lawn care Archives - Barefoot Organics LLC

Why to Go Organic This Year

This year, why not make a resolution that’s good for you and good for the planet by resolving to live a more natural life? Once you’ve changed out your soaps and household cleaners and done away with all processed foods, you ought to think about what kind of natural life you’re leading outside of your home. Aren’t you worried about your family’s proximity to the nasty pesticides and fertilizers annually poured on our lawns? There are many reasons to switch to organic lawn care. The three most important, however, center around health – the health of your body, the health of your lawn and the health of your wallet! Organic lawn care is healthier all around. Go organic for 2014! Protect Yourself Much can be said about the dangers of synthetic fertilizers and chemical pesticides. Much more is yet to be determined. The precautionary principle is advocated when the long-term effects of something are hard to prove or unknown. We believe that if the long-term damage of a given pesticide cannot yet be determined, we shouldn’t wait to find out all the problems it creates. We aren’t sure what health problems conventional lawn care chemicals will cause after many years of exposure, but if you follow a precautionary principle and avoid these potentially harmful chemicals, you can preserve biodiversity, prevent environmental contamination and preserve human health. Fortify Your Soil Synthetic fertilizers and chemical pesticides can devastate the complex system in and around the soil called the “food web.” Food webs are intricate and fragile with each organism and process depending on the other. A healthy organic soil is teeming with insects, fungi and countless microorganisms living and dying and nurturing the grass. If any one [...]

The Benefits of Organic Lawn Care

What’s more organic than a lush green lawn? Well, thanks to the synthetic fertilizers and secret formula weed-killers regularly dumped on lawns across the country, a lot of things. Nature already provides everything we need to make our lawns beautiful. So why does the Environmental Protection Agency estimate that cumulatively, U.S. households dump nearly 90 million pounds of herbicides and pesticides on their lawns every year, mostly made up of mystery chemicals? The conventional lawn care industry has convinced thousands of homeowners that the only way to get gorgeous grass is to apply synthetic fertilizer three or four times a season. Not only is that a little excessive, it’s also usually more harm to the environment than it is good. You (and your neighbors) will be surprised to discover that you can have a thick, lush swath of green without toxic treatments. You’ve already gone organic in the kitchen with your milk and your produce… why not try it in the yard? Consider these benefits… More eco-friendly Synthetic fertilizers and combination fertilizer-herbicides are chemically processed into a concentrated, water-soluble feed that are available to plants immediately. But when there is more than the grass can take up, the excess washes out of the root zone and into our watersheds. Every summer in the Gulf of Mexico, an area roughly the size of Connecticut is choked with vast algae and phytoplankton blooms, due in part to the tons of fertilizer runoff from the Mississippi River. As the algae dies and decomposes, it uses up water’s oxygen, making the area uninhabitable for sea life. The source of the pollution is so widespread that several continental states and Canadian provinces have imposed bans on phosphorous fertilizers. More people-friendly [...]