The New London Day • 1/17/2013

Stonington – Clean Up Sound and Harbors, CUSH, will conduct two days of natural lawn and turf management workshops on Feb. 7 and 8. Admission is free.

The workshops will be led by Charles “Chip” Osborne, founder and president of Osborne Organics. Among his clients are Grant Park in Chicago, Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, University of Colorado, City of Boulder, Colo., and the cities of Durango, Colo., Maplewood, N.J., Scarsdale, N.Y., and Marblehead, Mass., location of one of the country’s first natural lawn sites. He also serves on the board and training team of the Northeast Organic Farming Association, is a consultant to the federal Environmental Protection Agency on land management product issues, serves on the board of directors of “Beyond Pesticides,” and collaborates with National Parks Service.

The first Feb. 7 workshop, from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., is titled “Natural Turf Management: An Overview” and will take place in the community room of the town police department, 173 South Broad Street, Pawcatuck. The workshop will be geared toward people responsible for maintaining playing fields and managing budgets, but all are invited. He will cover the basics of natural turf management, what will result and the cost. He will also provide consultation to Stonington officials on reconstructing turf playing fields that are failing. Representatives from Groton and Westerly representatives are welcome.

From 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Feb. 7 at the Mystic Arts Center, 9 Water St., Osborne will present, “The Living Lawn, A Lawn for Living: Simple Steps to Organic Lawn Care.” Homeowners and business property owners will learn what to do, what products to use, and if they use a landscaping company, how to instruct and monitor contractors.

On Feb. 8 there will be two workshops, the first from 9 a.m. to noon, “Simple Steps to Organic Lawn Care,” and the second from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., “Systems Approach to Natural Turf Management.” Both workshops will meet in the community room of the police department and are intended for private residential and business property owners. The first is geared toward those new to organic lawn practices, and the second is for those who want to deepen a basic working knowledge.