Yard & Garden
New Jersey is warming faster than any other state in the northeast, which means more extreme weather, from droughts to floods. We can create climate-smart yards that sequester carbon, efficiently manage water, and emit less heat.
Native Plants
One big way to lessen your environmental impact is to reduce your lawn and plant native. Native plants require less water and maintenance and provide important food and habitat for vital pollinating insects and birds. Optimally, a yard contains at least 70% native plants to support the ecosystem. There is an astounding number of gorgeous plants for any growing conditions.
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Helpful resources include:
The Glen Ridge Native Seed Library, located at the Glen Ridge Public Library (240 Ridgewood Ave.), provides a range of free native perennial seeds mid-fall through early spring.
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​Download the iNaturalist app for iOS and Android, and the PictureThis app for iOS and Android, to identify and learn about the insects and plants in your yard.
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A surprising number of beneficial insects rely on native plants to survive – e.g., while monarch butterflies will feed on a variety of flowers, they will only lay eggs on their host plant, milkweed. Plus, nonnative plants – butterfly bush, barberry, privet, multiflora rose – have invaded wild areas and are outcompeting natives. You can support biodiversity in your own yard and have a beautiful garden! Check out this guide from the Native Plant Society to learn more.
Lawn Care
Grass is the most water-intensive crop in New Jersey. The synthetic fertilizer that helps it grow is also responsible for much of the excessive nitrogen in our waterways, which can cause dangerous algal blooms. How we manage our yards makes a difference:
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Use electric equipment. It's cleaner and quieter. Ask your landscaper if they have electric equipment and invite them to charge at your house.
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Mow less frequently. Every 10-14 days will help strengthen roots and crowd out weeds.
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Water sparingly. Water deeply once a week at most in early morning or later evening to avoid evaporation.
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Fertilize organically by mulch-mowing leaves into the lawn and don’t bag the clippings—they return important nutrients to the soil as they decompose.
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Don't use pesticides or herbicides. Lawn chemicals have been linked to cancer in dogs, and they are dangerous to the rest of us, too!
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Embrace imperfection. Monoculture isn’t good for your lawn! Clover is a natural nitrogen fixer, reducing the need for fertilizer. Violets are the state flower and even hosts certain butterfly larvae!
Leaves & Mulch
Leave the leaves and stems in the fall and winter! Leaves are nature's original mulch—they block out weeds and provide beneficial nutrients as they break down. They fertilize the soil as they decompose and they help to camouflage beneficial insects like fireflies and butterflies as they overwinter.
If you don’t like where they’ve landed, rake leaves off of hardscapes into garden beds or a compost pile, or mow them into the lawn.
As Dr. Randi Eckel of Toadshade Wildflower Farm says, "Nature wastes nothing." Seedheads become bird feeders, leaves become mulch and fertilizer, and many native bee species lay their eggs in hollow stems. Leaving stems intact also provides structure for next year's plants.​
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Wood mulch is great for discouraging weeds and helping plants retain moisture, but too much can actually block water from entering the soil.
Beware of mulch volcanoes! Keep mulch from piling up at the trunks of your trees as it can damage the bark and keep roots from getting oxygen. Look for mulch that’s been certified by the Mulch and Soil Council, which verifies that it is free of pressure-treated lumber and toxic chromated copper arsenate (CCA).
Pest Management
There are many creatures in our yards–some welcome, some less so. There are ways to manage some and coexist with others that won't cause outsized harm.​
​Lanternflies – Do not panic! While the invasive species has gotten a lot of press in the past few years, they don’t bite, sting or spread disease. In winter and early spring, scrape egg masses off of trees and yard furniture. As the weather warms, the black-and-white nymphs hatch. If you see a lanternfly (from black-and-white nymphs to mature red, black and beige flies), squish it. Do not use insecticides because they will kill beneficial insects as well.
​Mosquitoes – We urge you to avoid mosquito spraying/fogging companies – not only are their products indiscriminate killers of all kinds of insects (butterflies, fireflies, ladybugs, etc.), but they aren’t all that effective at killing mosquitoes. Instead, try some of these natural solutions:
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Run a fan. Mosquitoes are weak flyers.
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Dump standing water (gutters, base of the basketball hoop, sand box, garbage can lid, etc.) Mosquitoes lay eggs in tiny amounts of water.
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For standing water that can’t be dumped (fishpond, bird bath, etc.), use a mosquito dunk or mosquito granules, which contain a naturally occurring bacteria (BTi) that will only eat mosquito and black fly larvae, killing mosquitoes before they are old enough to bite you.
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If you don’t have standing water, you can create a mosquito trap with a bucket, some hay, water, and a mosquito dunk.​
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Ticks – Protect yourself and your family from ticks by following some commonsense guidelines:
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Ticks like to live in the ecotone, the area where forest meets open space. They don't prefer grasses or gardens. So avoid the forest edge.
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Remove invasive Japanese barberry from your yard, which is known to create a desirable habitat for ticks.
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Mow play areas short.
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Add a moat of wood chips between forest edge and lawn to reinforce a separation.
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Spray yourself -- not your yard -- with a repellent. A Center for Disease Control Study finds yardspraying is ineffective at reducing the incidence of Lyme disease.
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Attract tick-eaters -- birds and opossums, for example -- to your yard by planting native plants.
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Groundhogs, Rabbits, & Deer – While we share our land with lots of critters, it doesn’t mean we need to share our gardens. Simple fencing or chicken wire is a great deterrent. Fox urine can be used to keep smaller animals away. Also remember that most native plants are accustomed to being nibbled by local fauna and will bounce back after being chewed -- this is part of their evolutionary relationship.