It’s no secret that more and more people are becoming aware of just how beneficial it is to convert to organic gardening and lawn care practices. This includes, but is not limited to the fertilizer and pest repellant products that are used in the process. Chip Osborne who is the president of Osborne Organics in Marblehead Massachusetts has put together a proposal to revert to organic gardening practices for approximately 20 acres of city park grounds and sports fields.

A Three-Step Conversion Process

Osborne has stated that making use of a three step process to manage these parks as organically as possible would entail the use of purely organic garden care products, ensuring that regular soil testing is done to see how the plants and grass are responding and finally following up with management practices that ensure that the quality of the land continues to improve. He also mentioned that it was important for people to realize that organic gardening didn’t simply involve swapping non-organic products for their organic counterparts. It also involves the way the land is taken care of after making the change to organic land care products.

Many Parks May Benefit From This Proposal

If Osborne receives approval for his project, it could mean the end to pesticide use at parks and sports fields in Folsom, Needham, Pioneer, Brookside, Iris, Fanto, Riverfront, Schneider and the Riverview Sports Complex from as soon as this coming spring. Osborne, who is a professional horticulturist as well as a board director for Beyond Pesticides, stated that while his training involved the use of chemical pesticide products, he eventually came to realize that this was not what was best for the gardens that he had been entrusted to care for. He has also stressed the fact that organic care practices would in no way sacrifice the quality of any of the sports turfs. It would in fact only benefit them.

Keeping the Transition as Simple as Possible

Although many people have claimed that the transition to organic care practices would be costly, Osborne has said that while the initial start up phase would be expensive, it would actually end up being cheaper in the long run to engage in organic care practices. He has also offered to share his knowledge with the local landscaping community in the hopes of having them convert to organic land care practices as well. When asked about the possibility of his proposal being extended to the rest of the parks in the city, he stated that it would be dependent on how effective the pilot program turned out to be. Although Osborne does make rare exceptions with regards to using chemical treatment products, he ensures that it is only done when there is no other viable option to remedy a situation. If more and more cities make use of organic gardening and land care practices, it will result in people as well as delicate ecosystems being exposed to fewer hazardous chemical products.