Environmental Scorecard: How Does Your Yard Rate?

In the current issue of People, Places & Plants, which should be in subscribers’ kitchens by now, we have two different polls for you to consider. The first is our time-honored Readers Choice Poll, which allows our readers to pick everything from their favorite media personality to their favorite garden center. I can tell you that the winners are extremely proud to win; your votes mean a lot.

We’ve also added a second poll this year in cooperation with the National Gardening Association. In 2004, the NGA of Vermont announced publication of a ground-breaking report known as the Environmental Lawn & Garden Survey. As part of a coalition among business, government and environmental groups, the NGA attempted to quantify the landscaping habits of the average American homeowner. In part of that process, the NGA developed an Environmental Scorecard to evaluate how environmentally friendly Americans really are when it comes to tending lawns and gardens. We thought we’d poll our own readers. We encourage you to take a few minutes to answer both polls and we’ll discuss the results with you in March. We’ve made it easy for you. You can click on line and have the ballot back to us in minutes.

So where’s the Tip of the Week, you might ask? Well, in this case you’re giving us the tip so that we can serve you better. The polls help us understand what issues are important to you so that we can provide you with the information you really want in the future.

I’ll be back with a real tip next week.

Paul Tukey, January 26, 2006.

Mole Wars: Should We Fight Back

I hear the exasperation from homeowners several times a week in late winter and early spring. Their lawns will be littered with piles of soil that seem to appear out of nowhere. Voles are often blamed, yet an unrelated culprit known as moles are the really enemy in turf wars.

Moles, voles, schmoles, you may be saying. Knowing the difference, though, is critical in your approach to regaining control of your landscape. In short, moles are carnivores, meaning they eat meat. Voles are herbivores, meaning they eat vegetables. Voles devour roots, bark and lower vegetation, but rarely eat grass and their tunnels are rarely a big issue in the soil. Moles, on the other hand, just bomb about underground in search of whatever grub, worm or insect they can find.

When people ask what to do about moles, I often respond by telling them to cheer, “Go moles, go.” Moles eat the white grubs that become Japanese beetles and June beetles. In the big picture, these grubs and beetles do far more damage than moles to the overall landscape. Grubs damage grass roots; the beetles devour foliage of landscape plants.

“White grubs, in many locations, are the leading pest of grasses by far,” said associate professor Albrecht M. Koppenhofer, an entomologist from Rutgers University in New Jersey. “They can cause significant damage in certain situations, but people also should not overreact the first time they see a grub in the soil.”

Voles — These are the true varmints of the garden. They want your plants, plain and simple. If you’ve ever lost a fruit tree to girdling at the base, or a prized perennial that was chewed from the roots and left for dead, voles were the likely suspects.

Often called pine and meadow mice, the pine vole, Microtus pinetorum, and the meadow vole, M. pennsylvanicus, have become huge problems, especially in the East. Development has taken away their natural forest habitat, and also their natural predators, including fox, bobcat, weasels, snakes, owls and hawks.

Pine voles are reddish brown and small, about two to four inches long, with a short tail, blunt face, and tiny eyes and ears. Meadow voles are more gray in color. Both have tiny, yet prominent, sets of eyes. Because voles don’t hibernate, they feed year round on roots and underground stems of plants. They can tunnel on their own, but often borrow tunnels already burrowed by moles — thereby creating even more confusion among homeowners. If you find exit holes on the tunnels in your lawn and garden, chances are you have voles, not moles, since moles are blind and only come up for daylight by mistake.

Moles — When you see a mole close up, the differences from voles are obvious. Take one look at the webbed front paws and claws of the mole and you’ll instantly see why many texts refer to the critters as “master excavators.” They are also prodigious at the dinner table, able to eat up to their full body weight within a 24-hour period. Unlike voles, which travel in family packs, moles often live and work alone. They are also more active after sundown.

Their damage is usually fairly minimal; the displaced soil can easily be smoothed out with a metal rake. If you feel you must be rid of the moles, soaking the ground with castor oil will help, but the easiest way is to work on eradicating the source of food. In other words, get rid of the grubs and the moles will soon tunnel elsewhere.

The most effective natural way to control grubs is to apply microscopic organisms — known as beneficial nematodes — to the soil in May through early June or late August through September depending on your location. This timetable can vary greatly in warm-season climates and if you suspect grubs as a problem on your lawn, you should contact your local Cooperative Extension office to determine the insect’s lifecycle in your area. The Extension agent should also be able to point you toward a local source for the nematodes; Koppenhofer, at Rutgers, and many other scientists are constantly updating information on strains of the nematodes that work the best in certain climates against specific grubs.

The keys to success with beneficial nematodes are two-fold: 1) Be sure you have a treatable problem and 2) get the timing right. As a general rule of thumb, if you have five or fewer grubs per square foot on your lawn, you do not have a significant problem. You can test this by simply digging a square foot of soil to a depth of six inches. Break apart the soil and sod and count any grubs you find.

“A few grubs are a part of the natural system and people shouldn’t panic,” said Todd Harrington, the oft-cited natural lawn care professional from Connecticut. “In a healthy lawn with a healthy root system, I rarely see a grub problem worth taking action.”

If you do act, timing is everything. Grubs spend about 10 months of the year in the soil and two months of the year as adult beetles in the landscape above ground. Trying to kill the grubs just before they emerge from the soil in late spring or just after they lay eggs re-enter the soil in early autumn is paramount. Treating at other times won’t help a bit, whether you use a synthetic chemical or beneficial nematodes.

Applying beneficial nematodes is an easy, non-toxic exercise. You’ll need a device for your garden hose known as a hose-end sprayer and at least enough hose to reach all infected areas of your property. Further directions on mixing and application will be available from the nematode supplier.

One other treatment — You can also inoculate your lawn and garden with a white powder known as milky spore disease, but this usually takes two to three years to build up enough population to be fully useful. This product, according to Koppenhofer, has shown “highly variable” results.

“Since the commercially available strain of milky spore disease is ineffective against white grubs other than the Japanese beetle,” he said, “applicators who are interested in using milky spore disease should first make sure that their grubs are actually Japanese beetle grubs.”

One Other Note — Yes, it’s true the same poisons that rid homes of mice will also work to kill moles and voles When the snow melts this spring and you see tunnels and dead plants galore, you may be tempted to take out the toxins. In a word, don’t. These poisons, left in the open, will be fair game for every cat, dog, bird and child in the neighborhood.

Next week, I’ll provide more information on vole control.

Paul Tukey, January 19, 2006.

The Eco-Shed: Tools of the Trade for the Natural Lawn

I hope you all had a great holiday season. At PPP, many of us were able to take some time to be with our families, but the arrival of January always gets us excited about the spring season ahead . . . especially when we have a break in the weather like we’re having this week.

I’ve actually been very busy at my computer. The rough draft of my book on natural lawn care is due at the publisher on Feb. 1, so I’ve put in a few late nights.

In lieu of a Tip of the Week this time around, I’m going to share a short sidebar that I’m working on for the book. I’d like your feedback, and to hear if you have any other ideas for essential tools for homeowners who care for their own lawns.

Here goes . . .
For most Americans, lawn care is the number one home maintenance activity. It’s our connection to the neighborhood, the outdoors and our personal stamp on the environment. As we’ve seen already in the book, the decision to care for one’s own lawn cannot be taken lightly. For beginners, however, the weight of that choice may first be felt at the hardware store before the first blade of grass is ever cut.

Fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides aside, it’s often easy to tell if someone cares for a lawn naturally just by peaking inside their shed or garage. Here are a few considerations as you approach the ocean of choices in the marketplace:

Essentials

Mowers — More than 30 years ago, my first Briggs & Stratton mower, purchased used for $10, took me to the promised land of many reliable $5 paychecks, hour after hour, day after day. I certainly wasn’t thinking about ozone layers, pollution levels or greenhouse gases, or even the splash of fuel that hit the ground every time I hurriedly refueled my quart-size gas tank. The state of California, which offers rebate programs for homeowners who willingly trade in their gas mowers for electric models, estimates that a 21-inch lawn mower running for one hour causes up to 10 times the pollution of a car running for the same period of time.

These days, we should know better. With the improved quality of electric equipment, gas-powered motors should be a thing of the past. You can purchase electric mowers with cords, or with rechargeable batteries with enough life to mow for two hours or more. You can purchase ride-on mowers, or find conversion kits that allow you to retrofit your gas model to electric.

That leaves only two primary discussions about mowers: 1) whether to go with a unit that bags clippings, mulches them back onto the lawn or discharges clipping out the side; Black & Decker actually makes that decision easy by producing an adaptable electric combination unit that combines all three options; 2) whether to go reel or rotary with your blades; a reel mower cuts with multiple blades that spin vertically on an axis to cut grass with a scissor action and rotary mowers cut with a single blade spinning in a horizontal circle at a high rate of speed. Warm-season grasses that can be mowed low are ideal for reel blades that give a cleaner, healthier cut for the grass plant; with all other grasses, a rotary blade is more practical. Once the grass gets above two inches tall, most reel blade mowers don’t do a good job.

Power String Trimmers — The same argument about gas mowers goes double for trimmers. Because the gas in trimmers is often mixed with two-cycle oil, the air pollution is even worse in trimmers. Some manufacturers have improved emission standards with cleaner burning four-stroke engines, but for most average-sized lawns, electric is still the way to go.

Electric trimmers, like mowers, come in corded models and cordless versions with rechargeable batteries. If you’re careful and pay attention to the cord, then a corded model is still the most practical for a lawn of any size. I tried a cordless trimmer that only offered a half-hour of battery time on a full charge. Depending on the size of your yard, that may not be enough.

Eye & Ear Protection — It amazes me how many people I see power trimming lawns, also known as “weed whacking,” without eye or ear protection. These tools, even electric models, are loud and dangerous. Purchase yourself a comfortable pair of quality ear muffs and shatterproof goggles. Cheap sunglasses don’t cut it.

Even though mowers may not present the same eye danger, they can be especially damaging to hearing. The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders Sounds said sounds louder than 85 decibels — on a scale from 0 to 140 —  can cause temporary or permanent hearing loss. A gas mower averages about 90 decibels; a gas trimmer puts out about 110 decibels and an electric model comes in right on the border at about 80 to 85.

Gas can — If you go electric with your equipment, you may not need a gas can in your Eco-Shed. But since you may need to rent an occasional dethatcher, aerator or power edger — or you just won’t give up your gas mowers and trimmers — keep in mind that all gas cans are not created equally.

California, which began regulating gas cans in 2001, estimated that portable gas cans account for about 87 tons per day of smog-forming pollution in that state alone, which is equal to emissions from about one million automobiles. The newer “no-spill” cans reduce fumes and spills and therefore pollution. One of the best on the market comes from my old reliable, Briggs & Stratton, who makes a “Smart Fuel Can” with an automatic shutoff and dedicated screw-on spout assembly.  

Watering utensils — Check out Chapter 7 for a full discussion of hoses, nozzles, sprinklers and timers. With water becoming more and more of a precious resource, it’s important that every drop goes where you intend, and not off into the driveway, drainpipe or downhill to the neighbor’s yard.

Wheelbarrows — Every home needs at least one and you should consider its primary use before making a purchase. The earth’s most efficient simple machine, combining levers and wheels, the wheelbarrow can move soil and compost, collect grass clippings and weeds, or tote tools back and forth to the shed. If you can afford it, spend a lot of money once to make a lifetime investment, rather than a little money every year or two when the wheelbarrow breaks.

The most versatile model on the market these days is a version known as a “Load Dumper,” which can move up to 500 pounds with remarkable ease. The engineers positioned the double wheels and handle so the user pushes down on the wheelbarrow rather than lifts, thereby saving lower back strain. Dumping is also made remarkably easy through a quick-release hook on the wheelbarrow’s axel.

In general, the double-wheel models will provide more stability for heavier loads, but these do sacrifice some maneuverability. The new lightweight, but heavyduty resin bins make it far easier to move top soil; heavy metal bins are really no longer necessary.

Rakes — These are like wheelbarrows; you might not think anything new would be happening in design and function after all these years. Then, in 2004, the nation’s oldest tool manufacturer, Ames, patented a lawn rake with interconnected wide tines shaped like a series of Ws. The result is a sturdy tool that won’t clog up with leaves, which can be a big nuisance depending on the species of tree leaves you’re raking.

Every lawn keeper’s shed needs at least three kinds of rakes: 1) the aforementioned leaf rake; the only drawback of the new “clog-free” rake is the width, at only 24 inches. I prefer the 30-inch models, with a cushioned handle to make it easier on the hands. I also reinforce the plastic tines with duct tape near the tip of the rake’s fingers to give them extra strength, especially on cold days when the plastic can be brittle; 2) a metal rake for moving soil, compost and gravel; the new fiberglass handles are lighter and last longer than wood; 3) a bamboo rake for dethatching the lawn; nothing has improved on the performance of bamboo for those times when you really need to dig down and scratch the soil surface to remove thatch, or prepare the lawn for overseeding.

Shovels & Spades — You’ll need, at a minimum, two digging tools in your shed. The classic long-handled, round-point shovel is the workhorse for creating holes, filling wheelbarrows and moving soil, compost, gravel and just about anything. Shorter folks might have, instead, a short-handled version of this tool and others might also keep a square-pointed or scoop shovel for moving compost or soil more quickly.

Square-pointed shovels should not be confused with flat-blade spades, which are used for edging or cutting through turf. These also come in long or short handles and should be selected on the basis of length, weight and durability. Models that have “uni-body” construction — meaning they’re forged from a single piece of metal — are generally of superior quality. Some of the new fiberglass handles will reduce the tool’s overall weight, which will save your arms after a few holes.

Be sure to keep you shovels and spades sharp and well oiled. This will extend the life of the tool and also make the work easier for you.

Weeding Tools — As mentioned in the chapter on weeds, if I could only pick one tool to pry dandelions and just about any other herbaceous weeds out of the ground, it would be a dandelion weeder, also known a fishtail weeder. These are long-necked tools with two points that fan out at the end for digging, teasing and prying roots out of the soil.

I also own a Cape Cod weeder, which was developed in my home state of Maine. Basically a long piece of metal that curves to the right or left, it is useful for weeding in tight spaces. A crack or pavement weeder works well for clean up walkways and patios, or around fence posts.

Every shed also needs a good, basic trowel. This is another tool you should buy once and buy well. A $2 plastic trowel won’t stand the test of time. Be sure you hold the trowel the right way, with the curve of the trowel facing toward you as you work. Too many gardeners hold the trowel the wrong way and wind up with sore or injured wrists.

Hoes — Most of these are designed for use in the vegetable garden, but three also come in handy around the lawn: 1) a Dutch scuffle hoe has a wide, flat cutting edge that slices weeds off at the surface; 2) a stirrup or “action” hoe looks like a stirrup at the base of a horse’s saddle and is used to cut weeds off at the surface, or dig more deeply as a cultivator; its primary benefit is that it cuts in either direction; 3) a grub hoe or “grape” hoe is actually a swinging tool, much like a pick ax, that is useful for digging deeply into heavy soils when a pointed shovel just isn’t doing the job.

Like shovels, hoes should be help clean, sharp and oiled to maintain their full usefulness. I’ve taken to purchasing models with fiberglass handles due to the longevity and lighter weight.

Forks — You can live without a spading fork if you have a shovel, and not the other way around, but I’d still recommend one and maybe two forks for your shed. Buy one with heavy steel tines for breaking up clods, unearthing roots, turning the soil and working in soil amendments. Forks work more efficiently than shovels for all these tasks, especially in heavy clay soils.

If spreading compost will be part of your annual maintenance program — and it should be — you should also consider purchasing a manure fork or compost fork, which has thinner fingers placed closer together. The light weight makes this tool ideal for shoveling compost into wheelbarrows, or top-dressing lawns. It will also come in useful for turning or aerating a compost pile.

Broadcast spreader — Since overseeding with new grass seed is a primary component of a natural lawn care program, it will be useful to keep one of these in your shed. This spreader can also be used to apply fertilizers and other soil amendments, and even to drop sand or melting agents in the winter.

These are preferable to “drop” spreaders, in general, because they work faster and are less prone to product overlap and “striping” of lawns. Since broadcast spreaders work with a spinning mechanism that sends the material several feet in all directions, however, users need to be careful that any products don’t wind up where you might not want them. This is less of a concern in natural lawn care; in my days as a traditional landscaper, I was always worried about getting herbicides on perennials or vegetables.

Compost bin — This probably won’t ever be in the shed or garage, but it’s worth mentioning as a necessary tool anyway. While it’s virtually impossible to create enough compost around your own home to top-dress your entire lawn once or twice a year — unless you’re a dedicated composter who collects leaves and clippings from other people’s properties — you should still contribute to your own lawn and garden and the environment as a whole by composting.

Here’s a quick review of the four primary compost methods: 1) lazy man’s pile, which is simply a heap in the corner of your property where you dump everything; the most well-rotted material is generally found on the bottom of the pile after a year or two; 2) open air bins, which age the composting materials throughout a period of months. I use four hardwood pallets nailed together in a square, but chicken wire cages also work well; 3) an enclosed tumbler or barrel, which can be frequently turned. These are ideal in areas where appearance and smell may be an issue and they’ll generally produce compost quickly; 4) an indoor “vermicomposter,” which utilizes special red worms to devour kitchen scraps and other biodegradable garbage.

Tarps — Your shed should have two primary blanket-type tools. One should be lightweight — those ubiquitous blue or green “poly” tarps are most common — for collecting fall leaves or as a general catch-all if you’re transplanting a tree, moving sod and repairing the lawn. Taking the time to put down a tarp in the beginning will save you all kinds of time on cleanup on the other end.

The second tarp should be made of flexible rubber, either a roofing underlayment product or a section of pond liner. You’ll invariably use this from time to time to kill weeds or grass in a large area by baking or “solarizing” the plants underneath the rubber. Since it’s heavier and traps the soil and plant gasses, in addition to the sun’s heat, the rubber works far better than plastic.

Other essentials — Without going too crazy (I know I could spend a fortune in the hardware section), you’ll also want to have some version of these tools somewhere in your shed: 1) hand trimmers for clipping back a few weeds or tall grass without firing up the string trimmer; 2) a long tape measure, probably a minimum of a 100-footer that comes on a reel, for measuring the area of your lawn or the spread of your lawn sprinkler; 3) a file for your mower blade known as a “bastard” file, since your mower blade(s) should be sharpened after every eight to 12 hours of use; 4) a bench vice or at least vice-grip pliers to hold the blade in place while it’s being sharpened.

Paul Tukey, January 10, 2006.