GROWING, the Go Organic way
Keeping yards safe for babies, bees, the Bay, and pets!
Nature’s glory is sprouting up all over–daffodils, crocus, forsythia, budding trees. Dust off your garden gloves, grab your trowel and be part of it all. But before you trot off to your local gardening supply store, catch up on the hidden ways that toxics can turn your backyard eden into a dangerous place for kids, pets, birds, pollinators and the friendly insects we want to attract.
Toxic-free landscapes are not just possible, they are easy to achieve and maintain. Let’s make a safe and nourishing sanctuary at home.
Reimagine Your Backyard
Staying Home and Putting Down Roots
It’s the perfect time to bring beauty and purpose to your outdoor space.
Here’s how to get started!
Have you wanted a vegetable patch or flower garden but just not had the time? Then take a few minutes to get inspired and learn some great beginning steps.
Weed worry? If you’re starting from scratch or weed control is a concern, check out our new blog on this eco-friendly herbicide safely that actually improves soil health.
First, whet your creative appetite with these 25 creative ways to grow vegetables in your yard. Start imagining…
Here’s how to start a garden. Listen to this NPR audio segment for super basic but necessary steps to transform a neglected back yard into a fruitful beautiful Eden.
Listen to the clip and read the article.
8 vegetables you can grow at home, even in an apartment. Read More.
How to start and maintain an indoor garden for fresh produce at home. Read More.
The best indoor garden kits, according to chefs and gardeners. Read More.
How about a “victory garden” — organic-style! The reasons why and approaches for a variety of circumstances are here.
Grow your own nutrient-rich compost. Learn the basics of different composting options with this video clip and how-to article.
Don’t let mosquitoes spoil your fun! Download the 2022 fact sheets, Managing Mosquitos Without Pesticides. Enjoy!
Scroll below for organic seeds, bee-friendly plant suppliers, organic lawn care, and lots more!
Calling All Bees, Birds, Butterflies and Lightening Bug Lovers!
Starting with Seeds & Plants
Safe Plants, Flowers & Habitat Seed
For a wealth of benefits!
Maryland suppliers and seed companies
Like the miners, who carried caged canaries into the coal mines to warn them of escaping poisonous gases, the deaths of billions of pollinating birds and insects from pesticides warns us that poison from pesticides have reached a crisis in our environment. Increasingly, seed and plants are pre-treated with the class of systemic insecticides known as neonicotinoids (aka neonics, for short). A single application of a neonic means the plant will kill for years to come the insects who feed on any part of the plant, including pollinators visiting for pollen and nectar. We can protect pollinators—a critical part of our own food web—along with our families and pets, starting right in our own backyards.
The Healthy Garden Alternative is Easier Than You Think is a downloadable guide to creating healthy gardens and yards.
NEW! 5 Simple Steps to Help Enforce Our Bee Law. Are bee-killing products sold illegally near you? Neonics were banned in all consumer products as of Jan. 1, 2018, but many stores still carry these deadly products. Download this fact sheet to learn how you can identify them and help us enforce the law.
You can download this list of Maryland nurseries and stores who have made commitments to not sell neonic-treated plants and suppliers who specialize in untreated or organic seed.
PLAY IT SAFE WITH ORGANIC SEED SUPPLIERS
Organic Seed Suppliers
These reputable suppliers can ship your order of organic flower, herb and vegetable seeds rapidly.
Vegetables, ornamentals and other stock
Finding organic seed isn’t difficult. The maturity of the organic gardening movement has grown a large and reputable community of seed companies who offer favorite varietals, as well as many heirloom seeds that have been naturally selected and preserved for exceptional qualities including incredible taste, blooming flowers and natural resistance.
Turn over a new leaf in your garden and enjoy the fruits!
Six Sustainable Products for Starting Spring Seeds
Mail Order Organic Seed Suppliers:
Non-toxic Lawn Care
Keeping Yards Beautiful and Healthy
Avoiding a toxic stew of poisons
Pesticides including insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, rodenticides lurk in “natural” lawn care services, fertilizers, mulch and more
Have you contracted with a “natural” lawn care service? Unfortunately, there is no legal definition for the word, so natural has nothing to do with the chemicals they will apply to your yard. The U.S. EPA does not evaluate actual pesticide mixtures, nor do they assess health effects from multiple pesticide exposures and lack adequate data on the long-term and low-dose health effects of exposure to pesticides. Under a conditional registration loophole, the EPA has allowed thousands of pesticides on the market without adequate, or many cases any, toxicity testing!
Children are especially susceptible. The American Academy of Pediatrics warns that pesticide exposure is linked to pediatric cancer, decreased cognitive function and behavioral problems in children. Pets ingest lawn chemicals from treated grass or from licking of paws and fur after touching treated grass. Studies indicate that dogs exposed to lawn pesticides have a greater risk of developing canine malignant lymphoma.
Lawn care pesticides don’t stay put. They drift and move, contaminating the air we breathe, our waterways, drinking water and soil. Pesticides are not removed from finished drinking water.
Climate-savvy Alternatives to Lawns
Transitioning to an Organic Lawn is Simple, in 3 Steps by Chip Osborne, national expert
Sources for beneficial insects, organic fertilizers, pest and weed management products, supplies and more.
Bio-rational and low hazard products for managing insect pests
PRI Product Evaluator is a free mobile app that helps you identify insects and find low toxicity products to control them, by Pesticide Research Institute.
Non-toxic & Neonic-free Products to Manage Top 30 Insect Pests quick reference sheet
Healthy Soil
The Magic of Life-Giving Soil
Vital nutrient losses in our soil, and food, are just part of the reason to rebuild soil.
New research discovers the vital role the soil biome has in sequestering carbon and reversing climate change
Improving soil health reduces the need to manage insect predation because healthier plants have better resistance to insects and are less attractive to them. Here’s a start with basic steps to improve the soil in your yard and garden.
Healthy Soils Practices fact sheet
5 Ways You Can Improve Soil Health
Take a virtual tour of Rodale’s farm.
World-renowned experimental organic farm Rodale Institute in Pennsylvania offers this excellent virtual tour! Take the tour.
A New report on farming and grazing studies shows regenerative systems, if achieved globally, would draw down more than 100% of current annual CO2 emissions.
More on Protecting Pollinators
Gardeners Beware: Bee-Toxic Pesticides Found in “Bee-Friendly” Plants Sold at Garden Centers Across the U.S. January 1, 2016
This updated report finds a 28 percent decrease in toxic pesticides in “bee-friendly” plants and shows that retailer commitments are shifting the market.
