To Serve You Better – Lincoln Landscaping
The Organic Landscape Association
Lincoln Landscaping Inc. of Franklin Lakes is proud to announce that we are the first landscaping firm to join the Organic Landscape Association! Lincoln Landscaping continuously strives to demonstrate qualification and proficiency in organic landscaping, and we are excited to make this announcement today.
What is the O.L.A.?
The O.L.A. is an association of landscapers who are both qualified and follow a set of principles to ensure that organic landscaping practices are kept to a standard, and to ensure that these practices are actively practiced. Being a member of the O.L.A. shows that you are actively preserving organic landscaping values, practices, and principles.
Guiding Principles
The basic principles of organic landscaping are principles of health, ecology, and care. To properly develop sound natural programs for managing landscapes, it is important to mimic natural ecosystems.
Conventional landscaping practices are generally focused on product applications while managing the organic landscape focuses on building a healthy system. A systems-based approach focuses on soils and soil health, sound horticultural practices, and the use of natural, organic products when indicated or necessary.
Organic landscaping should be focused on continuing to improve soil health. One should embrace the concept that a healthy, biologically active soil is fundamental to plant nutrition, plant health, and resistance to many pest pressures.
Organic landscaping should operate from a position of precaution. It is the responsible and precautionary nature of organic landscaping that removes synthetic materials from management and focuses not only on system health but also the long-term health of the environment and the elimination of synthetic exposures to human populations.
Organic landscaping practices strive to:Â
–Â Protect biological and ecological diversity
–Â Enhance the microbial populations in soils
–Â Build resiliency and sustainability in landscapes and ecosystems
–Â Avoid excess product applications for fertility
–Â Encourage the landscape system to function on its own over time
–Â Encourage basic practices that enhance the soil and plant system
–Â Embrace the concept that landscape management is site-specific
–Â Move towards the goal of minimal input to the managed landscape
–Â Have all inputs for fertilizer and soil amendments be natural or organic in nature
–Â Make sure that the right plant material is used in every location
–Â Encourage the use of native plant material within individual regions
The goals of the Organic Landscape Association are as follows:
1. To connect product developers and suppliers with landscape professionals and at the same time engage the advocacy community to work towards market change. This will create a framework that provides a vehicle to raising awareness within the public sector, the government, institutions, researchers, and students of landscaping.
2. To facilitate educational opportunities for members. An underlying premise is that the more widespread adoption of natural, organic landscape principles and protocols is limited by the lack of quality educational opportunities on a national level.
3. To provide a voice for the organic industry at the local, state and federal levels.
The Importance of Organics Now
There are plenty of reasons why you should support and use organic practice. The most important part of organic landscaping is that it is much safer for humans and pets to be in an organic environment. Many chemicals in pesticides and other non-natural product can harm your animals or your children from inhalation when near lawns. Organic product are all natural and will have no side effects, though it might make your lawn look a lot better! Along with being safe for you, it’s also safer for the soil. Organic lawn treatment helps ensure that microbes and other beneficial organisms are able to stay alive to help benefit turf. Organic fertilizers are biodegradable as well, so unlike other non-natural products, there aren’t chemicals left behind in the soil after fertilizing.
When you put in the effort to maintain lawns using organic practice, the turf will thank you for it. Safer soil leads to fibrous roots in your lawn, which also strengthens your grass, as well as enhancing the root growth in general. Not only this, but it will help enhance the texture of the soil, making it porous as well as enhancing aeration in the soil, leading to soil that retains moisture longer. And, because your soil won’t contain any chemicals, any water that goes through it and is evaporated will contain far less chemicals, which is one of the many ways organic landscaping benefits our environment.
If you’re interested in supporting the O.L.A., or wish to read more about the practices and goals of it, you can find more info here.
Lincoln Landscaping “The Natural Choice”
Mike Kolenut President & CEO
https://lincolnlandscapinginc.com
(201) 848-9699
