Earth Friendly - Stonington Garden Club

Stonington Garden Club

– Beautification – Conservation – Education –

Now Available for Sale!

The Second Edition of
Earth Friendly Alternatives
to herbicides, pesticides, and household chemicals

Click here to view Table of Contents

Media! Click here for Press Release & Feature Article

In 2002, Stonington Garden Club created a concise 46-page guide, Earth Friendly Alternatives to herbicides, pesticides, and household chemicals, to educate its members, the community, and other garden clubs about the dangers of frequently used gardening chemicals.  It sold 3,000 copies, won two awards so far, and is still in demand.
            Why is earth friendly gardening so important?  As “Chilling Facts” throughout the booklet show, toxic chemicals don’t simply disappear.  They fall onto people’s skin and into the air we breathe, wash into drinking water sources, cover the grass on which children and pets play, and build up over time in human tissues as well as those of produce and animals in the food chain.  These chemicals contribute to many devastating diseases that have become common in only a few decades.
            Synthetic fertilizers add to this chemical build up.  They over-acidify the soil, killing beneficial microorganisms necessary for healthy plants, then wash into streams, causing excess nitrogen that depletes the water’s oxygen levels and ability to support life.
            Chapter one of Earth Friendly Alternatives explains pesticides impact on human health.  The remaining eight chapters outline easy ways to garden and clean organically, without chemicals.  They cover improving the soil, garden pest management, animal pest deterrents, safe weed control, organic lawn care, smart watering, even plant cures for toxic soil (phytoremediation), and chemical free household cleaning.
            Created as an educational project for Stonington Garden Club, its members would like to share what they’ve learned with other clubs and communities.  This second, 60-page edition is now being offered at wholesale prices (for orders of 50 copies of more) to allow other clubs to increase awareness of these dangers in their community while raising funds for their own conservation projects.

Retail price: $6.00 each (see table below for shipping rates)
Free shipping on orders of 10 books or more to one address.

Wholesale sales for orders of 50 copies or more:
$4 each, plus shipping (see table below)

To order:
Make checks payable to The Stonington Garden Club

Mail to: Stonington Garden Club
P.O. Box 385
Stonington, CT 06378

Please be sure to state the number ordered and your shipping address.
Questions can be e-mailed to [email protected]

# of Books	Book Total	Shipping	Total Cost
1	$6.00	$1.50	$7.50
2	$12.00	$2.00	$14.00
3	$18.00	$2.00	$20.00
4	$24.00	$2.50	$26.50
5	$30.00	$2.75	$32.75
6	$36.00	$2.75	$38.75
7	$42.00	$2.75	$44.75
8	$48.00	$3.00	$51.00
9	$54.00	$3.00	$57.00
10	$60.00	Free!	$60.00

The revised Earth Friendly Alternatives

Table of Contents

Introduction

I         Pesticides Impact on Human Health
            Cancer and asthma are increasing
            Pesticide use is going to increase
            Don’t use chemical pesticides – use only organics and as a last resort
            Be protected even if using organic pesticides
            Children are especially vulnerable

II      Improving the Soil
            What kind of soil do you have?
            Essential plant elements
            Preparing the soil
            Compost—a gardener’s best friend
            Simple, single ingredients that work
            So you really want to make your own compost
            To contain or not
            Earthworm composting
            Fertilizing plants
            Soils and organic seed starting
            Biodynamic farming

III       Garden Pest Management
            What is IPM?
            Natural controls
            Beneficial insect controls
            Pesticides:  least toxic
            Botanical pesticides
            Down to business suggestions
            Ants, inside and outside
            Tips for repelling mosquitoes and bugs

IV        Animal Pests
            Birds
            Cats
            Deer
            Dogs
            Gophers
            Mice and other rodents
            Moles
            Rabbits
            Woodchucks

V         Weed Control
            Out, out, damned weeds
            Mulching
            Avoiding certain chemicals
            Read before you weed
            Invasive weeds
            Not all weeds are bad

VI        Lawn Care
            Overfed lawns
            Fertilizer facts
            Feed the soil and not the grass
            Rx for lawns

VII       Watering
            Of compost
            Mulching benefits
            Drip irrigation and soaker hoses
            Water less frequently

VIII      Plant Cures for Toxic Soil
            Introducing Phytoremediation
            Environmental cleanup using plants
            Some specific applications
            Plants/trees and the toxins they remove

IX        Household Cleaning
            Products considered hazardous
            4 Steps to reducing hazardous home products
            General rules
            Alternative cleaning products
            Examples of environmentally safe cleaning
            Reduce world wide chemical use

(Plus, 19 Chilling Facts about all the health risks and seven cartoons to make you chuckle instead of getting depressed by these little-known but well-documented facts.)