GreenStreet LI Home | A Greener 
Fall Cleanup




A Greener 
Fall Cleanup
2010-00-28 


It’s September already. While no one likes to see green lawns and flower patches go dull, summer’s end is the ideal time to prep your yard to be its beautiful best next spring and summer.  According to the EPA, there are plenty of sustainable, low-cost, and low-effort winterizing strategies that will yield bountiful gardens filled with rich, healthy soil to nourish flourishing flowers and plants, and provide us with cleaner air and water.  And that’s good news for everyone in your home—kids, cousins, and pets—but most of all for the environment.

GOOD:
A good place to start is by insulating the soil. The Sustainability Institute at Molloy College recommends collecting your fallen leaves and layering them in flower and tree beds to help insulate the soil against winter frost.

BETTER:
If you fertilize—and it is advisable—do it between Labor Day and Halloween, before frost prevents the absorption of the fertilizer, which can release harmful chemicals into local aquifers. Choose organic fertilizers such as Organica or Espoma.
And remember, in Suffolk County, it’s illegal to fertilize between November 1 and March 31. 

BEST:
To conserve water, plant shrubs and grasses that tolerate local soil types and require minimal irrigation. Plant from mid-September to mid-November for optimal, warm soil conditions that allow plants to acclimate before the first frost. Shrubs to consider: Aucuba and Blue Mist. Grasses to consider: Giant Reed and Sapphire Oat. 

Choose a fertilizer that has a
water-soluble nitrogen content
of less than 7%.

Avoid composting tomato plants; they’re likely to have diseases. Squash and pumpkin vines should be separated too, as they take more than a year to break down.

Keep a full birdfeeder to encourage birds to frequent your yard. They eat bugs and serve as a natural insecticide.

One Simple Thing:
Burn calories not carbon for your fall cleanup. Instead of using gas or electric powered
leaf blowers, rally the kids and get the rakes.

Around the house:
Refill your glass
with Long Island’s great water, and spare
our strained landfills of plastic water bottles.

Shop for products like chips, lunch meats, milk and disposable cups, stamped with the letters PLA on the package. It stands for polylactic acid, a corn-based plastic that’s gentler on our planet. Unlike petroleum-based plastics that take hundreds of years
to decompose, PLA breaks down
in just months.

Nix the air fresheners. Clear the air by filling your home with houseplants. A NASA study shows that houseplants dissolve 87% of toxins in the air within 24 hours. Philodendrons, palms, ferns and Chinese evergreen are good picks.

On the Road:
Kill the car engine. Five minutes idling equals the emissions
impact of 10 miles driving.

Change spark plugs regularly. Cars have multiples of them and when one misfires it can cause up to a 30% decline in fuel efficiency.

Cars emit 1lb of carbon dioxide per mile. Take your next five trips into the city on the railroad.

In the Yard
For your Labor Day bash protect your guests from mosquitoes and harmful chemicals. The CDC says to buy only those products that use the natural ingredient Lemon Eucalyptus as an effective personal mosquito repellent.

Conserve water inside and outside your home. Use a broom to sweep debris off the driveway rather than a hose. That will save you about 50 gallons of water per every five minutes. 

Plant a bucket underneath leaky AC units to collect water that you can use to water plants and beds.


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