The majority of this article was originally published in June 2008, profiling Jeff and Cheryl Armstrong and NutriLawn, Inc. their lawn care business based in Chico. I am re-publishing this with updated information about the company’s California Small Business of the Year 2008 award.
Jeff and Cheryl Armstrong founded Chico’s NutriLawn, a company specializing in lawn and shrub fertilization and recreational lake management, 20 years ago. They currently care for over 2000 lawns in the Chico area and they employ 18 people. In the last three years the Armstrongs have moved their business away from the chemically dependent mainstream and toward a more sustainable future through what they term “biological” lawn care. Photo above: Jeff Armstrong at a ground breaking ceremony for the Northern California Natural History Museum.
Jeff and his wife are a complete team, and Cheryl runs the business side of NutriLawn, Inc. About four year’s ago, the Armstrong’s went to the Small Business Development Center at Butte College for help appraising their company in order to sell it. As fate would have it, the SBDC actually showed them how to fine-tune their business model and demonstrated what a strong company they had. The Armstrong’s did not retire, and thank the SBDC and Cheryl’s business head for the financial viability of his business. In March, the Armstrong’s were told they were to be awarded the 2008 Small Business Person of Year for Northern California (a district from Stockton to Oregon). They then learned that they had also been chosen as the Small Business of the year for the entire state of California. As such, Jeff and Cheryl are traveling to Washington DC in mid-May to attend the 2009 National Small Business Week award events, where only 100 or so small businesses from around the nation will be celebrated. “We really won when we first went to see the people at the Small Business Development Center at Butte College,” said Jeff. “Their help transformed our business.” According to Butte College Small Business Development Center newsletter: “The U.S. SBA Sacramento District 2009/2010 Small Business of the Year Award is awarded to Jeff & Cheryl Armstrong for “Staying Power,” innovation, uniqueness of products and services, identifying a niche to compete competitively, responding to adversity during economic downturn,
continuous growth and financial stability, community contribution and “green’ business.” This is a couple who travel together, hunt and fish together, garden together and do good business together.
The Armstrong’s received a very nice etched glass award at ceremonies at the Masonic Temple in Chico last week, they will receive the same award again at ceremonies in Sacramento in the next week or so. They are then off to the nation’s capital, where one small business will be chosen as the national small business of the year – it could be them. Jeff and Cheryl have been told that the President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle will be in attendance at one of the awards events, but the Armstrongs have also put in a request through their representative to possibly meet the Obamas and the White House gardener – they really want to see the White House Lawn (of course) AND as avid home fruit & vegetable growers, they really want to see the new organic vegetable garden that’s been planted in it. “How fun would that be?” said Cheryl when talking about the upcoming trip. Travel safely and congratulations NutriLawn, Inc. The North State is proud of you.
I first met Jeff Armstrong in person when I heard him speak on sustainable lawn care at an evening lecture hosted by the Gateway Science Museum’s MWOW (Museum Without Walls) program last winter. Since hearing his talk, I have spent time with Jeff – driving with him as he made his rounds evaluating lawns, I have watched him brew compost tea, look at his brew under a microscope, and then watched him apply that compost tea to some of his lawns. We have talked about soil chemistry and mineral balances; preserving North State water quality, and whether it is possible to have a lawn as part of your landscape and still be a sustainable gardener. Ultimately, what is clear to me is that Jeff Armstrong is a man who likes a good lawn in the right place, likes healthy plants of all kinds, and has been positively re-born by his personal epiphany several years ago that environmentally friendly and sustainable lawn care is the only future for him, his family, for the people who work under him and for their families. Photo: Jeff Armstrong applying foliar compost tea to a client’s lawn.
Jeff’s personal epiphany led him first to the library and the internet to research what other people were doing in the field of environmentally friendly lawn care and agriculture. He studied the work of Dr. Carey Reams, who developed and wrote widely on what is called the Brix Method of evaluating plant health and quality through analyzing plants’ sap, primarily for levels of carbohydrates. To simplistically summarize the Brix Method, the analyses of the sap of plants is used to determine what the soil in which they live might need in order to improve the health or nutritional value of the plant. Armstrong also studied the work of Dr. Elaine Ingham, who writes and teaches widely on another plant health approach model known as the Soil Food Web. Again simplistically, the Soil Food Web starts with any given soil’s micro-life, primarily looking for nutrient, mineral and organism levels. The Soil Food Web approach encourages a healthy soil biology with a good population of beneficial soil micro-organisms which in turn feed and protect the plants. Both the Brix Method and the Soil Food Web are used widely by growers of all kinds trying to increase the quality and quantity of their crops while never depleting their soil. In the course of his studies, Armstrong has also spent time visiting soil specialists, microbiologists, other sustainable lawn care companies, and mines producing leonardite, the primary source of humic acid a critical element for the health of any soil, among others. He has attended workshops and symposiums. He has thought long and hard and continues to do so. Photo above: a cross-section of a thick, green healthy and well cut lawn.
“It is clear that healthy plants start with healthy soils, and that healthy soils are complex. It is only in the last 20 years or so that people even knew about the existence of the microscopic living organisms known as beneficial mychorizae, let alone understood their symbiotic relationship with a plant’s root system and how they help to make the nutrients in soil available to those root systems,” he points out. “What we know about soil is that we probably still have a lot to learn. Still, we do know that healthy soil is teeming with microscopic life, and with varying levels of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium (represented by the standard N-P-K levels listed on most fertilizers), as well as trace minerals, including calcium, magnesium, copper, zinc and so forth. And so I try to incorporate both the Brix Method and the Soil Food Web approaches into my biological lawn care system. Remember, healthy plants need a symphony of 16+ nutrients for vibrant growth.” Photo above: Armstrong’s compost tea brewing.
Over the past two years or so and in the course of his research, Jeff has accumulated a library of over 200 soil samples from around his service area. These soil samples have been analyzed by an independent laboratory to give Jeff an overview that he says tell him “what the soils in our area need, and equally important, they tell me what our soils don’t need.” One of the most important things this has taught Jeff is that while our Central Valley North State gardens typically need calcium, they don’t need more magnesium. Calcium is critical in allowing plants to use other nutrients efficiently and for cell wall development. Applying it helps soil to “open,” which promotes beneficial oxygen levels, which in turn allows for deeper and more developed root systems. Photo above: Armstrong looking at a drop of the compost tea under a microscope to ensure that it is teeming with living organisms.
One of the ways that NutriLawn improves plant health and the soil structure is by applying “compost tea”, a foliar spray of liquid made from brewed compost, which is rich in beneficial organisms and nutrients. Another way he improves the soil is by applying a granular mineral and organic fertilzer formula that he has developed especially for his service area and that takes into account the soil analyses he has on file. In this way, he is able to apply the extra calcium he knows our soil needs but not add extra magnesium, which he knows our soil has enough of. This kind of “spot-treatment” of soil supplements means that everything Jeff puts on the lawns he cares for stands a greater chance of actually being used effectively by plants rather than being washed away by rain or irrigation and ending up polluting our ground water. Photo: The truck Armstrong uses to transport his compost tea has never been used for a synthetic fertilizer, pesticide, fungicide or herbicide. He wants to ensure that no contamination in the tank could possibly affect the life of the organisms in the compost tea, which has to be used in just a few hours after brewing to ensure that the microscopic creatures do not die from lack of oxygen.
Armstrong implemented the final change in NutriLawn’s “paradigm shift” over the past few years by buying all mulching mowers. Also called grass-cycling mowers, mulching mowers cut lawn grass into such small pieces that it falls onto the soil beneath the growing grass and is then allowed to decompose. These decomposing grass clippings are up to 4% pure nitrogen for the soil. If done properly, the small grass clippings left behind by mulch mowers can add up to 30% of the nitrogen needed for healthy lawn grass. The organic matter that these grass clippings add to the soil further help the soil to retain water, which in turn reduces the amount of water needed for the lawn to stay green. “Think of it, every time you mulch mow, you are fertilizing your lawn naturally!” Armstrong says enthusiastically.
In the first year of experimental applications of compost tea and organic fertilizing, as well as mulch mowing, combined with careful attention to mowing grass to no less than 3 inch height, and careful attention to watering frequency with less frequent but longer and thus deeper watering on his 150 “test” lawns, Armstrong saw a significant decrease in several common fungal issues. He saw a maintenance or improvement of these lawn’s overall appearance and he saw a significantly deeper and thus stronger root systems that are less susceptible to the stress of disease, pests and drought.
Finally, a question that begs to be asked: why have lawns at all? They require a lot of resources in the way of water and nutrition, they yield no habitat for wildlife, and produce no food or flowers in return. And yet – lawns are highly valuable as entertainment and recreational spaces specifically for children and pets. They provide produce oxygen, they sequester C02, and they have a significant cooling effect when placed carefully in an optimal location in relationship to a building. The do add an aesthetic element in garden design. When placed in optimal locations they can require a lot fewer resources than many people give them. “Many lawns are over-fed and over-watered to compensate for poor soil conditions,” Armstrong maintains. In an example of not fighting for lawn in an unsuitable location, the Armstrongs have recently replaced their very shady front lawn with a shade garden. The central area of turf has been replaced with mondo grass clumps and the perimeter is now filled with interesting shade loving perennials including hosta, hellebore, podophyllum, ligularia and fern. What was once a fungus-filled and struggling patch of turf is now a dynamic, happy, healthy garden. Photo: Jeff and Cheryl Armstrong’s personal shade garden, where once a poorly-sited lawn struggled to survive.
Jeff’s suggestions for “do-it-yourself” lawn care include: never mow your cool season lawn grass (fescue, bluegrass, rye) less than 3 inches high; water early in the morning (3 am – 7am); use a mulch mower and let the grass clippings feed the grass (the only time he suggests collecting the clippings is when the grass is too high, such as when a regular mow has been missed); and water in the middle of the night if you have an automatic clock or early in the morning or late in the evening if you don’t to diminish evaporative water loss; get the lawn accustomed to deeper and less frequent waterings. Finally, apply a high calcium supplement to the lawn a few times throughout the growing season and/or a good organic slow-release lawn food as needed in spring and fall. Photo above: A ligularia in the shade garden.
NutriLawn has always been a good customer-service-oriented company, and Jeff Armstrong has clearly always been a responsible and hard working businessman. But like many of us, the steps that lead to our breaking away from the chemically dependent hegemony and toward some sense of sustainability, came over time. And came only after the realization that mainstream America is – often to our detriment – led to believe that chemically dependent is the best, biggest and most productive way. Jeff Armstrong is now a believer that what he calls the moron (“more-on”) approach (“if there’s trouble with your lawn, or plants, or health, just dump more chemicals on”), is leading us to a whole lot less – less healthy plants, less healthy soil, less water quality and less healthy environment. As his research continues and his lawn care approach evolves, we will all benefit. “You can have your cake and eat it too – lawns have a place in the sustainable garden, we just have to be careful and thoughtful in choosing lawn size and placement and taking care of them.Photo above: the ideal NutriLawn lawn is one like this. Managed solely with compost tea, this lawn is thick, green and disease and pest free.
FYI: Jeff Armstrong writes an interesting and information seasonal newsletter for his clients. For more information on the Brix Method of plant health go to: http://www.highbrixgardens.com/. For more information on the Soil Food Web approach go to: http://www.soilfoodweb.com/.
To contact Jeff and Cheryl Armstong and NutriLawn, Inc. call: 530-891-1551 or email: nutrilawn@hotmail.com.
In a North State Garden is a radio- and web-based outreach program of the Gateway Science Museum – Exploring the Natural History of the North State, based in Chico, CA. In a North State Garden celebrates the art, craft and science of home gardening in California’s North State region, and is conceived, written, photographed and hosted by Jennifer Jewell – all rights reserved jewellgarden.com. In A North State Garden airs on Northstate Public Radio KCHO/KFPR radio, Saturday mornings at 7:34 AM Pacific time and Sunday morning at 8:34 AM Pacific time. Podcasts of past shows are available here.
