Nationally known organic lawn care expert teaches how to keep your gardens "green" at the Mid-Atlantic Home & Flower Show
Being green is all the rage. Green as in environmentally friendly that is. From the things we build, to the foods we eat, to the cars we drive - the shift towards incorporating eco-friendly products into all aspects of our lives is happening every day. Gardeners and do-it-yourself landscapers interested in going green can learn how to make the transition to using organic lawn care products from gardening and landscape expert Paul Tukey at the Mid-Atlantic Home & Flower Show presented by Certified Angus Beef.
Tukey will present "Organic Lawn Care" to show audiences at 1 and 4 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 17 at the Virginia Beach Convention Center.
This natural born gardener got an early start growing vegetables during summers at his grandparents' dairy farm in Maine. Tukey went on to earn a degree in Journalism from the University of Maine and spent years working as a reporter and editor for the Maine Sunday Telegram and the Portland Press Herald.
All the while, Tukey maintained his own landscapes and eventually he followed his passion and successfully founded his own landscaping company.
Tukey became interested in organic lawn care products in the early 1990s after his own doctor suggested that his recurrent headaches, nosebleeds and blurred vision could be linked to his exposure to the synthetic chemicals routinely used in his landscaping business. Tukey had heard before about the possible relationship between synthetic chemicals and numerous illnesses, including cancer. His doctor ordered him to stop personally applying the chemicals. Coincidentally or not, Tukey's health problems went away.
The lifelong gardener remembered those summers at his grandparents' farm where his grandmother fertilized her vegetables with compost tea and cow manure. The next spring, Tukey went completely organic and hasn't looked back.
On his Web site, Safelawns.net, Tukey notes that the average gasoline powered lawn mower is up to 35 times more polluting than the average automobile and that Americans use almost as much fuel to pump water on to the lawns as they do to mow the lawns. Among the many benefits of organic lawn care, touts Tukey, is the reduction of fossil fuel consumption and air pollution by up to 75 percent and a reduction of water consumption of almost half.
"Above all," says Tukey, "The most important benefit of having an organic lawn is that it's free of toxins and safe for your family, pets and the planet."
People, Places & Plants magazine was founded by Tukey in 1995 and promotes environmentally friendly horticulture techniques with a focus on the local gardeners, independent businesses, and public spaces of the
Northeast region. Tukey also produced the People, Places & Plants television show for HGTV which ran for two years and is now available in a DVD boxed set.
In 2006, Tukey facilitated the creation of SafeLawns.org, "a coalition of organizations committed to educating society about the benefits of organic lawn care and gardening, and effect a quantum change in consumer and
industry behavior." Tukey serves as chairman of the board of directors and spokesperson for SafeLawns.org.
Tukey is also the author of The Organic Lawn Care Manual and co-founder of Safelawns and Landscapes, a franchise-based landscape company.
The recipient of numerous honors, Tukey was named the 2006 Horticultural Communicator of the Year by the American Horticultural Society and in 2007 he received an award for Best Electronic Media from the Garden Writers Association of America for his video collection Organic Lawn Care: Making the Transition to Organics.