6 tips to go green in your backyard

**"* M* <B*@impact-pr.com>**

Give Back to Mother Nature on Earth Day April 22 -- It's Easy to Be Green
with 6 Simple Solutions:   You don't have to compost your kitchen waste or
pick bugs off plants by hand to help the environment.  From the red carpet
to your favorite garden shop, new 'green' products are making it easy to
have a beautiful yard while being good stewards of the earth in your own
backyard.  

Outdoor living trendspotter and garden guru Susan McCoy has gathered six
savvy, yet surprisingly simple, solutions for going 'green' this spring.

1. Plant, Plant, Plant!  
One of the simplest ways to give back to the planet without breaking your
budget is to plant anything.  "Just plant something, anything.  A single
tree, shrub, bush or container will help the environment," says McCoy,
founder of Garden Media Group, a public relations firm specialized in all
things gardening.

"It's one of the easiest ways you can make a difference.  Imagine if we all
planted jut one new plant every year!" Trees and other plants remove CO2
from the air during photosynthesis. This improves the quality of the
environment by cleaning and oxygenating the air and removing carbon dioxide.
Plants also help prevent soil erosion, control water cycles, and moderating
temperatures. It's the balance of nature at the most basic level.

2. Start with Healthy Soil
Pesticides and fungicides aren't safe for people, pets or even the planet.
Eliminate the need for harmful garden chemicals by pampering your plants
with healthy, nutrient-rich soil from the get go.  "Healthy soil, rich in
minerals, nutrients and 'good bugs', maximizes a plant's own healthy immune
system to let it naturally resist pests and diseases," says McCoy.  Compost
your own or look for organic potting soils like Organic Mechanics
(organicmechanicsoil.com) available at Whole Foods stores this spring. 

3. Reduce Fertilizer Use
Overfeeding is not only unhealthy for plants, it also causes excess nutrient
runoff that pollutes our streams, bays, rivers and other watersheds.
"Plants can only absorb so much fertilizer before the excess nutrient runoff
into the groundwater," says McCoy.  Fertilizer runoff contaminates drinking
water, kills fish and other sea creatures and causes problems like Red Tide.
Reduce overfeeding by using environmentally responsible feeding practices,
like the new slow-release fertilizer Dynamite (dynamiteplantfood.com).  This
9-month plant food releases nutrients to the plant when the plant needs it
most, never over or under feeding so there is minimal waste and runoff.
Plus, it's low in phosphate making it a nutritious yet earth friendly plant
food option.

4. Water Responsibly 
If you don't need to water your plants as often, you'll save gallons of time
and money.  But more importantly, you conserve water and protect the
environment.  "Substitute older cultivars with new and improved varieties
bred 'to drink responsibly'," says McCoy.  "Updated versions of classic
plants like Knock OutR shrub roses (theknockoutrose.com) require much less
water than older cultivars while still offering the same great look
gardeners love."  Other solutions: use ZEBA (zeba.com) in your window boxes
or containers.  "ZEBA's all natural, starch-based technology repeatedly
absorbs and release water as needed by plants' roots," says McCoy. ZEBA is
biodegradable, nontoxic and odorless. 

5. Be Grass Green
According to Ethne Clarke, garden editor of Traditional Home, "Most gardens
have lawns, and in some cases the lawn IS the garden." She suggests mowing
less frequently and cutting the grass longer so the top growth protects the
roots. And water less frequently to force the roots to go deeper, which
keeps them cooler and less susceptible to dry spell damage.  She recommends
using cornmeal or diatomaceous earth as an insecticide and pulling weeds
before they set seed.  For tough lawns, use a soil conditioner with good
micro-organisms and aerate to encourage soil health.  Try LazyMan Liquid
Soil Aerator or Soil Conditioner for an easy spray on solution without back
breaking work, available at outsidepride.com. 

6. Be Kind to Flora and Fauna
After pouring hours of time, effort and in most case their hearts into the
garden, no one wants to wake up one morning to find that their begonia bed
served as a late night snack for the neighborhood wildlife.  "Keeping my
hydrangea from becoming deer food was a big problem as we live in the woods
in Southeastern Pennsylvania," says McCoy.  That was until she started using
DeerStopper, a 100% organic deer repellant.  "All-natural products of today
work just as effectively or better than their synthetic counterparts," she
says.  "These products give me all the benefits with minimum health risks
and harm to the environment.  To safeguard our water supply and our pets and
children who play outdoors, McCoy suggests trying organic and all natural
animal repellants as an alternative.  Learn more at messinawildlife.com.

For more information about going green outside your home, please visit
www.gardenmediagroup.com.

Susan McCoy
Garden Media Group/IMPACT Marketing & PR, Inc.
610-388-9330 - Office
610-220-8400 - Cell
610-388-9331 - Fax
GardenMediaGroup.com
Visit our new blog -- gardenplot.blogspot.com 
1620 Baltimore Pike
P.O. Box 758
Chadds Ford, PA  19317
"We make you popular with your customers!"

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Send photos for GWL to gwlphotos@hort.net to be posted
at: http://www.hort.net/lists/gwlphotos

Post gardening questions/threads to
&quot;Gardenwriters on Gardening&quot; &lt;gwl-g@lists.ibiblio.org&gt;

For GWL website and Wiki, go to
http://www.ibiblio.org/gardenwriters