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Apr 24, 2007 8:18 pm US/Eastern
Green Landscaping Takes Westchester By Storm
Private Residences, Golf Courses Swear Off Pesticides
by Mary Calvi
SCARSDALE, N.Y. (CBS) ―
Westchester County has a message for everyone: Try a chemical free lawn.
Westchester is one of the few counties in the country now training landscapers to stop using potentially harmful chemicals -- and homeowners involved in the project say you can't tell the difference.
Ellen Weininger has a secret. She uses no chemical pesticides on her lawn.
"I have total peace of mind about my children and my dog playing out on the lawn, rolling around on the lawn and playing ball," Weininger said.
Ellen is part of a new wave of homeowners in Westchester who don't use the typical chemicals on the grass to keep it green.
"We are the water system for New York City. The more you build and the more you use pesticides, it doesn't get filtered out by the earth before it gets into the streams," Westchester County Executive Andrew Spano said. "Streams get into the reservoirs and into your drinking water."
County golf courses have also gone green, phasing in organic landscaping. CBS 2 HDTV took a tour with superintendent Gary Metz.
"As you get off the fairways and off the greens, and off the tees," Metz said. "We just let those areas go native."
To get this project started and landscapers trained, the county teamed up with a group called Grassroots Environmental Education, a group that hopes to take its message nationwide.
"We've educated over 200 landscapers in Westchester County," said Grassroots' Patti Wood. "And we just began this program on Long Island just this past winter. We've educated over 200 on Long Island."
Ellen just wants her dog to be able to go free, without concern for pesticides lingering on the lawn.
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