Organic methods used on lawns

Landscapers trained to maintain grounds without chemicals

By Jason Vondersmith

Pamplin Media Group, Mar 11, 2010

L.E. BASKOW / Pamplin Media Group

Michael La Casa, a newly certified organic landscaper with the Oregon Tilth program, uses a torch as an alternative to chemical weed-killers.

ADVERTISEMENTS

Maybe someday, people won’t use fertilizer to grow grass, pesticides to kill bugs and two-stroke engines to blow leaves and trim hedges.

It might seem unfathomable to the average Joe, but that’s the goal of the Organic Land Care program, a new initiative by Oregon Tilth to extend organic farming practices into home and commercial landscaping.

Oregon Tilth, a national pacesetter in certifying farm products as organic, offered its first landscaper training two months ago, and hopes to conduct similar sessions every January. The Corvallis nonprofit will use the annual five-day trainings to accredit landscapers in sustainable alternatives to traditional yard installation and maintenance.

Portland landscaper Michael LaCasa is one of the first 22 landscapers to gain organic landscaping accreditation from the new program.

”I have a lot of faith in Oregon Tilth, because I knew their name with work on organic food,” says LaCasa, owner of Apogee Landscapes. “They have the strictest standards that I know of. With the backing of Oregon Tilth, which has solidified what organic land care is, maybe people will start to believe in it.”

Under the program, the landscaper will enter into an agreement with the client to maintain a greener standard of care for their property, says David Alba, Organic Land Care project manager.

“We are looking toward our accredited practitioners to be in the forefront of the educational process, teaching their clients these methods,” Alba says.

LaCasa, 34, has run his company since 2006 with many of the same standards, so it was a no-brainer for him to get accredited by Oregon Tilth.

What’s involved

Organic land care means looking at land, air and water quality, Alba says. “For some people, it means a new horticulture technique.”

It’s about feeding the soil instead of feeding the plant. It’s about reducing or eliminating the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, and testing the soil before applying organic soil treatments.

There’s a misconception that lawns require chemical fertilizer and pesticides, which are used on more than half of the lawns in the U.S., LaCasa says. “You switch from chemicals to compost, put an eighth of an inch on the lawn and it improves the health of the lawn dramatically.”

Oregon Tilth requires Integrated Pest Management. That involves frequent soil testing and monitoring to define what the problem is (like bugs or fungus). Then treat the problem and don’t “blanket-spray everything,” LaCasa says.

1 | 2 Next Page >>