Taking the Green Path

Friday’s beautiful weather coaxed us all outdoors.  My kids spent just about every waking moment outside.  As the gorgeous weather approaches, I’m so grateful to have a local landscaper who can provide my family with a chemical-free outdoor environment.

Choosing a landscaper when I was a new homeowner in Chatham was relatively simple.  I hired the company the previous owner used.  Then came the day when the landscaper comes and drops fertilizer on the lawn.  I received a note in my mailbox that a certain chemical was applied and we should avoid walking on the lawn for a day.  Another day in the season, I found a similar note that informed me of a pesticide application and mentioned keeping children away from treatment areas.

As a mom, all of this scared me a bit.  When is it really safe for my kids to roll around in the grass and run through the bushes?  I had been using environmental and kid-friendly cleaning products in my home but what about outdoors? As my concern grew, I started to notice signs on my neighbors’ mailboxes with a friendly red ladybug that read “Pesticide Free Zone”.  The signs seemed to pop-up everywhere I looked.  I called the number on the sign and got in touch with the Bucuk family  - the owners of Chatham-based, Green Path Landcare.

Mike and Tom Bucuk showed up at my door later that week.  I was under contract with my landscaper at the time so I could not give them my business right then but it did not matter.   The father and son team spent a great deal of time walking through my yard discussing our particular issues and answered all of my questions about organic/pesticide-free landscaping.  

Mike and Tom were excited about my yard and had lots of ideas.  They both understood my concerns about creating a chemical-free environment for my family.  Their goal was to treat my yard as if it were their own.  Green Path’s job is to provide, as their website reads, “ecologically responsible, integrated landscape management to residential, commercial and municipal clients.”  They truly do “help beautify landscapes, reduce chemical pollution and simplify lives”.

For the past three years, I have been a devoted client of Green Path.  While we have to use the occasional pesticide to treat my boxwoods for leaf miner (or risk losing the plants), I can rest easy knowing that my children can dig in the dirt, roll in the grass and traipse through the beds of ferns without inhaling or touching dangerous chemicals and pesticides.  This peace of mind is incredibly important to me as a mother of small children.  

Last week, I was thrilled when I saw a Green Path truck pull-up to my home.  Forget robins bouncing around, a sure sign of spring in Chatham is the Green Path guys cleaning up your lawn.  I am looking forward to another beautiful season!

If you are thinking about going green in your yard this spring, I feel compelled to recommend Green Path Landcare. Check out their website: www.greenpathlandcare.com.  Don’t forget to look at their Resources page which links you to many helpful green organizations.

Melissa Bartoli

Chatham Township