical about the process of learning how easy it is to attract such small, beautiful wonders as the iridescent hummingbird or how awe-inspiring it is to watch the transformation of caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly and to know that the steps that you took are what brought those wondrous creatures to your yard.

I think that the process is so transforming, that I would  LOVE to see Mrs. Obama create a special garden at the White House to provide food and shelter for birds, butterflies and hummingbirds. It would be a great way to get kids outside in nature and help to educate and inspire our next generation of environmental stewards.

If you are looking for something to do this weekend to get your kids outside in nature, why not help them to create their own wildlife or butterfly garden? The change it will bring to your children, your life and your landscape will be magical!

The lessons one can learn and teach in a wildlife friendly landscape are too numerous to list, but here are just a few:

1) Taking care of the planet begins in our own backyards. Everything we do in our yards affects the rest of the planet. The benefits of conserving water and being aware of stormwater runoff are two of the easiest lessons to teach.

2) Gardens can feed people and wildlife too! Choose plants to  provide food sources for local wildlife. Adding parsley and dill to the White House Gardens will attract some beautiful butterflies!

3)  Eliminating chemicals in your organic garden is good for the food and for the local wildlife.

4) Some insects and garden creatures, such as worms and ladybugs, are very good in the garden

5) Counting birds and other species can help citizens  make important discoveries to help scientists

Here are some previous posts to help you get started on your wildlife-friendly garden.

10 Tips for Creating a Wildlife Friendly Landscape

Gardening for Hummingbirds

Plants to Attract Hummingbirds

Create a Butterfly Garden, Easy as 1-2-3

Plant More Plants - but water wisely

The Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), along with a number of other Chesapeake Bay Program partners in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C., is encouraging homeowners to “Plant More Plants” as a way to mitigate stormwater runoff and erosion and ultimately help improve the health of the Chesapeake Bay.  

The message to homeowners is simple: by planting more plants, they not only improve their lawns and landscapes but they also help protect one of our most important resources – the Chesapeake Bay - the largest estuary in the United States.  

The Plant More Plants website provides many tips for creating a more eco-friendly landscape. Here are some of the suggestions for conserving water

There are three steps to practical landscape watering: Find out how much water your plants need. Know how much water each part of your watering system applies. Match your watering system output to your plants’ needs. To reduce watering and maintenance, group plants with greater water needs together, and place them in a spot that is naturally moist, such as a low-lying area or at the bottom of a hill. Whether you’re irrigating by hand or using an automatic timer, grouping like with like can simplify your watering sequence. 

When is the best time to water? Avoid afternoon watering, which results in a 20 to 25 percent loss of water through heat and evaporation. Watering in the evening prevents evaporation, but it increases the risk of fungal disease and damage from nocturnal insects searching for water. Morning watering is preferred. Avoid watering during the heat of the day, as water will be lost to evaporation. Apply water at a rate of half an inch per hour. Faster application will cause runoff, wasting water and money. 

Sprinkler Systems: Are you overwatering your yard? Many plant problems arise not from underwatering, but from overwatering. A good way to prevent overwatering is to install rain or soil moisture sensors to override your automatic. With hand watering, you can easily avoid overwatering.  

Click here to read more watering tips (pdf file) 

For more great tips from Plant More Plants, visit their website.

Snakes in the Home Landscape - Respect them from a distance

The sun is shining, the days are getting warmer and in my landscape, that means that I need to be a little bit more wary about where I reach and step.

Although I love most critters that share my yard and gardens, I will probably always get a little creeped out when I see snakes.

On the one hand, I appreciate them because they eat rodents and other pesky critters. On the other hand, they are sneaky little boogers that can camouflage themselves very well and I often get surprised by their presence. Although I find many of them beautiful, I would just as soon have them stay out of sight while they carry out their rodent control duties.

Here are some facts and tips to help create a peaceful coexistence between you and snakes in your Metro DC area landscape. The highlighted information is from the Virginia Cooperative Extension Document: Managing Wildlife Damage: Snakes

1) The Northern Copperhead is the only venomous snake in the DC area (photo above). The information on this page from the Virginia Herpetological Society will help you learn all about this beautiful but venomous snake.

2) Large snakes provide an important service by helping to manage rodent populations (e.g., rats, mice, and voles) that can cause serious economic problems for homeowners, farmers, and businesses. In fact, farmers used to pay local kids a small “reward” to go out and collect ratsnakes to release around the barn and farmyard as a way to keep rodents in check. Many of the smaller species feed on insects and other invertebrate pests common to our gardens and landscape plantings.

3) All native snakes in Maryland are protected by the Nongame and Endangered Species Conservation Act. This means that native snakes cannot be killed without first acquiring the proper permit from the Department of Natural Resources.

4) It is illegal to kill any species of snake in Virginia unless it presents an imminent threat to one’s personal health and safety. Snakes are classified as nongame species and therefore are afforded full protection under existing nongame regulations, similar to all other species in this category.

5) Snakes can enter homes through very small openings. All possible snake entry places should be blocked. Galvanized screen can be used to cover drains or ventilators. Insulation can be used in cement cracks or where pipes go through outside walls. Places to concentrate your efforts would be where utility service (e.g., water, sewer, electric, telephone, cable) enters the home; where the clothes dryer vent exits the building; around doors, windows, and bulkheads to the basement or garage (including the gap under a large garage door); and where the house sits on its foundation.

6) Vegetation should be kept short around buildings. Mowed lawns near the house are less attractive to snakes and the rodents they feed on. A three-inch layer of pea-size gravel around the foundation will help plug small holes. Thin or reduce the amount of landscape plantings that exist immediately against the foundation of the home. Thick, lush gardens and layers of growth located against the home provide perfect cover and protection to both snakes and their prey.

7) To help keep snakes out of your yard, you need to take away anything that attracts their prey. This would include things like spilled bird seed, accessible pet food supplies, open containers of dry goods, and similar potential food items. Transfer all stored dry goods to metal or glass containers that cannot be chewed by rodents.

8) The most effective way to minimize or prevent a chance encounter with a snake outdoors is to modify the habitat such that the snake no longer can fulfill its basic life needs easily. Basic life needs, in this case, refer to food, water, cover, and space. By manipulating the habitat around your home, you can make it very difficult for a snake to survive there. Examples of actions that might be taken include: 

a. Eliminate, remove, or relocate brush piles, refuse, stored building products, stacked firewood, or other  materials that may provide useful cover and hiding spots for both snakes and the prey species they hunt. 

b. Thin out or selectively remove weedy or overgrown patches of vegetation that may harbor small prey animals such as rodents and provide cover for hiding snakes. 

c. In areas where small children or pets play, keep the grass well-mowed and maintain an expanse of well-cropped vegetation between the play area and the surrounding woods. Snakes usually do not like to be exposed in the open and away from cover. 

d. To create a snake-free play area, encircle the area to be protected with a fine-meshed (1/8- to 1/4-inch) fence, about 36 inches in height, that has been dug into the ground so that no gaps exist .

9) Although there are a number of commercially available products that have been registered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for use as snake repellents, research to investigate their effectiveness has yet to show any demonstrated success. Readers are reminded that use of any other nonfood-grade ingredients or “home-brewed” snake repellents made from chemicals for which an EPA product registration does not exist is a violation of federal law.

10) There are no chemicals or products registered or approved by the EPA for use as a means to kill snakes. Remember, it is illegal in Virginia to kill any species of snake and in Maryland to kill native snakes.

11) If you really don't like the thought of snakes on your property, professional wildlife control operators may be available to help you remove them.

12) If you are bitten by a snake, seek immediate medical attention. Current recommendations for proper treatment, provided by health professionals at the National Institute of Health, can be obtained from this link: Snakebites. Print the information and have it on hand, but always call 911 first if you think you may have been bitten by a poisonous snake.

For more information

All About Snakes in Maryland

10 Most Commonly Seen Snakes in the DC Metro Area

Snakes in Virginia

Managing Wildlife Damage: Snakes

Volunteer opportunity this weekend

Join the Izaak Walton League-Wildlife Achievement Chapter and Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission on Sunday, March 20th from 9am - noon, as they remove invasive weeds from trees and plant pawpaw, elderberry and pin oak seedlings to replace the trees that didn't make through the winter.

9 a.m. to Noon, Pigtail Recreation Area, 5400 Green Bridge Road, Dayton,MD.

For directions to the site - Contact Meo Curtis by email at meosotis58@verizon.net

Wildlife Wednesday - something to screech about

If you have followed this blog for very long, you know that one of the main reasons that my husband and I are "green" gardeners is because we like to share our landscape with the local wildlife.

We were rewarded for our efforts this weekend when we looked up and saw this beautiful little screech owl sitting in the opening of the large nest box we had built.

We built the nest box a few years ago when we saw a pair of barred owls hanging around. Although we have never seen the barred owls use the box, all sorts of other birds and critters visit or live in the box, from time to time.

This little screech owl is definitely the cutest!

For more information about gardening for wildlife, visit this post:
10 Tips for a Wildlife Friendly Garden or use the "Search this site box" to search for widlife, hummingbirds, birds, butterflies, etc.