Hello Lovers of Balance and Harmony!

There are lots of ways to value ones profession. Amount of money one makes in a year. How often one makes a positive difference in someone else’s life. Or for some City workers, how many times you can make a contractor fill out a particular form to make a minor change to his business name before that contractor goes ballistic on you. But the one thing that I really value about owning a small business: the priceless and frequent opportunity to really screw something up.

Or I guess the more positive way to put it: learning from experience. During our few years of experience, our idea of “organic” and “environmentally responsible” and “green” has evolved into something different from when we started. In all things, achieving a balance is central to success, so we’ve spent lots of time musing on what it means to be organic.

This summer and fall, Rich and I had the “RoundUp Discussion” about 50 times. If someone wanted to adapt it into a play script, it would look kinda like this:

[Enter heroes, organic landscapers JEREMY and RICH, two perfect specimens of the Homo sapien male in its prime: very tall, graceful, commanding, and oh so handsome. Stop at center of a backyard in Austin, TX dominated by the dreaded and invasive Bermuda grass.]

JEREMY:
We are going to convert this depressing patch of Bermuda into a lovely native garden.

RICH:
Yes, we are. How should we kill the Bermuda?

JEREMY:
Uh, till it?

RICH:
Hmm, you remember that job you did in South Austin a couple years ago where you scraped the entire front yard with a bobcat and tilled up the Bermuda to convert every inch into a beautiful native garden?

JEREMY:
Ya…man I’m awesome.

RICH:
But wasn’t that the same project where you went back in 3 months and were horrified that the owners weren’t spending 10 hours per week weeding and didn’t want to pay you to do it and now it’s completely infested with Bermuda grass that’s two feet tall and is pretty much the ugliest yard on the block?

[JEREMY crumples to the grass and balls up like an unborn fetus, and whimpers while RICH goes to get a sandwich and returns 45 minutes later.]

JEREMY (now standing upright, but eyes red from 45 minutes of crying):
Well, then we should spray it with vinegar, cover it all in plastic, let it sit for a couple months, till it, come back, till it, come back, till it, and keep repeating until everything is dead.

RICH (smacking loud at the last bite of his sandwich):
Hmm, well, even if that works (shmack, shmack), aren’t those huge sheets of plastic petroleum-based and manufactured by a huge corporation that makes children work in factories (swallows his last bite of sandwich) in China and exploits them for huge profits? And aren’t we using more resources than necessary by driving over here 3 or 4 times and running a gasoline engine tiller for hours? And then when you’re done with the plastic, are you really going to hang that 2,000 square feet of moldy plastic to let it dry and fold it up and find a place to store it for the next project, or are you just going to throw it away? Not to mention Bermuda grass can put roots down deeper than 6 feet, so tilling isn’t really that effective.

JEREMY:
I hate you.

RICH:
Or, should we take a cue from the people we respect the most, like the landscape architects, native habitat restoration ecologists, botanical gardens, horticulturists, botanists, and organic farmers we’ve talked to this year who admit that sometimes, chemical control is the most efficient tool to eradicate plants that naturally have no business being here and that don’t respond to organic methods? In fact, did you know that certified organic farms are allowed to spray RoundUp on the margins of their properties and still maintain their certification?

[JEREMY puts fingers in ears and repeats the word "watermelon" over and over.]

RICH (continues, pulling JEREMY’s fingers from his ears in disgust):
Or maybe we find a healthy balance. We till one time, wait to see how effective it is, and then very carefully and judiciously apply RoundUp only in areas that are problematic. That way, we’re not using plastic, we’re only using very small amounts of chemical in a very responsible way, AND, we’re potentially saving lots of resources by minimizing future maintenance needs by severely limiting the potential for the re-infestation of the Bermuda.

JEREMY:
I love you.

[Exit JEREMY and RICH, physically closer then when entering, but still a manly distance apart, as Bermuda behind them dies and gives way to a field of wildflowers full of butterflies and hummingbirds. Gradual musical fade into the Crescendo part of Guns 'N Roses rendition of "Live and Let Die". JEREMY and RICH pause, then start rocking the air guitars, curtain drops.]

That damn Rich has it right. Unfortunately, urban areas no longer have soil. It’s pretty much all a sterile and impure mess of compacted crap infested with “The Chthonian Trio”: bermuda, nutgrass, and Johnsongrass. Restoring these highly impacted areas, or at least trying to create something native out of them, is a complicated and difficult battle. With situations that are so unnatural, it is sometimes necessary to take measures that are unnatural if you want to restore a natural balance. Hence, our way to justify using RoundUp, but only after long discussion with the client and very deep explorations of all our options.

Are we no longer “organic”? By any reasonable definition, of course we are. We’ve simply expanded our perspective in our everlasting quest to approach all projects as holistically as possible, while balancing financial burden with ecological preservation. And as always, striving daily to greatly respect the often intangible value of our natural resources. A bottle of Roundup is stored in Rich’s garage, never touches the guys, the truck, or our equipment, and is only applied by Rich, who will be renewing his chemical applicator license soon to stay on top of the facts. It is not a tool for properties we regularly maintain and definitely off limits for food gardens. But it is a last resort for the really ugly install projects.

My wife has wanted to put a bumper sticker on her car that makes some kind of statement supporting local consumerism for years. But she doesn’t, because she’s scared someone will cram a banana in her tailpipe for having that sticker while she waits at Sonic for the occasional tater tot and lime slush. As conscious consumers, we are trained to justify every move we make to ensure we don’t upset the purists. But we know we’re trying, we know we are balanced, and we know we’re doing the best we can. So we should be saying, “to hell with them, we are the only proper judge of our actions, we should be able to enjoy our slushes without fear or guilt.” It’s the same way with gardening, landscaping, any profession or hobby. As long as we carefully consider the trade-offs and weigh pros and cons for the decisions we make and are always trying to improve on our methods, we’re doing the right thing.

Winter is coming, and we’re thick into the fall installation and gardening season. This winter is a great time to hire us to apply compost topdressing to your lawn, which will help add good microbes to the soil, improve drainage, maintain proper moisture retention in soil, and add a few nutrients. After the first frost, all perennials that have gone dormant should be cut to the ground in anticipation of spring’s growth spurt, and semi-evergreen/evergreen perennials should be pruned. Winter is also the best season for tree trimming and planting, and the best time of the year for any larger transplants. Make sure your beds are mulched deep to limit drastic fluctuations in soil temps, and start planning and prepping for spring projects before the rush hits. More on cold-season project suggestions to come soon.

Let us know if we can help, and thanks for letting us learn by doing. And, as always, thanks for the love.

jeremy

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