Winnipeg gardeners encouraged to go green and save lakes

WINNIPEG – After months of snow, most Manitobans are loving their green yards.

But before you spray another round of fertilizer on your lawn to keep it that way,  a group working to protect Lake Winnipeg wants Manitobans to consider where some of the phosphorous and nitrogen found in some applications will go.

“The Lake Winnipeg watershed is massive,” said Colleen Sklar, executive director of Lake Friendly. “It goes from the Rocky Mountains to Lake Superior and down to South Dakota. And so there are things each and every one of us can do … to ensure we are not allowing runoff to enter any of our water bodies.”

She wants gardeners to go green to keep green algae out of the lakes, and suggests environmentally friendly fertilizers and permeable sidewalks and driveways that allow more rain to be absorbed into the soil, as ways to help.

North Kildonan resident Marilyn Dudek has all of those things in her yard, with few weeds.

“My motto in life is living in agreement with nature,” Dudek said.

The avid gardener also uses all natural products — 750 millilitres of water, two teaspoons of baking soda and a squirt of dish soap — to combat problems like powdery mildew.