Mike Nadeau Is This Year’s Recipient of
The 2008New England Wild Flower Society’s Conservation Award

Fairfield, Conn. (12-01-08) – Michael Nadeau, co-owner of Plantscapes Inc., was recently awarded The Connecticut State Award forConserving Native Plants and their Habitats by the New England Wildflower Society (NEWFS).
This prestigious award was given to Nadeau for designing with native plants, and for educating the public about organic landscaping methods and the dangers of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers through his work with Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA), the Ecological Landscaping Association (ELA), and Plantscapes Organics Inc., the Fairfield-based company he founded with his brother in 1981.

Plantscapes Organics Inc. has over 100 clients throughout Fairfield County and beyond, and performs all aspects of organic landscaping. Specialties include rain gardens, organic vegetable gardens, planted woods with all layers included, woodland gardens, native grass and wildflower meadows and lawn alternatives. Nadeau also specializes in wetland restoration, wetland and upland construction, erosion control, invasive plant removal, native plantings, soil health and compost tea.

In presenting the award, the New England Wildflower Society noted Nadeau as an articulate practitioner of organic methods and an educator in his industry on the dangers of chemicals and the value of organic landscaping. Nadeau advocates passionately for the use of organic techniques. His mission is to “extend the vision, principles, and expertise of organic agriculture to the landscapes where people live.”

Nadeau has worked in the landscape industry for over 40 years and has over 24 years of experience in organic landscaping. He has attended dozens of courses, workshops and seminars pertaining to tree, shrub and turf care, soil chemistry and biology, ecology and plant physiology. He is a CT licensed Certified Arborist and Custom Grounds Supervisor since 1972, past President of the CT Groundskeepers Association and a founding member of the NOFA Organic Land Care Program. The NOFA Organic Land Care Program’s goals are to maintain soil health, eliminate synthetic pesticide and fertilizer use, and increase landscape diversity.

Nadeau, who studied ornamental horticulture and landscape design at the University of Connecticut-Storrs, and earned a master’s degree in plant and soil science from the University of Maine-Farmington, is widely considered an expert in the field of organic landscaping by his peers and by NOFA Accredited Organic Land Care Professionals, as well as in academia and scientific investigation.
Nadeau has lectured on organic land care topics at Yale University, the CT Invasive Plant Working Group annual meeting, the Conway School of Landscape Design, the New Directions in the American Landscape Symposium and many other symposia. He is an annual instructor of the NOFA five-day Accreditation Courses in Organic Land Care, held in CT, MA, RI and NY; and also at the annual one-day NOFA Organic Lawn & Turf Courses, held in CT and MA. He helped author the NOFA Standards for Organic Land Care (the nation’s first organic landscaping standards), the NOFA Organic Lawn & Turf Handbook (2006), and has published many additional articles including in The Natural Farmer and Weston, CT Magazine. The New England Wildflower Society is a 107-year-old non-profit organization, recognized as one of the nation’s leading plant conservation organizations. For more information on NEWFS, visit www.newfs.org.

Ten Reasons to Garden Organically

› Protect wildlife
› Keep pets safer
› Keep water cleaner
› Preserve wild habitats
› Keep garden drug-free
› Preserve health of soil
› Increase value from your fertilizer
› Limit exposure to potentially harmful substances
› Worry-free storing and disposing of potentially harmful products
› It can all be done organically!

The Demand for Organic Landscaping

Services Has Never Been Greater. Growing public awareness of the hazards associated with the use of pesticides, plus new legislation mandating least toxic and non-toxic alternatives, are fueling a new opportunity for property owners who want good asthetics combined with professional organic land care.

Many people are becoming more interested in using landscape tactics that do not harm the earth. In addition to being great for the environment, organic landscaping can also provide benefits for your wallet and for your health. One of the most alarming things to many people is the fact that some pesticides and fertilizers can harm their children.

Benefits

When you have children or grandchildren, it seems kind of a waste if they cannot play on the lawn because there is fertilizer all over it. Likewise, the improper use of pesticides, or sometimes even the proper use of these chemicals, can result in sickness. Another benefit of organic gardening can also be felt in the wallet. If you make use of the resources that you have at hand, you can actually save money with do-it-yourself organic landscaping, rather than paying money for chemicals to unnaturally enhance your plants.

One of the best ways to practice organic landscape is to make use of native plants. It is much easier to naturally promote the health of your landscape when the plants you use thrive in your area. Bringing in exotic plants or non-native plants from areas with very different conditions only results in frustration and the possible reliance on chemicals to help you take care of them. If you want to keep a landscape that works with the natural setting, native plants, or plants from areas with similar conditions, can help you accomplish this.

Organic Lawns

The lawn is most often the most visible part of a landscape. It seems as though many people thing it is necessary to use a great deal of chemicals to keep pests from ruining the lawn or to help the lawn grow well. The truth, however, is that by actively caring for the soil in your lawn as well as the grass, you can create a healthier lawn. This can be done in a number of ways that do not involve chemicals that can be harmful to the environment and to your health.

One of these ways is the use of organic fertilizer. There are compositions of fertilizer made entirely of organic materials. These fertilizers do cost more up front, but as they are used regularly reduce long run costs. The decrease the need for chemicals that can become expensive (and if applied wrong can actually damage you lawn more than help it), and they do not need to be applied as often. So, the cost often evens out eventually, as you have to apply the synthetic fertilizer much more often.

Another way to take care of the lawn is to use practices that promote healthy soil and better grass roots. One of these practices is aeration. Aeration relieves soil compaction by punching holes in the ground. This helps by making the soil easier to go through. This means that the roots have more room to go deeper, and organisms, like earthworms, that actually help the health of your grass, have more room to move about and make their homes. This results in naturally healthy grass that withstands pests better and keeps weeds out on its own.

Top dressing and over seeding are other organic practices that improve the health of the lawn. Top dressing is the act of taking composted organic matter and mixing it half and half with sand. A thin layer is then spread over the lawn. This actually improves the lawn rooting, creating healthier, hardier grass, without fertilizer. Over seeding is a method that makes use of more than the recommended amount of grass seed - about one and a half times more than the recommended amount. Over seeding promotes quicker germination and results in a thicker lawn that fights weeds.

Fertilizer, organic or otherwise, is not even necessary if you practice common sense in using organic gardening techniques. You can even create your own compost and mulch by using grass clippings from the lawn mower and leftovers from the garden. Raked leaves and pine needles and weeds can also be used. By leaving them to decompose, you are creating nutrient-rich organic matter than can be used to, in turn, improve the health of all the plants in your landscape, not just grass. Organic gardening can be a very rewarding and money saving effort when you do it yourself.