DETROIT – This spring, foliage isn’t the only thing turning green.

Lawn and garden products are greening up, too.

Demand for organic everything – from pet foods to cleaning supplies – is changing what people want for their lawns and gardens.

And with fertilizer giant Scotts introducing its own natural lawn food this year, organic products are moving into the home box store mainstream.

Oxford Farm and Garden store manager Brian Logan says he’s seeing more organic and natural products becoming available, as well as more people asking for items like corn gluten, an organic herbicide.

“We’ve always had a number of customers. We’re seeing more and more,” said Logan. He attributes that to growing concern about the environment, particularly the potential for water pollution from lawn fertilizer runoff.

Sales of organic fertilizers and growing media like potting soils are expected to rise from $360 million this year to $670 million by 2011, according to the consumer research firm Packaged Facts.

Trend-watchers say a preference for organic has become, for some consumers, a moral judgment, a lifestyle choice fueled mainly by concerns about the safety and health of their children and pets as much as the larger environment.

“If in one aspect of your life you’re trying to be green, that has profound spillover effects,” says Bruce Butterfield, research director at the National Gardening Association based in Burlington, Vt. On a recent shopping trip in Royal Oak, Mich., Elaine Raft checked out the organic products to use on the lawn she cares for at her apartment complex.

“I am definitely considering the organic fertilizer for this year. I’d like to try them and see what they do,” said Raft, 71, a retired retailing administrator. She said she feels organic fertilizer would be safer for the wild rabbits and birds as well as the other tenants’ cats that use the area.

In lawn and garden, organic products, made from plants and animals, have long been available, although sometimes hard to find. They tended to be more costly. And, with a lower nutrient content than their chemical counterparts, it took more of them to do the job.

“We had a number of people walking through the front door as green as could be – until they found out what it would cost”, says Gil Kidd, a buyer for the six English Gardens stores.

Now, he says, as demand grows, the price for natural products is coming down, making them more competitive with synthetics.

Awareness is also changing. A new non-profit group called SafeLawns, based in New Gloucester, Maine, is championing natural lawn care over the use of chemicals. (For details, go to www.englishgardens.com.)

Still, not every retailer is seeing increasing demand. The Dexter Mill in Dexter, Mich., carries organics but chemical fertilizers remain bigger sellers, says Jim Moss, who works in the garden section.

In fact, just 5 percent of the 90 million households nationwide with a yard or garden strictly uses or buys organic fertilizers, weed and insect controls, according to Butterfield. Another 35 percent buy some natural and some conventional products.

But while forecasts for conventional lawn and garden products are flat, companies like ScottsMiracle-Gro are betting the organics will grow.

A spokesman predicts that within 5 to 10 years, its organic lawn food, which includes pasteurized chicken manure from Perdue Farms, will make up half of Scotts’ lawn fertilizer sales. A 29-lb. bag of Scotts Organic Choice lawn food covers 4,000 square feet and retails for $14.99-$17.99. In comparison, a 151/2 pound bag of Scotts Turf Builder that covers 5,000 square feet was $12.44 on the Lowe’s Web site this week.

The growth forecast has companies rushing to introduce green lawn and garden fertilizers, soils and amendments, disease and insect controls, accessories and services.

Aiming toward the lure of reuse-recycle, TerraCycle says its new spray is the first plant food made from a waste product (worm castings) and sold in a waste product (recycled pop bottles).

A product called Cowpots is made from composted cow manure that breaks down, feeding the soil.


On April 22, for Earth Day, the Whole Foods Market in Rochester Hills will give away compost that it will be making right in the store from produce leftovers.


Butterfield says the Birkenstock-and-granola idea about organics is changing.

Adam Lowry agrees.

“For the younger generation, green is more and more just an aspect of the quality of the product they expect,” says Lowry, 32. He and Grosse Pointe North High School pal Eric Ryan, 34, founded a natural cleaning products company called Method, which is carried in more than 15,000 stores nationwide.

Referring to “An Inconvenient Truth,” former vice-president Al Gore’s film about global warming, Lowry says: “We just had a politician win an Oscar for talking science. If there ever is a tipping point for green going mainstream, that’s it.”


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GET SMART ABOUT BUYING GREEN

How do you know if you’re really buying green?

Evaluating products labeled green, organic or natural can be tricky.

“You can’t really rely on these claims on the front of the package. You’ve got to turn it over” and read the ingredients on the label, said Irvashi Rangan, senior scientist and policy analyst for Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports.

Even the label may not tell the whole story. For example, Rangan said, chicken manure could be advertised as a natural or organic fertilizer, but may contain arsenic if it comes from a conventional farm, where an arsenic compound is a common poultry dietary supplement.

Rangan oversees a Consumers Union Web site, www.greenerchoices.org, that includes selection guidelines for environmentally friendly products. It has some ratings as well as a link to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s online brochure, “Green Scaping: The Easy Way to a Greener, Healthier Yard.”

To research organic pest and disease controls, try www.nysaes.cornell.edu/pp/resourceguide, the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station at Cornell University’s “Resource Guide for Organic Insect and Disease Management.” It has fact sheets for products used in organic farming.

Another information source is the county office of the MSU Extension. For office location and phone, go to www.msue.msu.edu


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4 FERTILIZER FAVORITES

Although organic and natural fertilizers, soil amendments and insect controls are new to some stores, they’ve been staples at Uncle Luke’s Feed Store in Troy, Mich., since the 1960s.

Dale White, store manager, says the ones listed below are customer favorites. The three-number series refers to the percentage of nitrogen, phosphate and potash – nutrients that stimulate vegetative growth, help develop the root, flower and stem.

As with any garden product, follow the label directions.

Product: Fertrell No. 3

What it is: A liquid 2-1-1 concentrated fertilizer made from fish and kelp that includes growth hormones and root stimulants.

Cost: $6.99 for one quart.

Product: Fertrell Super N

What it is: A 4-2-4 multipurpose fertilizer.

Cost: $21.99 for a 50-lb bag.

Product: Holly Care

What it is: A 4-6-4 fertilizer for plants that require acidic conditions, as well as for annuals.

Cost: $20.99 for a 50-lb. bag.

Product: Corn gluten

What it is: A pre-emergent weed killer and a slow-release nitrogen lawn fertilizer. Use it twice a year for two years for herbicide effectiveness.

Cost: $29.99 for a 50-lb. bag.

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AP-NY-03-28-07 0627EDT