Organic Yards

Gas powered Lawnmowers kill lizards and emit toxic fumes that cause cancer, other diseases and contribute to global warming! Get rid of your lawnmower! Try Organic Gardening instead. It’s free! You don't need to buy anything and it’s much healthier for you, your family and your neighbors. Here is how:
First, Don't get caught up in the consumerism of buying things like mowers, tillers, fertilizers, pesticides. Get simple hand tools and stay with those. You get exercise using hand tools thats better than driving to a gym. All plants you need can be found free as cuttings or extra plants growing outside borders from neighbors, friends and gardening clubs. Its not about shopping its about gardening. Mulch pathways are free and beautiful. Mulch is free from tree services or city recycling programs.

Second, You must create your own ecosystem in the yard by Letting nature balance itself. This takes some patience because the bad bugs may thrive until the Lizards , birds and Good bugs come in to eat them and balance your yard. To start that, take these simple steps.
1. Feed the soil by NOT raking your leaves and adding leaves and mulch that people have taken away over the years. Don’t buy mulch! You can get free mulch from tree services and the city. Some people will tell you that the free mulch has bugs and mold in it- but that’s a GOOD thing! Leaf mold is excellent for breaking down the mulch into organic fertilizer. Bugs do the same! Don’t worry if you see termites outside- they are lizard and bird food and if your home is built and maintained properly they wont come in. How? (one example -Termites need water to thrive so make sure your roof is in good repair to keep the house dry.) Also make sure your home is well sealed and screened. Don't worry about termites in mulch. Termites need thicker wood than mulch to live inside. People will try to scare you into buying pesticide ridden mulch with this nonsense. Don’t buy it! Soil is alive! Dirt is dead! Soil is what organics is about! Dirt is what conventional farmers grow their chemical ridden plants in. Compost is good! Plant or bury your seeds and rotting fruits and veggies and you may have surprise rewards later! It’s so fun to find a watermelon vine with melons on it where you spit the seeds or buried the uneaten melon. Don’t worry about drying out the seeds and all that, just plant them where you want them if the soil is good and you picked the right spot, they will grow! If they don’t they will add nutrients to the soil.

2. Get free cuttings of plants that are growing easily nearby. I am happy to give them away. You help me by taking the overgrowth of plants from walkways for yourself thereby trimming my walkway for me. Plant them quickly, give water for 30 days then leave it alone. Lots of mulch. Pay attention to where you got the plants from, was it sunny or shady? Was it wet?

3. Learn more appreciation and tolerance to bugs. Bugs are Bird Food... Don't Poison them..The lizards and birds will thank you by eating the bugs for you. Remember bugs are bird food, if you poison them you are poisoning the birds and lizards as well! Healthy fertile organic soil is alive with bugs, worms and many other critters that are helpful and a joy to watch and learn from. Wasps are a good example: Don’t always kill the wasps. You can learn from them how to move gracefully so as not to get stung. If you panic and slap them you will get stung. If you leave them alone they will leave you alone. They will reward you by eating your aphids and pollinating your flowers and feeding other creatures! Of course use good sense if they get too crowded at your front door sweep them away and run inside! For years I had a nest inside my front porch and when one bothered me I took a glass and slowly covered it then sliding paper under glass and taking it outside and releasing it. It was exciting and joyful to not have used a sickening pesticide nor to have killed a living thing.

4. Don’t let the city code inspectors bully you into mowing (killing) your yard. Tell them it is a xeriscaping project. Make sure you are manicuring your jungle! Pick up litter. Pull weeds like potato vines if you don’t want them to take over the whole yard unless you can tame them into something beautiful. There are many plants that most people call weeds and pull or kill but I and others have made a part of a gorgeous landscape!

5. Stop cutting out all your plants "for security sake" Instead focus on WHY crime happens and spend your time fixing that. When the police tell you cut all plants away form your home so they can see all around your home consider a smarter way You can leave those nice plants making outdoor rooms and alcoves. Instead Put down mulch and leaves and plant more spiky thorny plants where you don't want people walking. You will hear people walking on the leaves (crunching them and breaking little twigs that fall from the beautiful trees you have planted. You can't hear them walking on grass! And don't light it up so much that they know where all the spiky plants are at night. I followed this method and never had anyone sneaking around my yard.

Here is a good link for native plants - http://www.nsis.org/garden/garden-native-annuals.html

If you would like to help create an Organic Community where chemical pesticides, herbicides, chemical fertilizers and the like are banned. Internal combustion engines are not allowed or a rare site, electric vehicles are common but not seen, as walking on beautiful pathways is preferred. Then email me with your ideas on how you can help to create this organic community.
Wanted: Farm, Raw Land, Orchard or Ranch with or without home wanted. 40 acres to 4000. acres
Clover is a better lawn than grass is. It requires less water, requires less mowing, and it requires no fertilization; ever. It fixes nitrogen in the soil and is beautiful. It also aerates and enriches heavy soils. It will not urine scald when dogs urinate on it. A heavy over planting of a clover suitable for your area will gradually choke out any and all weeds. You can mow your clover lawn, or let it bloom. Mowing will favor the clover over grass, as it encourages it to spread out instead of up. In the deepest drought, a clover lawn will be fresh and cool and green, while all around, the grass is brown and parched. Clover is NOT a weed. Most American lawns used to be full of, or even primarily, clover. The only reason we now consider it a "weed" is that so-called "weed and feed" products require the narrow blade of a grass plant to function.