Going Organic In West Hartford

Homeowners Ann Reynolds and Doug Rankin Encourage Neighbors to “Kiss My Grass” - Dream Clients not only Chose an Organic Lawn, but Started a Movement

By Kathy Litchfield

WEST HARTFORD, CONN. – Ann Reynolds and Doug Rankin, with their two babies in tow, clearly remember the day they showed up at the state’s capital to lobby for the preservation of the K-8 school grounds pesticide ban in 2010.

            “People looked cross eyed at us, like how out of place. We were the only family there,” said Reynolds, “but we were so invigorated by it, with a sense of wow, there’s so much going on. As parents it was so in our best interest to have a bigger say. It was eye opening.”

            Over the last 10 years or so, the couple found themselves “hyper aggravated” by all of the little pesticide spraying signs they spotted. So, they decided to counter these signs by creating one of their own. It reads “Kiss My Grass” and “Pesticide Free” and is available via the website they designed to promote “Grass Roots West Hartford, a movement among residents to reclaim control over the livability of our town,” they said. 

“While there are many things outside of our control, we can most definitely choose not to pollute our neighborhoods with pesticides and herbicides.  And so starts a grassroots effort among neighbors to make our lawns, parks and schools once again safe places for all of us to roam, play, walk, breath, drink, and care for our families, children and pets,” they wrote, and the idea is catching on.

            Co-founded in March 2015 with friend Kim Hughes, they held a kick-off event that drew over 50 local residents and their state representative, Joe Verrengia.  Grass Roots West Hartford invites people to get involved, choose a pesticide free lawn and spread the word. They already have over 325 Facebook fans, many of whom write supportive comments and share photos of their lawns with the signs.

So far, purely on a volunteer basis, the three have distributed 250 lawn signs, placed an order for 500 more, and also offer T-shirts. They’ve marketed the movement at local events including “Celebrate West Hartford” and through the NOFA Organic Land Care Program.

To further show their commitment to organic lawns, they also hired Todd Harrington of Harrington’s Organic Land Care in Bloomfield, Conn. to manage their own half-acre lawn at their suburban home.

            “Ann and Doug are dream clients, of course,” said Harrington. “They are really concerned citizens and activists when it comes to pesticides. You don’t often find people so passionate about wanting to get people in the region away from pesticides.  But they have children and are educated consumers who understand plants, and are fully committed to their mission.”

            Harrington began working on the Reynolds/Rankin lawn this year and so far has applied corn gluten, aerated and activated compost teas and custom blended fertilizers. He plans to seed this fall with appropriate drought-tolerant grasses.

“(Doug and Ann) have a much higher threshold than most people when it comes to weeds. We’re building up the fertility of their soil following soil test recommendations. They had never treated their lawn before this so anything we do will be a benefit,” said Harrington, who always promotes food gardens over lawns, and delivered a yard of his “super soil” - a soil mix generated at his lab that grows “phenomenal nutrient dense food” - to the couple’s vegetable garden beds where they grow lettuce, nasturtiums, peas, kale and even native corn.

“We toured Todd’s facility and learned about the super soil to enhance our garden. We’re pleased with his work and happy that we can support a local business that is doing the right thing,” said Rankin, who originally met Todd through Bill Duesing, former executive director of CT NOFA.

Rankin has been volunteering at CT NOFA conferences for years and even took the Organic Land Care Accreditation Course in 2005 to educate himself. He remembers leaving and feeling incredibly inspired by Todd Harrington’s and Chip Osborne’s presentations in particular.

            He grew up in West Hartford and remembers his father, a physician and naturalist, being a “late adaptor” to modern medicines.

“He believed real health came from your diet, your sleep, not smoking, basic things. His holistic view of the world, unbeknownst to me, probably rubbed off on me,” he said.

            Reynolds, native to Wethersfield, recalled attending “Fashion Week” in Manhattan one week and the next week, being invited by Doug to volunteer at a NOFA organic farming conference.

“So I went, and then I thought everybody should come to this. It moved my world,” she said. “Doug’s always been way ahead of the curve. As a single guy in his 30s he bought into the CSA thing before it was common vernacular. On his own he bought a farm share meant to feed four!”

            When they’re not hosting gatherings, distributing lawn signs and organizing for GMO labeling, organic lawns and Grass Roots, the couple operates their own small business as wine importers and wholesalers. They work with as many wineries as they can that “practice legitimate organic, sustainable and biodynamic farming practices in their wine making,” said Rankin, and distribute the wine to retail stores and restaurants in Connecticut.

            Along with raising their two children, now aged 6 and 7, the couple is hard at work promoting and hoping that their message, through the “Kiss My Grass” lawn signs and outreach efforts, will spread far and wide.

“The chemical industry in the United States is really an unregulated free for all,” said Rankin. “We’re trying to get people to make smart decisions voluntarily now. There is a lot of work that has to be done. The chemical companies are strong.  We have to build a legitimate grassroots movement.  The choice of the word ‘grassroots’ is the operative word. The way to make a permanent change here is to change people’s attitudes and that’s what we’re trying to do.”

            For more info or to get involved, visit www.grassrootswesthartford.org.

`“Going Organic” with Greens Farms Academy in Westport, Conn.

College Preparatory School Embraces Organic Management and Promotes

the Health of Long Island Sound

 By Kathy Litchfield

WESPORT -- Tom Barry used to come home from work with his pants stained blue from the herbicides he had applied on golf courses all day long. The last thing he wanted was for those pants to go into the wash with his family’s clothes.

            “It was always a question mark, whether the pesticides and herbicides would cause health problems,” said the father of two, aged 3-1/2 and 20 months. “I realized I didn’t want that question mark in my life.”

            Barry’s interest in organics was sparked during an innovative research project in the environmental effects of home lawn fertilization he completed during his master’s degree work in turfgrass and soil science at the University of Connecticut. He studied how nitrates leach out of soil to contaminate groundwater and was able to quantify, based on the rate of nitrogen, how much is taken up by the plant, how much stays in the soil and how much leaves the system, he said.

While managing the organic arm of a local landscape company, Barry became NOFA accredited (CT course, 2010) and two years ago, embarked upon a new career as the grounds manager and field care specialist at Greens Farms Academy in Westport, Conn., an independent college preparatory day school for grades PreK-12.

            At this forward-thinking school encompassing about 42 acres, the grounds, athletic fields, landscape gardens, building shrubbery, meadows and vegetable garden which helps to supply some vegetables and herbs for the cafeteria, are all managed and maintained using organic methods, a testament to the effectiveness of forgoing synthetic pesticides, Barry said.

            “It was a nice culture to come into because the school had already embraced organic ideology and that was part of why I was hired, so they were willing to support the maintenance team to purchase additional resources necessary when you don’t have the convenience of synthetic pesticides,” he said. 

            Academy Head of School Janet Hartwell said the school had made a commitment to fulfill sustainability initiatives with organic land care before Barry was hired.

“This is very important and we know it is the right thing to do,” Hartwell said. “It is the safer, better way for all children, to be away from pesticides. And we’re fortunate to have Tom who is exceptional and had the experience we sought. He has done a great job. Quite honestly, our fields have never looked better!”       

One of Barry’s first projects was to manage a recent overhaul of the school’s 15 acres of athletic fields. Some were well established with mature soils; others were brand new and extremely compacted.

“They needed some tender loving care,” said Barry, who implemented an aggressive cultural program including aerating three times a year on all the fields, and utilizing a new overseeder  and liquid organic fertilizing equipment.

            “We alternate our aeration practices with core aeration, deep tine aeration and linear decompaction and we treat each field individually in terms of how we approach the fertilizing program, by the age of the fields,” he said. “We also soil test regularly to monitor the effects of our fertilization so we can adjust accordingly.”

            Another 10-15 acres of the grounds are grassy lawns and landscape beds, which receive organic applications once or twice a year. The addition of many annual beds have added color and interest to the grounds, said Barry, who chooses to plant natives as often as possible.

            Last year on Earth Day, the lower school (grades PreK-5) science students and faculty installed 12 native trees including redbud and white spruce.

            Students, parents, faculty and staff also got involved in the planning and installation of a 6,500 sq. ft. butterfly garden/meadow. On a sunny Saturday, about 75 volunteers planted 3,500 plugs of native plants including milkweed, butterfly weed, joe pye weed and native goldenrod. While they are struggling with an overrun of the invasive mugwort, Barry said the meadow is beautifying the area, encouraging birds and beneficial insects and mostly thriving. 

            Lower School (grades PreK-5) Science Teacher Jackie Tran, who recruited volunteers for the school-wide plantings, also integrates curriculum in math, science and writing into the organic vegetable garden she oversees at the Academy. Students start seeds in the greenhouse, transplant them into 15-20 raised beds inside their 32-foot by 40-foot garden, harvest them and deliver the vegetables to the cafeteria where they are used in school lunches. Kitchen waste is also composted on site.

            “Kids are able to study where their food comes from and they’re experiencing food from every aspect of the cycle. We do as many cooking classes as we can. All of this helps them form a connection to their food and food culture, food safety and tasting new things like purple carrots, or red and yellow striped heirloom carrots,” said Tran, who holds a master’s degree in environmental conservation education.

“We use the garden as a place to insert environmental literacy for students. We are giving them the tools to make decisions that are sustainable, and understand their impacts so they can be our great world leaders and think about these types of topics as they’re making environmental decisions.”

            Barry is looking forward to implementing a new planting plan that will surround the construction of a brand new performing arts building on a section of campus bordering the marshlands directly adjacent to the Long Island Sound. Barry and his team were able to work closely with the landscape architect who designed the planting plan, to substitute native plants for the shrubbery and landscaping around the building. For instance, instead of boxwoods they are planting inkberries; instead of Siberian carpet cypress, low bush blueberries; and instead of Korean firs, eastern red cedars.

            “I tried to match the form and function of the plants they had on the original design with a native alternative, working also with a native plant consultant who knew what would work where. The (landscape architect) was very open minded,” said Barry, who also replaced the specification for a Kentucky bluegrass seed mix in the design with a turf type tall fescue that is drought tolerant, requires less nutrient inputs and wears well over time.

            “My plan is to irrigate it until established, then stop, and use minimal fertilization as well,” said Barry, who loves his work and hopes his sharing will help others solidify decisions about organic management.

“The NOFA course, the teachers, other professionals and people I’ve met since, really inspired me and the more I learned about organics, and the questions about pesticides, the more I knew this is what I wanted to do,” he said.

           

 For more information, visit www.gfacademy.org. You can also read Tom’s blog on pesticide free grounds maintenance at www.fromthegfafields.wordpress.com.

Report from Permaculture Design Charrette by Jenna Messier

Group assembles in AM

 The Permaculture Design Charrette focused upon my small urban yard in West Haven, CT which has lots of pending issues; crumbling walkways, precious yard space being used for parking, and where to put all the plants and animals to yield the most food, compost and fiber. However, the day and process took some interesting twists.

The workshop was led by Sven Pihl from CT Edible Ecosystems who provided all of the base mapping, learning materials and instruction during the day. Sadly, Sam Billings could not join us due to a family emergency. It was raining in the morning and I realized that we had to truly "go with the flow." We started by looking at the Base Map and Sven explained how it was created. Then I presented my Client Summary to express the clients goals and our intentions for the property which they would be designing later that day. 
 

Grape arbor looking SW

My biggest surprise was when I received the soil test results stating that my soil had 909 ppm of lead. So as I discussed the property history with the group, I felt the need to announce the test results immediately.  This situation really brought out the best in the talented group of 8 participants, as each person realized that something was going to have to change in the current garden configuration where the vegetables are being grown closest to the house.  We do not want people eating greens or root vegetables from the soil with over 400 ppm of lead, and as we seek to integrate 4 chickens onto the property, we want to avoid them rooting through the same soil as well.

Next, we covered the Permaculture Design Principles. Here is one document which I found online at the Pickards Mountain Eco Institute website to easily describe these principles.
http://pickardsmountain.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/permaculture-principles-icons-1.png
I noted that 2 of the core principles (Care for Earth, Fair Share, and Care for People) are the same as the NOFA OLC principles of Care and Fairness and OLC adds Health and Ecology to describe caring for all of our collective health and respecting our relevance and interconnectedness.  The remaining design principles form a guide by which you would look at a space and see how you can best utilize its strengths while producing the outcome which is sought by the land owner or borrower.

We broke for lunch and enjoyed a communal experience of walking to the restaurant and partaking in Colombian food and music together, allowing us to socialize and learn more about each other's current jobs and experiences.

We returned and broke up into two groups where folks were eager to put their ideas onto paper.  Two unique designs came to fruition from which I have gained a lot of inspiration.

Group 1 Alexis, Josh, Sally and Stesha

Sven Pihl looking at design

 - Landscape Design 1 - click here to download or view
Features

1. North side along street, meadow in front eastern sidewalk space to be duplicated on left.
2. In front planting boxes, use vinca groundcover and select from dogwoods, Japanese Maple, Oxydendron or Shad.
3. Move canoe next to house.
4. Southeast, former parking space, to become raised garden beds. Use low tunnel tents. Compost bins moved to corner.
5. Former vegetable garden close to house, to become space for chickens and rabbit hutch. Take another soil test, if lead is highest, cover with thick mulch.
6. Fireplace in pink to remain, needs some rebuilding.
7. Re-plant grass under existing pear trees to create fun play space for kids.
8. Move black raspberries to sunny space along southern fence.
9. Keep grape vine arbor and existing strawberry bed.

Group 2 Theresa, Leslie, Jay and Shelley

-Landscape Design 2 - click here to download or view
Features

working on design

1. North side along street, continue prairie-style meadows, add annuals for more color
2. Along front of house, add a trellis and an Hydrangea Petiolaris
3. In driveway along house, group suggested using more raised bed boxes and window boxes to capitalize on the full sun. Also using low tunnel structures to extend season.
4. Add another rain barrel at corner of house next to back door.
5. Remove concrete on back walkway and install 3/4" gravel to deal with sink hole issues
6. Move compost bins to old vegetable garden space
7. Add cold frames low to ground for seed-starting, keep tomatoes in this area
8. Move rabbit hutch under pear tree and create a rectangular run
9. Put chicken coop along southern fence and create a run for them along fence line
10. In old parking space, add decorative raised bed boxes for leafy veggies and root crops
11. Next to center grape arbor, add a chiminea for more charm, put barbecue along side of arbor

Thanks to all the students for sharing your expertise and enthusiasm. A big thank you to Sven Pihl for leading the workshop and sharing his knowledge and materials, as well!

I think we will do this again. I have already had 3 people ask me to have a charrette on their properties!

AOLCP Zack Kline Quietly Cuts Lawns and Testifies to Ban Lawn Pesticides

“Going Organic in Montgomery County”

AOLCP Zack Kline Quietly Cuts Lawns and Testifies to Ban Lawn Pesticides

By Kathy Litchfield

ROCKVILLE, MD – It was a “code red” day in Montgomery County, Md. – 100 degrees with intense humidity and very poor air quality -- and a teenage Zack Kline was sweating and breathing in smog as his ears drummed along with the loud noise of the string trimmer he utilized on a three-acre property.

           Kline, who had always enjoyed his family chore of lawn mowing from age 11 on, started working for a small landscaping company the summer he graduated from high school.

            What he didn’t bargain for was the loud noise, excessive pollution and large amounts of gasoline the company poured into their machines on a daily basis. Days began at the gas station.

            “I just knew there had to be a better way,” said the now 25-year-old NOFA Accredited Organic Land Care Professional, who founded his company, A.I.R. Lawn Care (A.I.R. stands for Atmosphere Improvement and Renewal) four years ago. Kline focuses on providing clients with natural and organic lawn care, landscape design and environmentally-friendly maintenance services. He found his clients wanted to be educated about alternatives to the loud, polluting engines used by landscape companies as much as he wanted to learn about and eliminate them from his life.

            The enterprising young professional wrote a business plan and, in order to get seed money to start his own company, entered Salisbury University’s Bernstein Business Plan competition in 2010, in which he took honorable mention. In 2011, after honing his plan, he re-entered again and took home the $5,000 first place prize.

            “With that, A.I.R. Lawn Care was born – I put a down payment on a truck, purchased electric lawn equipment and began to get clients for the 2011 season,” he said.

            With his passion ignited, Kline launched into business and started going door to door with his electric equipment, offering lawn cutting. Over time his clients asked if he offered other environmentally friendly services, and he was happy to oblige. He presently has commercial and residential clients and maintains several crews. Last year he downsized the time-consuming residential side of the business and increased the commercial base; he was rewarded with triple growth of the business overall.

Networking has played an essential role in Kline’s early success as well as in his connecting to the movers and shakers of Montgomery County, Md. where he is now embroiled in testifying to help ban lawn pesticides county-wide.

Last fall, the co-founder of the group Bethesda Green and county councilor George Levanthal introduced a bill to ban “non-essential” pesticides from lawns throughout the county, citing cancer and other health concerns. Kline got involved with the group in 2011 at a lunch seminar where he met decision makers within the community’s public and private sectors and formed lasting relationships that have not only led to referrals for his business, but allowed him to stand up and speak his mind not only about the hazards of pesticides but about the business opportunities for landscapers.

On Jan. 15, Kline testified at the bill’s first public hearing, citing examples of successful local organic projects and the growth he has experienced in providing environmentally-friendly services.

“The results I’ve seen in my landscaping business show that lawns can be green and healthy at a reasonable cost while keeping people and pets healthy by avoiding the use of pesticides. I strongly recommend the county council to pass Bill 52-14 so our county can continue to set an example for other counties across the United States and be the safest, cleanest and healthiest community where people want to live and work,” he said during the hearing.

A second hearing was held Feb. 12 and Kline said he has “no doubt” that the bill will pass. He cites issues with the bill however: one is that the ban will exempt playing fields and parks where children play; and that there is a “sunset clause” that the bill will expire in 2019; issues that will hopefully be decided later this summer, he said.

Through his work, Kline has enjoyed getting to know Chip Osborne, who led a series of workshops in nearby Takoma Park, Md. to help educate the public about natural and organic lawn care last fall. Kline also maintains a relationship with Paul Tukey, author of “The Organic Lawn Care Manual,” who pointed him to the NOFA Organic Land Care Program for accreditation. Kline was accredited in 2014 at the Philadelphia, Pa. course.

“I like to surround myself with experts,” said Kline. “People say, ‘it’s not what you know but who you know,’ but I believe it’s really ‘who knows you,’” said Kline, who attributes networking as a major key to his success. “I was very gung ho when I started out, always in the streets, introducing myself and letting people know about what I was doing, and becoming part of groups where I could meet influential people.”

            Among these is the president of STIHL Inc. After extensive research into what battery-powered equipment he wanted to purchase for his company, Kline chose STIHL and discovered their president loved to play bagpipes. Kline purchased bagpipe cufflinks on the Internet, hand wrote a letter of introduction explaining his business plan and desire to purchase STIHL equipment, and sent it out. Shortly thereafter he received a personal phone call from company president Fred Whyte, who thanked him for the gift and arranged for a personal meeting with himself and other executives.

“After realizing I was the real deal, they donated equipment that helped get us started,” said Kline. Through other STIHL connections, Kline learned about PLANET, the professional landcare networking group for land care professionals, and STIHL’s Independent We Stand, a movement supporting locally owned businesses.

Kline has been featured in industry magazines such as Turf Magazine and in national STIHL advertisements for battery-powered equipment. Kline’s roommate also runs a video production company, DC Visionaries, and is working on a documentary about the pesticide-banning bill.

            “These relationships have tremendously bumped up my success. Just reaching out to the executives at Stihl for instance has grown my business ten-fold,” he said.

            Using solar, battery-powered equipment has also provided Kline a niche in the ever-changing and growing landscape industry just outside of Washington, D.C., where he says people are progressive and business opportunities are plentiful.

            “The biggest benefit is the noise reduction. The benefits to the business owner are huge – it’s very marketable, it saves money, there are no fuel or maintenance costs for the gas engines, they’re easy to start and operate and there is no pollution – my crews can talk on their cell phones while they’re out in the field,” he said. “And it’s clean for them, they’re not inhaling emissions. For the client, an additional benefit is that a client working remotely from home may be in the middle of a conference call when we show up to mow. The biggest compliment we get from our clients is ‘we didn’t even know you were here’ and then they see the finished cut and love the result. I believe battery-powered equipment will be mainstream within five years, because of these benefits.”

            Kline has a practical and realistic view of the future. “The good thing is the grass is always going to grow and someone will have to cut it. It definitely affects property values. And people are becoming more and more conscientious about the environment. They’re looking at how contractors are handling that. We are setting examples that I believe others will start to follow.”

            For more information, visit www.airlawncare.com.