Creek Water Not Safe

Yesterday I took my 2 1/2 year-old son and 4 1/2 year-old daughter to the park for a picnic and to play for a while. They were so excited to cross a bridge and see the trickle of water in the creek. Of course they wanted to play in the water....there kids! It is a park after all. I showed them the sign posted in a couple areas along the creek and told them simply that it said no playing in the water. The picture was enough for them, "but why" I thought to myself. Is this an issue of pollutants from our parking areas and streets entering our creeks and rivers through storm drains? Perhaps if that were the case the sign would urge caution due to "contaminated water" but it specifically reads" bacteria levels".
I called the number on the sign and will finish the post when I hear back......

America and Our Lawns

Green lawns are the staple of America's residential and commercial landscape. We spend $27 billion dollars a year - ten times more than we pay for text books to grow and maintain 20 million acres of grass. Forty million lawnmowers cause five percent of the nation's air pollution and at least thirty percent of our water is used to irrigate lawns, washing fertilizers and pesticides into rivers, lakes and streams.

Now, corporations, universities, government offices and parks around the nation are looking at an alternative to Kentucky Blue Grass. They are going back to their roots to find native prairie and wetland plants.

These grasses, flowers, forbs and sedges have adapted, over hundreds of years to our climate. They survived heat and drought, extreme cold and fire, their long roots tucked deep in the ground. They provide habitat for native birds and butterflies.
- United States EPA

Proper Disposal of CFL Light Bulbs

PG&E and others like to promote the use of the CFL bulbs, and it is a great energy saver, but what really troubles me is that they do not put effort in educating the public that these bulbs must be disposed of differently than the light bulbs we are accustomed to using.

The Benefits of Compost

Most folks are familiar with compost as a soil amendment for general landscaping purposes in planting beds and establishing new lawns. There are several other benefits and applications for compost and the use of compost continues to grow!

Compost can be used as a mulch; a top dressing to blanket the layer of soil the plants rest their feet(roots) in. Utilized in this fashion, it suppresses weed growth, holds soil moisture, lowers soil temperature than without it, and improves the organic structure of the soil as the mulch breaks down. This supports an entire system of life typically referred to as the soil food web, but I digress, that is another post. Compost is instrumental in plant establishment when back-filled into the planting hole with the root ball of plant material. The roots of the plant have a softer and nutrient rich medium to begin their new development of growth. And by the way, without an adequate root structure, even the plants that require less water need a root system to support them first and foremost.

Coffee Drinkers, Keep Those Grinds!

Coffee grinds can be a great alternative to chemical fertilizers. Some of your local coffee houses even give their used grinds for free. That's an opportunity to prevent it from becoming an addition to your local landfill.....and it's free fertilizer!
For some reason, I am less than enthusiastic about eating food that chemicals were poured onto and apparently more and more people feel the same way as I notice an increase in the availability and selection of foods labeled with the word ORGANIC.
If you're already a composter, you probably already add coffee grinds as well as other fruit and vegetable waste to your compost bin (See the City of San Jose's site to get one for yourself http://www.sjrecycles.org/residents/home_compost.asp or if you are not a San Jose resident, check with your city or county). As an alternative, that is to say if you don't have a bin, sprinkle the coffee grinds onto the soil around the plant so that it is within the plant's root zone. Although you could mix it into the soil, leaving it on the surface works just as well and saves you time. Either way as the grinds are slowly absorbed into the soil we waste less and nurture more.