GREEN NEWS & VIEWS
Why Do We Mow?
code inspector for replacing the turf grass, which he said violated the county yard code. He bypassed my Due Process rights and threatened my landlady with daily fines of $500 to $700 if she did not destroy my conservation vegetation and restore the turf grass, which she did. I startedworking with the County Council to change the code, only to find out froma County Council staff attorney that the current yard code —enacted in 1989—absolutely supports Bay friendly yards. However, the code has not been widely promoted or supported; and that code in- spector has not suffered any consequences from his illegal abuses. He stillworksforthecounty.Heandhisboss,whoretiredonacushypension we are all paying for, set the county back decades in the context of mit- igating climate change. They made the lives of residents who had done nothing wrong miserable, and turf grass and mowing are everywhere. Soil Is The Building Block Practices adhered to in sustainable agriculture and green garden- ing share similarities. When I joined the Board of the Maryland Or - ganic Food and Farming Association (moffa.org), I really learned about soil health as a building block from attending ecological farm education field days and conferences. They highlighted practic - es that supported and reflected the paradigm “healthy soil, healthy plants, healthy animals, and healthy people.” Eco-agricultural farmers also learn that observation is their most important tool. In Maryland, definitive research documents that turf grass “is the largest land mass in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed today. Turf grass deposits far more pollutants into the Bay than Maryland farms do, in addition to tons of CO2 from lawn mowers and leaf blowers” ( Bulletin 8, Chesapeake Stormwater Network ). The Montgomery
...continued from page 21 gardens that require a lot of maintenance with prescribed plans and plants that often still leave turf grass and a need for mowing. These choices also tend to increase the cost and the amount of distur- bance to the soil. Until I stopped mowing and controlled the height of the turf grass with clippers, I did not realize how much mowers dehydrate and compact the soil. The lovely conservation vegetation that naturally emerged then smothered the remaining turf grass. Composting Is Easy When I started to compost my food scraps in one-quart washable yogurt containers, along with other nontoxic trash such as unbleached paper towels, and thenburied themwith leavesand twigs indeep(some- times narrow) holes in the soil—carefully watching out for earthworms and other critters so I would not harm them—I saw the soil become a sponge. Lovely colorful ground cover and flowers appeared, overtaking and ultimately smothering the turf grass. Without spending any mon- ey, my yards captured stormwater onsite and attracted local wildlife. It is also satisfying to know that my food scraps do not end up in a plastic garbage bag and a landfill, where they would gener - ate methane gas into the environment—a flammable hydrocar - bon more toxic than carbon dioxide. It is also possible to take filled compost containers to markets such as MOM’s and Whole Foods, and empty them into the appropriate compost bins. Beware Of Turf Grass Aficionados Unfortunately, I and untold numbers of other county residents were harassed by a county Department of Housing and Community Affairs
22—PATHWAYS—Summer 21
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