Project: Green Industry

Garden retailer offers tips for spreading the green message

This year, Garden Center Magazine is continuing its Project Green series. For 2009, we’re focusing on green training — tips and strategies you can pass along to your staff.

The topic covered in our April issue is particularly timely: Spread the green message — How to teach your customers sustainable-gardening basics. Rosina Newton, horticulturalist at The Natural Gardener in Austin, Texas, is writing this series for us. She’s “in the trenches” and offers real-world advice garden centers can put to work immediately.

Check it out for yourself! The digital edition of our April issue is now available online.

-- Sarah

Really, it’s not that complicated

Sustainable gardening confuses the uninitiated. Although it bucks decades of gardening lore, it promises to make gardening simpler and more accessible.

We have been trained to act as lawn pharmacists. Ever since farmers in Europe found that adding fertilizer and chemicals boosted yields, the Western world has been devotees of using chemicals to tame nature. In the process, we’ve made home gardening a bewildering and often intimidating hobby.

Much of what the public thinks of when they discuss gardening is the arcane knowledge passed down about which treatment to use for which disease and the exact time to fertilize plants for maximum growth. So when gardeners think about switching to sustainable gardening, it’s a bit like asking someone to make an apple pie with substitutes for flour, cinnamon, butter or sugar.

What frustrates retailers is that they want to know which products can replace the synthetics and work just as effectively. But there’s no systemic herbicide like Round Up in sustainable gardening, so some retailers dismiss the green movement as political rhetoric.

The real problem is sustainable gardening is all about healthy soil, not about treating problems. It’s a completely different approach, and one-to-one substitutions just aren’t the point.

Healthy soil means that the plant has the nutrients it needs, so pests are not attracted to it as they are to the neighbor’s stressed plants. A lack of pesticides allows beneficial insects to return and control the pests.

In the garden center, that means that selling soil builders like compost takes center stage rather than herbicides and disease and insect controls. John Dromgoole of the Natural Gardener in Austin, Texas, (and this year’s Garden Center Magazine’s Innovator Award winner) will give skeptics a free sample of compost for the lawn and tell them to spread it over a 10-square-foot patch in their yard. Soon, there will be such a marked difference between the patch and the rest of the lawn the homeowner can find it in the dark in bare feet.

And of course, that gardener will now need to come back to buy enough compost to make his or her lawn match the much greener patch.

Sustainable gardening is simple. It’s our current gardening methods that scare off potential customers.

-- Carol

SAF gets down to the basics of sustainability

Learn what sustainability really means, why it matters to your customers and ways you can capitalize on the opportunity. Society of American Florists’ upcoming convention will include an all-industry session: Sustainability Issues and Opportunities for the Floral Industry.

Business analyst Jim Prevor and a panel of industry experts will address these questions and more -- taking you from a broad-brush understanding down to the nitty-gritty of what to do next.

Prevor identifies and evaluates broad societal trends, such as the sustainability movement, and helps businesses seize the opportunities they represent. He directs a cross-cultural study of consumer attitudes toward sustainability and corporate responsibility. Prevor has a long background in the fresh food and floral industries.

Following Prevor’s comments, an all-industry panel will share what individual floral businesses are doing to embrace sustainability and build for the future. Panelists: Hans Brand, B&H Flowers, Carpinteria, Calif.; Peter Ullrich, Esmeralda Farms, Miami; John Scott Wilkins, Delaware Valley Floral Group, Sewell, N.J.; and BJ Dyer, Bouquets Inc., Denver.

-- Kevin

Rinse pesticide containers properly before recycling

Before pesticide jugs can be accepted for recycling, they must be rinsed of all residues. Only dry, residue-free rinsed containers are accepted at collection sites. The Ag Container Recycling Council provides rinsing how-to videos at its Web site. Here’s a truncated version of rinsing instructions from the council.

Rinsing is crucial because:

• It’s required by law.
• It improves the return on your investment.
• Properly rinsed containers are classified as clean, solid waste.

Pressure rinsing jugs

• Empty contents of container into spray tank, turning the container so that any product trapped in the handle flows out. Once flow is down to a drip, allow the container to drain for another 30 seconds.
• Immediately begin rinsing procedures or the product may become difficult to remove.
• Hold the container so the opening can drain into spray tank.
• Force tip of the pressure nozzle through the lower portion of the side closest to the handle.
• Connect nozzle to a clean water source of at least 40 psi. Turn the nozzle inside the container to assure good coverage of all sides, including the handle.
• Rinse for at least 30 seconds.
• Rinse cap under water coming out of the drum and into the spray can. Dispose of the cap appropriately as regular solid waste.
• Drain all rinse water into the spray tank.

Pressure rinsing drums

• Be sure drum is completely empty.
• Drill a pilot hole in the bottom of the drum and then position the drum opening over the spray tank so that rinsate will empty directly into the tank.
• With the water turned off, use the pressure rinse nozzle to widen the hole in the bottom.
• Turn water on and rotate the nozzle inside the drum to rinse all sides.
• Rinse drum for at least 30 seconds or until rinsate runs completely clear.
• Rinse cap under water coming out of the drum and into the spray can and dispose of appropriately as regular solid waste.
• Turn water off and replace the tip guard on the nozzle.
• Store drums under cover to protect from rain.

-- Kelli

Get green--say no to superfluous stuff

At this moment, there are probably half a million “top 10” lists swirling about spelling out ways to live a greener lifestyle. Change to compact fluorescent bulbs. Bring your own reusable shopping bags. Use public transportation. Yadda, yadda, yadda.

I’ve got an idea that trumps all these helpful tidbits: say no to stuff. I’m the mother of two small children, and I’m amazed at how rapidly cheap plastic trinkets accumulate at my house. (Hold on a sec. I’ve got to put on my curmudgeon hat.)

I took my 4-year-old to a birthday party recently, where she received a plastic bag filled with a dozen useless plastic toys. I guess these days a party “favor” won’t do. Oh no, we’ve got to have a super-sized mondo-bag of junk. These plastic particles held my daughter’s attention for 45 minutes tops.

Now what am I supposed to do with this junk? Toss it in the toy box? That’s just more clutter that’ll eventually be purged. None of the stuff was recyclable, so it couldn’t go in the curbside bin. Give it to charity? I hardly think that Goodwill is in dire need of flimsy plastic rings and googly-eye pencil toppers. So, yes, all the stuff ended up in the trash.

This stuff glut isn’t just a domestic matter. Think about all the trinkets you collect when you visit a trade show. Yardsticks, bags, pens, pencils, highlighters, magnets. The list goes on. You know you don’t need any of this stuff. But it’s there. And it’s free. So you load up.

I understand that companies use these items to get visibility. You can hardly fault them for that. It’s up to you and me to exercise a little restraint as we scavenge the trade show floor. That foam stress-ball thingy looks innocuous enough. But it took a lot of energy and resources to produce and ship it. And, sadly, it’s something that will most likely end up in the trash.

-- Sarah

Get your blog updates via e-mail!

We added a new feature to our blog recently. You can now get updates via e-mail by entering your address in the box in the left sidebar.

We had a few glitches early on, but the problems have been resolved. If you tried earlier to sign up and it wasn’t successful, please give it one more shot. It ought to work this time. And if it doesn’t, feel free to send me a scathing e-mail.

Thanks for reading!

-- Sarah

Deadline for sustainable apps extended

The deadline has been extended again to submit applications to participate on the standards committee that will work toward development of the Sustainable Agriculture Practice Standard (SCS-001). The new deadline is July 7. All applicants will be notified of their committee status by July 28.

The first standards committee meeting will be on Sept. 10. The committee is working on setting sustainability standards for the agriculture and horticulture industries and has created some controversy on suggested standards.

-- Dave

Win organic titles from St. Lynn’s Press

One thing we’ve learned in doing reader polls for Garden Center Magazine is consumers -- and retailers for that matter -- can’t get enough information on organic gardening. So we know you’re going to enter a drawing for a set of eco-friendly gardening books. C’mon! All you’ve got to do is leave a comment below. Make sure you enter your e-mail address so we can notify you in case you win.

The titles up for grabs are:
“Grow Organic” by Doug Oster and Jessica Walliser
“Good Bug, Bad Bug” by Jessica Walliser
“The Green Journal” by the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens
“A Gardener’s Journal” by Doug Oster and Jessica Walliser

Deadline for entries is Tuesday, June 3. Leave your comment now for the chance to win.

-- Sarah

Tips for smart environmental lawn stewardship

Going green in a home lawn-care program doesn’t have to be a daunting task. There are some easy, cost-effective steps homeowners can take to improve their lawns while enhancing the positive effects of lawn maintenance on the environment.

Rob Rogan, business director for Sta-Green lawn and garden products, offered some tips that are worth passing along to your staff and your customers.

• Select the proper fertilizer for your lawn. Most established lawns can use phosphorus that exists in the soil, so a phosphorus-free fertilizer is a good choice.

• Never apply fertilizer to hard surfaces such as sidewalks, driveways or streets. (Editor’s note: Duh!) Granular fertilizer that remains on sidewalks and driveways will be washed off of these hard surfaces by rainfall and into storm drains and sewers. Sweep or blow any fertilizer material that lands on hard surfaces back onto the lawn area.

• Don’t wash your spreader out over a hard surface. The small amount of fertilizer residue left in the spreader can be rinsed out over a corner of the lawn without blemishing the grass.

• Don’t blow grass clippings or tree leaves onto sidewalks or into streets Leaves from grasses and trees contain significant amounts of soluble nutrients that can be released into storm drains and sewers.

• Direct rainwater from gutters and downspouts onto the lawn area instead of directly onto hard surfaces. Leaves and flowering parts of trees contain significant amount of soluble phosphorus. When they fall onto rooftops and get caught in rain gutters, the phosphorus will leach out with rainwater.

• Don’t use “all purpose”-type fertilizers for lawns. Garden fertilizers are generally formulated with higher phosphorus for flowering plants and vegetables. Fertilizers designated as 8-8-8, 10-10-10 or 12-12-12 are examples of garden fertilizers. Typically, lawns do not need as much phosphorus as these provide.

-- Kevin

Firm shares how it went green

Guidance, a technology adviser in Marina del Rey, Calif., published a best-practices guide to help companies large or small “operate as environmentally aware organizations.” The guide is based on the company’s own successful steps.

It covers strategies for reducing or eliminating consumption of non-renewable resources like energy, paper and plastic; ideas for incorporating recycling programs; and suggests ways to offset the amount of carbon dioxide the company releases.

The guide outlines 7 basic steps:

• Assemble a task force.
• Develop a mission statement.
• Evaluate consumption of non-renewable resources/develop strategies to reduce or eliminate consumption.
• Recycle.
• Offset your remaining carbon footprint.
• Take the environmental commitment to the community.
• Encourage vendors and business partners to follow suit.

Download the guide to get the how and the why.

-- Kelli