Garden Green
How to grow plants without the use of toxic chemicals
Useful Resources
There are so many! We will be adding to this page regularly, so check back...
Links to Other Sites
If any of these are broken, please let us know! dianeemerson@yahoo.com. Thank you.
How Ciscoe Morris turned Seattle University organic
https://www.seattleu.edu/newsroom/stories/catching-up-with-ciscoe.html
Organic Land Care Project: To educate landscape contractors, decision makers, homeowners and advocates about organic landscaping best practices and to provide solutions. Highly recommended reading on their site: Pesticides, By Their Very Nature, Are Poisons
Healthy Yards is organized by a team of professional gardeners, master gardeners and garden “passionates”. We are nationally and locally active and work together with different organizations and governmental bodies. Our goal is to inform people about Healthier Yard practices.
Healthy Yards
Grow Smart, Grow Safe A Database of Pesticides Approved for Use in Homes by Washington State, with information on their toxicity to humans, pets and wildlife, aquatic life, and water pollution.
Pesticide Information Center OnLine (PICOL) Database of all registered pesticides in Washington and Oregon, including pesticides restricted to use by professionals
Beyond Pesticides provides the public with useful information on pesticides and alternatives to their use. Beyond Pesticides, based in Washington, D.C., believes that people must have a voice in decisions that affect them directly. We believe decisions should not be made for us by chemical companies or by decision makers who either do not have all of the facts or refuse to consider them.
Beyond Toxics - working to reduce pesticide use and drift in public spaces such as schools, government buildings and public roadways.
Northwest Center for Alternatives to Pesticides works to protect community and environmental health and inspire the use of ecologically sound solutions to reduce the use of pesticides.
University of Washington Researcher Liane Sheppard, PhD, Publishes Study Connecting Glyphosate With Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma
UW's Liane Sheppard's Research Connecting Glyphosate with Cancer
The Poison Papers: Documenting the Hidden History of Chemical and Pesticide Hazards in the United States
The Poison Papers
National Pesticide Information Center: NPIC provides objective, science-based information about pesticides and pesticide-related topics to enable people to make informed decisions about pesticides and their use. NPIC is a cooperative agreement between Oregon State University and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The Bio-Integral Resource Center (BIRC) specializes in finding non-toxic and least-toxic, integrated pest management (IPM) solutions to urban and agricultural pest problems.
Pesticide Action Network (PAN) North America is one of five regional centers worldwide. We link local and international consumer, labor, health, environment and agriculture groups into an international citizens’ action network. Together, we challenge the global proliferation of pesticides, defend basic rights to health and environmental quality, and work to ensure the transition to a just and viable food system.
The IPM Institute of North America is an independent non-profit formed in 1998 to improve sustainability in agriculture and communities.
California Invasive Plant Council (Cal-IPC)'s Best Management Practices for NonChemical Weed Control
Our Water, Our World has many resources to assist consumers in managing home and garden pests without the use of toxic pesticides.
Consumer Notice: Consumernotice.org exists to inform the public about the health and safety risks associated with defective products, environmental dangers, data breaches and other hazards and to present legal options to those who have been injured through the fault of another person or entity.
Estimated Annual Agricultural Pesticide Use - Tables and Maps by specific pesticide, from the US Dept of Agriculture
Washington State Laws Relating to Pesticides
Seattle Public Utilities provides resources and training for residential and professional needs
Sustainable Landscape Resources from Seattle Public Utilities
Sound Horticulture - Beneficial Insects, and other ecological solutions for managing greenhouse environments, farms and specialty crop systems.
Green Gardening Solutions for Nurseries
In 2022, Garden Green partnered with the Northwest Center for Alternatives to Pesticides to create a workshop on green gardening solutions for small and medium sized nurseries. As part of that workshop, NCAP and Garden Green created a reference document for your nursery: Green Gardening Solutions for Nurseries. You can view and download the Spanish version here, and the English version here.
Green Gardening Calendar
This calendar is different from your typical gardening calendar. It contains timely guidance for what you can do to prevent garden challenges that may frustrate you so much you want to reach for a pesticide. Using this calendar, you will hopefully have fewer garden challenges and pests. Click here to download the complete document in pdf format.
Support for this Garden Green publication was provided by the Puget Sound Stewardship and Mitigation Fund, a grantmaking fund created by the Puget Soundkeeper Alliance and administered by the Rose Foundation for Communities and the Environment.
Table of Contents, Green Gardening Calendar
Choosing an Eco-Friendly Landscaper
The Northwest Center for Alternatives to Pesticides has published this great guide to choosing an Eco-Friendly Landscaping Company. It includes the questions to ask them, so you can be assured that you are working with a company that holds the same values you do about the environment. You can see and download a copy here: Guide for Choosing an Eco-Friendly Landscaping Company
On Dandelions
Diane Emerson, for Garden Green
April, 2018
Dandelions are thought to have evolved about 30 million years ago in Eurasia. They have been used by humans for food and as an herb for much of recorded history.
Edibility
Dandelions are found on all continents and have been gathered for food since prehistory, but the varieties cultivated for consumption are mainly native to Eurasia. To make leaves more palatable, they are often blanched to remove bitterness, or sauteed in the same way as spinach. Dandelion leaves and buds have been a part of traditional Kashmiri, Slovenian, Sephardic, Chinese, and Korean cuisines.
The flower petals, along with other ingredients, usually including citrus, are used to make dandelion wine. The ground, roasted roots can be used as a caffeine-free dandelion coffee. Dandelion is one of the ingredients of root beer. Dandelion leaves contain abundant vitamins and minerals, especially vitamins A, C, and K, and are good sources of calcium, potassium, iron, and manganese.
Medicinal Uses
Historically, dandelion was prized for a variety of medicinal properties. Dandelion is used as a herbal remedy in Europe, North America, and China. It has been used in herbal medicine to treat infections, bile and liver problems, and as a diuretic.
Food For Wildlife
Dandelions are important plants for Northern Hemisphere bees, providing nectar and pollen early in the season. Dandelions are used as food plants by the larvae of some species of butterflies and moths.
Benefits to Gardeners
The dandelion plant is a beneficial weed. Its taproot will bring up nutrients for shallower-rooting plants, and add minerals and nitrogen to soil. It is also known to attract pollinating insects and release ethylene gas which helps fruit to ripen. This is a good thing in our climate.
As A Source of Natural Rubber
Dandelions secrete latex when the tissues are cut or broken. They are now being used for tires. “The plants we require for Taraxagum, as we call our dandelion rubber, can also be grown in temperate regions, helping to avoid monoculture and slash-and-burn farming in the tropics, while also substantially reducing the distances the raw material has to travel to our tire production sites.” Continental Tire, November, 2017.
As a Musical Instrument
If you take off the head of the dandelion, the stem makes a surprisingly loud horn sound!
Interviews of Organic Farmers/Gardeners
In the fall of 2017, Michael Laurie conducted in depth interviews with 9 organic farmers/gardeners in Western Washington. The project, funded by the Rose Foundation for Communities and the Environment, was to continue research into green gardening products and methods that really work. Click here for the report: In Depth Interviews 2017
"Owner Will Maintain" program in King County
"Owner Will Maintain" Program
King County offers residents the opportunity to participate in a companion program to the Roads Maintenance Spray Program. The "Owner Will Maintain Program" allows residents to control vegetation on the right-of-way that abuts their property. To participate in this program, residents must sign a maintenance agreement with the county to maintain the right-of-way and to also post "Owner Will Maintain" signs in an area visible from the roadway.
Maintenance agreements may be obtained using the "No Spray Request Form" or by calling 206-477-8100 or toll-free by calling 1-800-KC-ROADS. The maintenance agreement must be completed and returned to Road Services before an "Owner Will Maintain" sign can be issued. The signs are provided to property owners at no charge. To continue participation in this program, residents must complete a new agreement and submit it to Road Services annually.
Download, print and complete the 2017 No Spray Request and Property Owner/King County Maintenance Agreement Form:
Return the completed form to:
King County Road Services Division
Traffic and Road Maintenance Section
155 Monroe Ave. N.E.
Renton, WA 98056
"Inert" Ingredients the EPA has now removed from the approved list
In December 2016, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced they would take action to remove 72 ingredients from their approved pesticide products list. According to the EPA, “Manufacturers wishing to use these ingredients in the future will have to provide EPA with studies or information to demonstrate their safety. EPA will then consider whether to allow their use.”
Click Here for the list of formerly approved chemicals. Many of these are quite hazardous:
Washington State Dept of Agriculture, 2014 The study was conducted in three parts: the first evaluated residential property owner pesticide use; the second focused on the use of pesticides by public entities at the city, county, and state level; and the third focused on pesticide use by commercial applicators, lawn and garden maintenance companies, pest control companies, etc. Click Here to read or download the study
Pesticide Induced Disease Database
The common diseases affecting the public’s health are all too well-known in the 21st century: asthma, autism and learning disabilities, birth defects and reproductive dysfunction, diabetes, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases, and several types of cancer. Their connection to pesticide exposure continues to strengthen despite efforts to restrict individual chemical exposure, or mitigate chemical risks, using risk assessment-based policy.
Click here to go to the main page for the Pesticide-Induced Disease page at Beyond Pesticides.