[Judy Pino] 
It still feel like summer in 
many parts of the county, 
but -- but what?   
[Jean Schwab] 
Believe it or not 
[Judy Pino] 
Autumn -- 
[Jean Schwab] 
Is right around the corner. 
[Judy Pino] 
That's right, and many 
autumn leaves may be 
swirling around you.
Who has time for that? 
What are you going to do 
with all those leaves?
And how can you prepare your 
garden for the next spring?
Hi, I'm Judy Pino, and welcome 
to EPA's Green Scene, a series 
of environmental podcasts that 
you can take with you. 
Today we are at the U.S. 
Botanic Garden in the 
shadow of our nation's capital.
The Botanic Garden is currently 
showcasing a display called 
"One Planet, Ours!" 
which demonstrates 
how environmentally sustainable 
practices in landscaping and   
gardening can contribute 
to a healthy environment 
in the future.
EPA's contribution to the 
exhibit demonstrates ways 
that each of us can reduce 
our environmental impact 
in our lawns and gardens.    
And with me today is 
Jean Schwab of EPA's 
GreenScapes program.
Welcome Jean, thanks for 
being with us. 
[Jean Schwab] 
Thanks, Judy, nice to be here. 
[Judy Pino] 
Well, tell me first of all, 
the GreenScapes program. 
How can you have an 
environmentally 
friendly lawn?  
[Jean Schwab] 
Well, that's what GreenScapes 
is all about. 
GreenScapes is working 
with nature instead 
of against it.   
So it's simple practices and use 
of products that make your yard 
easier to care for, cheaper to 
maintain, and healthier for 
your children, your pets, 
and the environment.
[Judy Pino] 
Now, of course, we're at 
the U.S. Botanic Garden, 
and we're surrounded by just 
beautiful plants. 
A wonderful job they do here, 
of course.
But you guys can get the same 
and help the environment 
at the same time.
How can we do that? 
Let's go through some 
of the steps. 
[Jean Schwab] 
Okay, so now with fall right 
around the corner, some people 
are already starting to get a 
little sprinkling of autumn 
leaves on their lawn.  
[Judy Pino] 
That's right. 
[Jean Schwab] 
So one of the things you can do 
just right off the bat is, 
if you have just a light 
sprinkling of leaves like 
this, don't bother to rake them 
up or bag them or anything.
Take your mulching mower and go 
right over them and just mulch 
the grass and leaves right back 
into the soil, add in nutrients, 
and you don't have to spend 
any time or effort to bag up 
and throw away leaves.
[Judy Pino] 
So nature gives you this 
free mulch. 
[Jean Schwab] 
Exactly. 
[Judy Pino] 
And how do we put it 
on our soil? 
[Jean Schwab] 
Well, if you have a lot 
of leaves, you're going 
to want to get those up, 
because otherwise it can 
suffocate the grass.    
So you can do the old fashioned 
way and rake it up, or you can 
use the lawn vacuums that 
they've got or a mulching mower. 
And the great thing about 
the lawnmower or the 
lawn vac is it'll tear the 
leaves up and shred it, 
and that's what you want.
So if you're raking, you'll 
still need to find a way 
to cut up or shred up the 
leaves so that you can 
use them as mulch. 
And all you you'll do -- 
[Judy Pino] 
Okay. 
[Jean Schwab] 
-- as soon as you just take 
it off of your vacuum or off 
of the lawnmower, just dump it 
right into your flowerbeds, 
spread it out, and there, 
you're all mulched for 
the fall and winter, you don't 
have anything to throw away, 
and you just saved yourself a 
bunch of money by not having 
to go out and buy mulch. 
[Judy Pino] 
Now what if I have some 
pests in my garden? 
When is it a good time 
to fertilize? 
[Jean Schwab] 
Fertilize -- you're not -- 
this is actually the time 
to fertilize in most parts 
of the country, in the 
cold weather and up.   
But only fertilize 
if you need it. 
And the way you know you need 
it is you need to get your 
soil tested, and you can find 
test kits at garden shops 
or your local extension agent. 
You take some soil samples, you 
mail it off, and then they'll 
send back to you what kind of 
fertilizer and how much you 
need to put down, if any. 
In a lot of instances, you might 
not even need to use fertilizer 
at all if you do the mulching 
mower, because you just let 
all the grass trimmings and all 
the nutrients that are in the 
grass return right back 
to the soil. 
And what's really great about 
this is you're going to save 
money because you're not buying 
any of the fertilizers or 
pesticides, and you're not 
exposing your children or    
your pets, like Buster here, 
to any of the chemicals. 
[Judy Pino] 
Okay, another way to 
keep a beautiful lawn 
in a GreenScapes way 
is composting. 
[Jean Schwab] 
Absolutely, so you've got 
a bunch of these leaves. 
You're using them for mulch, 
or you're also using them 
to make compost.   
And the compost going to want 
to put right into your garden 
or even top dress, right on top 
of your turf 
[Judy Pino] 
Okay. 
[Jean Schwab] 
So, real simple, this is 
a compost bin. 
It just makes things a little 
neater and easier, or you can 
just pile the stuff up. 
[Judy Pino] 
Where can we get one of those? 
[Jean Schwab] 
You can buy them at home 
centers, and there are 
a lot of municipal governments, 
communities, that either give 
these away or sell them at 
a reduced price to try to 
encourage people to do 
backyard composting. 
[Judy Pino] 
Okay. 
[Jean Schwab] 
So one of the things you're 
going to do is you just start 
off -- it's completely empty -- 
and you just start off and put 
a base layer of your shredded 
leaves that you just collected. 
And the two main ingredients for 
compost are what's normally 
called "browns and greens." 
So the browns are dry, 
brown material. 
[Judy Pino] 
Okay. 
[Jean Schwab] 
And then the greens are 
going to be your green, 
kind of wetter materials, so 
that would be your grass 
clippings that you put in -- 
[Judy Pino] 
Or stuff from the kitchen. 
[Jean Schwab] 
Stuff from the kitchen. 
When you're going through and 
doing your fall maintenance   
and you have plants that you're 
cutting back -- let's say this 
is it, some of your trimmings -- 
you should cut them up and make 
them into smaller pieces and 
just cut them down, because 
the smaller things are chopped 
up, the faster they're going 
to break down.
[Judy Pino] 
Okay. 
[Jean Schwab] 
And just throw them right in. 
Here's some old basil. 
One of the other great things 
to put in: coffee filters, 
along with the filters. 
[Judy Pino] 
Oh, wow. 
[Jean Schwab] 
We made some guacamole, so 
we've got the avocados and 
tomatoes and some lettuce and 
even peanut shells.
Just dump it all right in. 
And it's kind of like making 
lasagna, so just think 
about it in layers.  
You do the brown and then 
the wet, the brown and 
then the wet --  
[Judy Pino] 
Okay, and then you go put 
another layer -- 
[Jean Schwab] 
Another layer -- 
[Judy Pino] 
-- of mulch? 
[Jean Schwab] 
Here is the leaves I collected 
with the lawnmower. 
[Judy Pino] 
Okay. 
[Jean Schwab] 
I put another layer in there, 
right on top. 
And you just keep doing 
that and build it up.
You're going to want to make 
sure it stays moist and you 
turn it now and then, because 
that's what helps things 
to break down.
[Judy Pino] 
How long does it take to 
get this to turn into soil, 
compost that we could 
actually use? 
[Jean Schwab] 
Well, if you're one of those 
really conscientious gardeners 
and you're really into it, if 
you keep it moist and turn if 
frequently a couple times a 
week, you can have finished 
compost in as little as three 
to six months.
[Judy Pino] 
Which is perfect. 
Just time for spring 
if we start now. 
[Jean Schwab] 
Exactly. 
[Judy Pino] 
Okay, let's see what you get 
when you work on this. 
[Jean Schwab] 
This is what finished compost 
will look like, and you can 
tell it's done when you can't 
tell what any of the original 
material is in it. 
[Judy Pino] 
Oh wow, it feels like real soil 
that you buy at any nursery. 
[Jean Schwab] 
But it's better, it's actually 
just better than soil, because 
believe it or not, one teaspoon 
of healthy soil, which is 
loaded with organic matter, 
has over four billion living 
organisms in it.  
[Judy Pino] 
Amazing. 
[Jean Schwab] 
And it's these living organisms 
that keep the soil healthy, 
and in turn, your plants 
are healthy. 
And if you have healthy 
soil, you also have 
clean air and clean water.   
[Judy Pino] 
So soil is alive? 
[Jean Schwab] 
Soil is alive. 
[Judy Pino] 
Okay, so let's see how you put 
this in the soil. 
[Jean Schwab] 
It's really easy. 
All you're going to do -- 
you can just dump some 
right in and then just turn it.   
[Judy Pino] 
Okay, let's do it again. 
I want to try that. 
[Jean Schwab] 
Okay, so just take 
a shovel full. 
[Judy Pino] 
Okay. 
[Jean Schwab] 
Dump it right in. 
[Judy Pino] 
Dump it --
[Jean Schwab] 
And then just turn it. 
[Judy Pino] 
-- and then you turn it. 
Because what you want to do is 
you want to get all these 
nutrients in the base 
of the soil? 
[Jean Schwab] 
Exactly, because of the 
organisms in there, 
it's alive and well, 
and this is their food. 
And they'll need this -- 
and they'll keep breaking 
it down throughout the year, 
and then the nutrients that 
they make will feed 
your plants. 
And what's really great about 
adding compost that most 
people will recognize right off 
the bat is this acts like 
a sponge in the soil, 
so it's going to hold 
the water much longer.
So the water's going 
to stay there and be 
available to your plants.   
It's going to make your soil 
and your plants much more 
resistant to drought, and what's 
good about that is you won't 
have to water as much 
or as frequently. 
So you just increase the soil 
organic matter by using 
a soil amendment like compost, 
and here we have like a drip 
irrigation system so you're 
not having to come out and 
actually water it.  
And this'll act like a sponge, 
keep the water there for 
a longer amount of time, 
and you're not spending 
any time or money watering.
[Judy Pino] 
That's right, which is what 
we're all looking for. 
Such a beautiful garden, just 
so, so easy, really. 
[Jean Schwab] 
Mm-hmm, that's the whole 
idea with GreenScapes. 
[Judy Pino] 
Well, what other tips can you 
give us to get a beautiful 
garden this spring?  
[Jean Schwab] 
Well, now is the time -- fall 
is also the time to plant any 
of your shrubs or trees. 
And that's also when you'll do 
the fertilizing if you need it, 
but only if you need it. 
So if you can think, all this 
preparation that you're doing, 
and if you mulch, it's going to 
keep the plant roots warmer all 
through the winter and get you a 
better start off for the spring.
[Judy Pino] 
Fantastic. 
Well, being surrounded by all 
these beautiful flowers, 
it's hard to fathom that one 
could actually get all these  
results at home just by using 
all those tips.
[Jean Schwab] 
It's really easy, 
and that's what we 
want people to understand: 
it's easy, you can save money, 
and still have a beautiful 
garden. 
[Judy Pino] 
Perfect. 
Thank you, Jean, for being 
with us. 
[Jean Schwab] 
My pleasure, Judy, thank you. 
[Judy Pino] 
All good tips. 
And for more information and 
to find all sorts of green 
gardening tips for fall 
and all seasons, visit 
www.epa.gov/greenscapes. 
And to learn more about this 
exhibit and other exhibits 
at the U.S. Botanic Garden,  
visit www.usbg.gov.