Infertility

The committee hosted a successful workshop Secrets of the Earth: gardening beautifully without pesticides seminar in Picton on March 19.

The main message was work with nature rather than against it.

Change your ideas about what are weeds and what are pests.Local author and field naturalist Terry Sprague told the large audience he welcomes wildlife to his garden and to his compost heap and that he plants trees and shrubs which will encourage birds and butterflies to visit.

Jenn Nash who is an expert in turf management spoke about organic lawn care.

The message with lawns is we can rethink lawn care and still have healthy green lawns.

We need to redefine what we think of as a weed as weeds are not our enemy.

Some weeds are more tolerable than others.

One will want to remove weeds like thistle, ragweed, nightshade and nettle, but others like clover, trefoil, and vetch are beneficial.

If one has a thick vigorous lawn with a dense stand of turf there will be less weeds.

Mowing less often and keeping the grass a little longer (six centimetres) is found to reduce weeds from 30 per cent to seven per cent in five years.

On the other hand close cut mowing at a height of around three centimetres increases the percentage of weeds by 33 per cent.

High mowing ret...

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