Go Green, young man.
Nearly 160 years ago, Indiana journalist John B.L. Soule first pointed hardy citizens toward the vast Pacific with the enduring words “Go West, young man ….” Written as an earnest plea for expansion and a better way of life, and later more famously usurped by Horace Greeley, the decree quickly became the soundtrack for the latter 19th century.
In 2008, with the incentive not so much to claim new territory but create a more ecologically friendly planet, the words “Go Green, young man … or woman” might just be an appropriate battle cry for legions of conscientious homeowners – young, old and in between. With lush landscaping a large part of the American dream of home ownership, caring for one’s lawn and garden has become a priority for many.
The $36.8-billion-a-year lawn and garden industry has seen a gradual but marked metamorphosis from synthetic to biological and “biorational” (derived from items in nature) products and services.
“Five or 10 years ago, there was a big emphasis on more things beautiful than practical – less emphasis on sustainability,” said University of Rhode Island master gardener and certified horticulturist Joe Gibson of Redwood Landscaping and Property Maintenance in Swansea. Today, issues such as Integrated Pest Management, or IPM, defined as an environmentally-sensitive approach, have become more mainstream among consumers, he indicated.
“Now, we start off by planting the right plant in the right place in good quality soil, so that it will need very little in the way of water, nutrients and spraying of pesticides,” Gibson said. Pesticides and fertilizers can seep into water supplies and affect the health of both animals and humans, he noted, saying they may be linked to such diseases as non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Landscape designer Arthur Eddy, vice president of administration for Gates, Leighton & Associates Inc. Landscape Architects, in East Providence, said the firm has gauged a significant shift in a lawn and garden industry that now supports environmentally friendly goods and services. In the past the firm “was always kind of the zealot doing it,” he said. With local, national and international clients that include residential and commercial enterprises, Eddy said more of his clients are opting for adaptive re-use of already existing resources, materials (such as old buildings or piers) and designs that include “rain gardens or bio-retention gardens for storm management, where one discharges water back into the groundwater system and the other retains water to slow the demands on municipal systems.” In either case the end result is more efficient and far less invasive to the earth’s depleting resources. Eddy also spoke of a burgeoning demand for xeriscaping, which eliminates the need for irrigation altogether.
“Some of that is selecting native plant material established for the area,” he said, with winterberry and inkberry (both members of the holly family), dogwood and Rhode Island’s state tree, the red maple, creating an optimal environment for water conservation right here.
Crediting Al Gore with his Oscar- and Nobel Peace Prize-winning, five-alarm approach to conservation, David and Gary Briggs of the Briggs Family Nursery in North Attleboro may have seen the future even earlier. In 1993, the Briggs family, beginning with patriarch Paul Briggs, acquired four franchise territories in Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts for natural organic-based lawn and garden product line NaturaLawn of America. Introduced in 1987 with annual revenue of $300,000, the Maryland-based company’s sales currently exceed $30 million, with the Briggs’ franchises also realizing a rise in profits, though more slowly than one might expect.
“We are within the industry average for profits,” said David Briggs, adding that while interest in green products is certainly up, “a lot of people haven’t quite wrapped their hands around it. We have a little over 4,100 customers,” he said, “only about 400 are pest-free or 100 percent organic.” He credits his daughter, now 14, with admonishing him at the age of 6 about throwing a can into the trash instead of recycling it.
“There’s [an increasingly] higher consciousness of all things being connected today,” said horticulturist Joe Gibson. “Using a lot of pesticides or fertilizers affect the quality of our lives. We don’t want to harm the environment, but rather enhance it,” he said. “At the very least, we need to let it be.” •
