Katherine M. Brooks
Garden Spot by Katherine M. Brooks, VSLD, Virginia Certified Landscape Designer, is a regular column in The Local Scoop.
The Chesapeake Bay is the heart of the mid-Atlantic region. Because we’re all stewards of the earth, it’s essential we are keenly aware of how we use and abuse natural resources.
Everything we do during the course of our everyday lives impacts those resources and key among them is the life-giving Bay.
“Saving the Bay” refers not only to preserving the 200-mile-long estuary but also the fifty major rivers and streams that feed into the bay every day, along with the creeks that feed those rivers and streams. All told, that’s a roughly 64,000-square-mile watershed that starts as far north as New York and runs through six states and Washington, DC on its way to the Atlantic Ocean.
One way for Northern Neck residents, especially those with primary homes located elsewhere on the East Coast, to maintain a Bay-sensitive mentality is to adopt an organic lifestyle here. Storm water runoff, especially agricultural, is the only major category of nitrogen pollution still increasing. In spite of efforts to reduce this pollution across all sources, it continues.
Turf grass is the biggest single crop in Maryland, double that of the state’s corn crop. Curious about what turf grass farmers could do to help eliminate nitrogen and phosphorus runoff into the Bay, I recently visited two local stores, both on Main Street in Kilmarnock, where I enjoyed lively and informative conversations with extremely well-educated employees.
At The Earth Store, Dolores Pruitt and her manager, Ana Carrillo, are committed to researching and carrying products that are bay friendly. Their organic gardening recommendations, below, rely on Dr. Earth products and household items.
Lawn fertilization: 16-0-8 Bay Saver
Pre-emergent: corn gluten
Mole/vole control: Holey Moley
Insect control: insecticidal soap, Pyrethrin
Slug control: crushed eggshells around base of each plant
Vegetables: Dr. Earth Final Stop insect killer
Poison ivy control: bonide products
To learn more, they carry Dr. Earth Gardening Guide and Native Plants of the Northern Neck, both booklets available free to customers.
I also met with the manager of the organic department at Farm & Home Supply, William Pittman, who was generous with his time and knowledge, recommending the Captain Jack’s brand of insecticides and fungicides.
Lawn fertilization: Milorganite
Grub control, milky spore: Jobe’s Organic Fertilizers and Insect Control for Vegetables and Ornamental Shrubs.
As important as using organic products is, so is choosing native plants because they’re adapted to the local climate and soil, making them lower in maintenance, water requirements, and insect control. Both The Earth Store and Farm & Home Supply sell a good selection of native plants.
One last gardening reminder: Now’s the time for planting early spring vegetables such as leaf lettuce, spinach, collards, and peas and Farm & Home Supply has a diverse selection of organic vegetable seeds. Even one large container planted with leaf lettuce can provide a couple with daily, delicious, fresh greens in thirty days. You’ll be amazed at how much more flavorful homegrown greens taste.
To learn more, check out these websites:
• cbf.org (Chesapeake Bay Foundation)
• nnnps.org (Northern Neck Native Plant Society)
• riverfriends.org (Friends of the Rappahannock)
Garden Spot by Katherine M. Brooks, VSLD, Virginia Certified Landscape Designer, is a regular column in The Local Scoop. Do you have a question about gardening in the Northern Neck or Middle Peninsula? Ask Kathy! Call her at 804-387-7402 or email her at gardenspot@localscoopmagazinecom. Visit katherinebrookslandscapes.com for more information about Kathy and sustainable landscape design.
This article appeared in the Spring 2014 issue of The Local Scoop Magazine, pgs. 22-23.