Detoxing Green Velvet

Manicured green grass may or may not be the American dream, but if you don't want your yard to pose a threat to the environment and your health, you may want to join the organic trend. The market for organic lawn and garden care is upward of $500 million a year and growing. A July 2004 National Garden Association (NGA) survey found that 5 million U.S. households use non-synthetic fertilizers, insect and pest control, a number expected to double over the next three to five years, according to Bruce Buttersfield, NGA research director.

Why worry?

Over half of America's homeowners regularly douse their yards with pesticides, some of which, recent research indicates, may cause reproductive harm to wildlife and people. This March, the U.S. Geological Survey announced that pesticides were found in almost all waterways and in some drinking-water systems. The January 2006 Food and Chemical Toxicology showed that 2,4-D, a widely used residential herbicide, reduced weight gains in rat pups. In June 2005, Science reported that high concentrations of the lawn- and garden-spray ingredients methoxychlor and vinclozolin caused hereditary changes in mice, affecting male fertility. Other pesticides contain organophosphates--chemicals that attack the nervous system and are linked to hermaphroditism in amphibians as well as low birth weight in humans, fish, lizards and plants, according to the EPA.

Although synthetic pyrethroids are touted by manufacturers as less toxic, two 2005 studies found that the varieties lambda-cyhalothrin and bifenthrin, both used on residential lawns and gardens, proved lethal to fish at concentrations of only 2 to 6 parts per billion (ppb). In California streams, levels were measured as high as 437 ppb.

Fertilizers pose their own problems. "All plants need nitrogen, phosphate and potassium, but many synthetic fertilizers deliver them in a fast-release, water-soluble form they can't take up all at once," says Karl Guillard, Ph.D., professor of agronomy at the University of Connecticut. These nutrients seep into waterways and contribute to algae bloom.

How Not to Worry: 8 Steps to Greener Lawn and Garden Care

Don't buy or use synthetic pesticides, including herbicides and insecticides. To safely get rid of them, contact your local sanitation department for instructions on the disposal of hazardous waste.

Use least-toxic pest control: Repel bugs and weeds with homemade mixtures such as hot peppers and water (see Lawn and Garden and Pest Control Product Reports at www.thegreenguide.com/reports) or use beneficial insects to prey on pests (www.thebeneficialinsectco.com). Tackle pesky unwanted plants in a bare spot of lawn by sprinkling extra grass seed. "Be liberal with the seed," says Bill Duesing, coordinator of the Northeast Organic Farming Association's (NOFA) organic lawn-care program, "because if enough grass springs up there, you're not going to get weeds growing too" (for more tips, see organiclandcare.net). Attract insect-eating birds with bamboo houses ($26.51; www.mastergardenproducts.com, 800-574-7248). Keep animals out of your garden with a water-spraying scarecrow ($79.95; www.safepetproducts.com, 877-231-1426).