Sustainable Lawncare

Fertilizer, herbicide, and other things we put on our lawns are a significant source of pollution in our rivers and the Bay.

In 2009 Dr. Frank Gouin, a University of Maryland professor and the Bay Weekly’s Bay Gardener, and Matt Ciminelli, a landscape professional, helped us to devise the West/Rhode Riverkeeper Growing Green lawn care program, a simple method for maintaining a healthy lawn that is also healthy for the rivers.

Click HERE to see a presentation on the details and benefits of our Growing Green program.

Growing Green Pledge

The program has been boiled down to ten commonsense principles.
The principles are set forth in this one-page PLEDGE.
Ask your lawn care company to sign the pledge with you.

Let us know if you adopt the program and how it works out for you.
We bet you will be surprised how easy it is to have a beautiful lawn that shows you care about the rivers.

Rainscaping

Also, check out the Rainscaping website for all you need to know about taking action to reduce polluted runoff and prevent it from reaching our waterways. Ideally, rain that falls on a site should stay on that site. RainScaping practices improve water quality, restore habitat, and add beauty to the landscape.