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More and more homeowners are using rain barrels to conserve water while collecting soft, non-chlorinated rainwater to nourish grass and plants.

This weekend, in Calgary, Canada, Clean Calgary Association, in partnership with the City of Calgary, will hold its 8th Annual Rain Barrel Sale.

With spring coming, local residents there are thinking about their lawns and gardens. Water usage in Calgary doubles in the spring and summer due largely to lawn irrigation.

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Eco-activists often insist that vegetarianism is the only truly earth-friendly diet for humans.  On the other hand, there are many people, honestly trying to live as green as possible, who are not yet ready to take that step completely.  Others of us find that we are just not healthy without some animal protein in our diet, and that there is some logic to the argument than humans are biologically omnivorous.

If you are a meat-eater, whatever your personal reasons may be, the problem still remains — the beef industry is a nightmare.  From enormous factory farms raising animals in horrific conditions, to growth hormones interfering with our bodies, to mad cow disease resulting from herbivores being fed ground-up brains of their kin, to the ecological devastation…  We simply cannot allow ourselves to support this industry by buying its products.

So what is the conscientious carnivore to do?

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Je-Hyun Kim’s Natural Year Phone design almost makes cell phones cool in my book. The phone, which is made up of hay, a screen, and keys, is designed only to last as long as its functional life cycle (2 years) before it biodegrades and falls apart.

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Much attention has been given to producing ethanol from non-food crops like grasses, but the ability to produce something indistinguishable to diesel from grass could be a game-changer. It would require almost no infrastructure change and could fuel all of the existing long-haul trucks on the road without modification.

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Twenty-eight states have introduced hemp legislation and fifteen have passed legislation; seven, Hawaii, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Montana, West Virginia and North Dakota have removed barriers to its production or research. Of those five, only North Dakota has set into motion a state regulatory system administered by the state’s agriculture department. It placed into law strict guidelines concerning the cultivation and harvesting of hemp seed and oil, and a licensing process that makes it completely legal under not only North Dakota Law, but federal law as well, to grow industrial hemp and harvest the sterilized seeds and oil for sale in the marketplace.

But no matter what they’ve done, it’s still a catch-22 situation. The farmer’s intent doesn’t matter in the eyes of the DEA, plant one stalk of industrial hemp and the DEA can charge you with growing and possessing a controlled substance, fine you, and possibly take away your property.

Two North Dakota farmers, State Representative David Monson and Wayne Hauge have done something no one else has apparently done in the country, sue the DEA, asking it to make a distincting between industrial hemp and marihuana.

I spoke with the attorney who filed the suit in Federal Court in Bismark, North Dakota, Tim Purdon, a member of the Vogel Law Firm in that city. He explains the lawsuit.

Other sites of interest:

H.B. 1009 in PDF

Vote Hemp

Washingtonwatch

According to the U.S. EPA, healthy, established lawns need only about one inch of water per week. Watering once per week should be sufficient in getting to the deep roots of the grass, which frequent, lighter waterings can’t always do.

To gauge how much water your lawn is getting, place a container with a one inch indicator under the sprinkler flow on your grass. You can also determine if your grass needs watering by simply stepping on it. If the grass springs back easily, it has plenty of moisture. Another test is to push a screwdriver into your lawn. If it goes down several inches, you don’t need to water.

Watch the weather. If it has just rained, you probably won’t need to leave the sprinkler on: Mother Nature took care of the watering for you. If there’s rain in the forecast, hold off to see if the clouds will open up. Another way to take advantage of the rain is to install a rain barrel, or to reposition gutters and drains to flow onto your lawn rather than into the driveway or sidewalk.

Water in the early morning or evening. Evaporation rates are highest during the middle of the day and your lawn won’t get much. Morning watering will also reduce the load on public water supplies since peak demand is usually in the evening.

Don’t mow as often. Taller grass shades the soil surface, reduces evaporation and helps prevent the
sprouting of weeds. Taller grass with longer roots will tolerate dry
conditions better than shorter grass. Besides, you’re not putting on it, so why cut it shorter than two inches? And don’t mow during the heat of the day as newly cut grass blades lose water.

Don’t forget about the sprinkler. Perhaps the biggest waste of water is leaving the sprinkler on for too long, so don’t forget to the turn the water off. Or get a timed sprinkler that will automatically shut off for you. And make sure your sprinkler fits the shape of your yard. Adjust the flow or spray so that you’re not wasting water on decks or sidewalks.

Go native. Landscape your yard with grass species or native plants that require less water.

Learn to love brown. Brown lawns don’t necessarily mean dead lawns, especially if your lawn is normally a mean, green machine. So if your area is under temporary water restrictions, relax. It’ll be okay for a couple of weeks.

More on watering your lawn smarter:

EPA Lawn Watering Fact Sheet (PDF)
National Geographic’s The Green Guide

Related articles on lawn care from GO:

Tip o’ the Day: The New "Green" Grass
Organic Lawn & Garden Care

Eco-Effective Decisions: Install a Rain Barrel and Save Your Money for a Rainy Day
Tip o’ the Day: Go Native!

Tip o’ the Day: A "Reel" Green Lawn

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The Brooklyn Botanical Garden has published a number of selections from Stevie Daniels' Easy Lawns that show homeowners around the US how to replace more popular grasses (which are often imports from Africa, Asia and Europe) with indigenous varieties. Depending on where you live, you may have several options available: buffalograss, sedges, and fescues are among the most popular native grasses, and most are indigenous to many areas of the country.

Of course, each grass will have specific requirements for optimal growth. Buffalograss, for instance, is a summer growth grass, so it doesn't need to be planted until late April. Fescues, on the other hand, are cool-season grasses, and will do better in early Spring; according to Daniels, they stay green longer into the Fall, and some varieties are even evergreen.

Native grasses will often produce a look that's a bit different from the traditional "manicured lawn"; that doesn't mean, though, that they're unattractive. Most can be cut, but don't necessarily need it: buffalograss, for instance, grows 3-8 inches in height.

Jeff says: I'm giving buffalograss a try this year in my backyard. I plan to dig up what remain of my very pathetic bluegrass lawn, and plant the native seeds later this month. I'll publish occasional posts on my success (or lack thereof) with this approach.

Spring is here officially, and for many homeowners, that means its time to start thinking about the lawn. As you consider your approach to keeping the grass green, we hope you'll incorporate some greener methods of doing it!

Did you know, for instance, that a 2001 Swedish study showed that “Air pollution from cutting grass for an hour with a gasoline powered lawn mower is about the same as that from a 100-mile automobile ride.” Homeowners cranking up those gas powered machines on the weekends may create as much as 5% of the nation's air pollution.

There are alternatives, though. Electric mowers don't spew emissions themselves; of course, emissions likely do come from the power plants producing the electricity, so they may only be marginally better. Solar-powered mowers are on the market, but you'll pay a premium for them. The best (and cheapest) alternative: an old-fashioned, human-powered reel mower. These may not be practical for a really big yard, but for smaller and medium-sized lawns, they'll cut as well as a mower powered by an engine, and give you a bit more exercise in the process.

Of course, there are other options that keep you from having to mow. More on those later in the week.

Jeff says: I've been using a reel mower for five years now on my small, urban yard, and love it. It cuts well, and takes no more time than a power mower. And, I spend nothing on gas or maintenance.

Enter SafeLawns.org, a campaign to raise awareness & educate on "alternative" lawn care techniques run by a coalition of for-profit businesses and non-profit organizations. The site features weekly video "how-to" tips from HGTV's Paul Tukey. Each episode is between 2 and 8 minutes long and walks you through how to tend your lawn organically.

The first thing Paul recommends is to go organic with your lawn cold turkey. Don't try to phase in the organic over time. Being that it is spring right now, we recommend that you start off watching the "Spring Evaluation" video as well as the "Organic Lawn Care Recap" which runs through 12 basic steps for an organic lawn.

One of the first things you'll need to do, before preparing to apply any fertilizer (organic lawns = organic fertilizer), is get a soil test. It makes sense, really. How will you know what to do if you don't know where you are starting from? You'll need to take several samples across your property, digging 3-6 inches deep on each. About a 1/2 cup of soil will do for each sample. Watch "The Soil Test" video on SafeLawns.org, and then do a quick internet search for "soil test" and your state name. You'll quickly find out who can test your soil locally.

So this year, Paul Tukey says go cold turkey (does anyone else find that funny?), and go organic with that lawn.

Rebecca says: As a condo-dweller, this is all a little foreign to me. Organic lawns are important, and not just for the families in that home, but for the entire community.

Want to hear a tip on a certain topic? Have a tip to share? Suggest a tip and you may just see it soon as a Tip o' the Day!