Want to make a positive impact on our environmental future? The place to start is in your own back (or front) yard. Lawns occupy almost 50,000 square miles of the U.S. landscape—an area larger than the state of Pennsylvania. As presently cultivated, many are resource hogs and major polluters. Yet in just a few weeks, with a modest investment of time and materials, you can turn that eco-villain into a sustainable, easy-to-maintain expanse that gives back far more than it takes and is beautiful as well.

With new statewide restrictions on lawn fertilizer use going in to effect this October to help achieve Bay restoration goals, now is the perfect time to learn how to reduce fertilizer use and protect water quality while keeping your lawn productive and healthy. Tom Christopher, founder of Smart Lawn LLC, will discuss the different grass mixes and techniques he is using to create locally adapted, biodiverse lawns that need only three to four mowings per year, no summertime irrigation, and little or no fertilization. In addition, he will provide contacts for locally focused advice and information that will enable concerned homeowners to create their own sustainable lawns. Your lawn can reduce your carbon footprint, assist in preventing water pollution, and provide a new opportunity for landscape color—and it’s easy, once you know how.

Tom Christopher is a graduate of the New York Botanical Garden School of Professional Horticulture. He has helped institutional and residential clients enhance their landscapes for more than 40 years. He is the author of ten books about gardening, and served as editor and a contributor to The New American Landscape, Timber Press’s guide to sustainable gardening that was hailed by the American Society of Landscape Architects as one of the 10 best books of 2011. His work with lawns has been featured in The Chicago Tribune and in Horticulture magazine.

This program is offered in partnership with Midshore Riverkeeper Conservancy and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. It will be held at the Academy Art Museum in Easton.

The program is free. Advance registration is requested.

Click here to register for Sustainable Lawns—The Backyard Revolution.