Gardening for Clean Water: How Everyday Choices Impact Water Quality

Erin Hoover: Welcome to episode 59 of The Evergreen Thumb. My guest today is Laurel Moulton, and she is the WSU Extension Master Gardener Program Coordinator for Clallam County. And she’s here today to talk to us about the Clean Water program priority. Before she joins us, I was going to give you a little outline of what the Clean Water priority is all about.

WSU Extension Master Gardener Program Priority #9: Clean Water

The WSU Extension Master Gardener Program directly improves public health and environmental sustainability by educating communities on clean water practices that safeguard local ecosystems. Through science-based outreach and hands-on demonstrations, volunteers empower individuals to reduce harmful chemicals, enhance water quality, and protect vital waterways.

[00:01:00] Their efforts seek to lower municipal costs for water treatment and healthcare, while fostering environmental stewardship and a deeper connection to local water systems by promoting sustainable water management.

Master Gardeners help ensure clean, accessible water for future generations. Clean water is essential for human health, thriving communities, and economic stability.

Protecting upstream water sources is critical to safeguarding downstream communities that rely on them. Approximately 117 million Americans, or one in three people, depend on drinking water from streams previously at risk of pollution, before the clean water rule.

Gardening and landscape practices play a significant role in water quality. Excess pesticides and fertilizers can seep into surface and groundwater, threatening this precious resource.

Neglecting clean water upstream has widespread impacts. Contaminated water endangers public health, leading to infectious diseases, chemical exposure, and developmental challenges. Ecosystems suffer as pollutants, disrupt aquatic habitats, harm wildlife, and decrease biodiversity.

[00:02:00] Economically, the burden of pollution includes high water-treatment costs and losses in industries like fishing, agriculture, and tourism communities. Dependent on depolluted sources face water scarcity, reduced quality of life, and increased healthcare expenses. Persistent pollution causes lasting harm to ecosystems, compromising biodiversity and environmental resilience.

Implementing responsible gardening and landscaping practices is vital to protecting water resources for current and future generations. WSU Extension Master Gardener Program volunteers play a pivotal role in promoting clean water and environmental health through education on integrated pest management or IPM practices.

[00:03:00] Their efforts focus on preventing harmful chemicals from polluting water systems and reducing soil erosion and runoff.

Laurel, thanks for joining me today. Welcome back to the show.

Laurel Moulton: Thanks for having me. It’s good to be back.

What is the Clean Water Program Priority?

Erin Hoover: Alright, so today we’re talking about our clean water program priority. Can you tell us a little bit about the priority and why it’s important to home gardeners?

Laurel Moulton: Yeah, the clean water program priority is basically that we promote gardening practices that protect water resources. So, one of the important aspects of that program priority is teaching integrated pest management practices to minimize polluted runoff from the landscape.

How Our Everyday Gardening Practices Impact Water Quality

Erin Hoover: How do our everyday gardening practices, like watering, fertilizing, pest control, how do those potentially impact water quality?

Laurel Moulton: Um, everything that we do in the garden can impact water quality. For example, if you’re fertilizing your plants or your lawn, making sure you use slow-release products and only fertilizing when you need it is a good thing because excess fertilizer, particularly nitrogen, just runs right off because it’s, uh, water soluble.

[00:04:00] So if your plants aren’t using it, then that gets into the water. So for watering, we always promote water conservation as well.

Um, if you’re overwatering, that’s another way to make things from your garden run off into the storm drain or down into an aquifer or just get wasted because they flow away.

And then with pest management, you can make choices in how you manage your garden to prevent the need for pesticides. And when you use pesticides, you can choose ones that are lighter on the environment and if you apply them the right way, you can prevent them from getting into the water.

Gardening and Landscape Choices to Protect Clean Water

Erin Hoover: Are there some management choices that gardeners can make or even landscape design choices that help protect the clean water?

Laurel Moulton: Yeah, for landscape design choices, I certainly would focus on planting what you can take care of. Use plants that, um, are adapted for your area. Because if you’re choosing a bunch of plants that are kind of marginal, they’re going to take a lot more care, and oftentimes more products. If something’s adapted to the area, it might take less water and therefore there’s less runoff.

[00:05:00] It may grow better in the conditions you have, so you won’t be tempted to use as much fertilizer. Um, things like that. When I say plant what you can manage, just think about what you really need. Do you really need a golf course in your front yard for a lawn? How much of that space do you need?

And then also planting with your landscape. In your landscape, you may have slopes, you may have, you know, low-lying areas, things like that. For the slopes, you want to protect the soil from running off, uh, with planting practices or contouring practices, things like that.

You know, if you have low-lying areas, you just need to consider what you plant there, uh, to make sure it’s appropriate, so you don’t need to take extra steps to manage those.

Those are a couple I can think of.

Clean Water and Integrated Pest Management

[00:06:00] Erin Hoover: One of the things you mentioned about being part of the clean water priority is integrated pest management. Can you talk about kind of what the basics of that is and how that fits into sustainable gardening practices?

Laurel Moulton: Yeah. Um, Integrated Pest Management should be the basis of everybody’s gardening practices because basically it’s an ecosystem-based strategy that focuses on long-term prevention of pests and diseases um, or their damage.

By using a combination of techniques, it acknowledges that there’s not just one way to take care of, of a pest or disease problem. When you use pest control methods, they’re selected and applied in a manner that minimizes the risk to non-target organisms and the environment.

And finally, if you choose to use pesticides, you only use them when you’ve monitored the situation and you know that is the tool that’s called for. So anyway, it’s just kind of a built-in way of thinking about landscaping and gardening that helps you conserve resources.

Key Aspects of Integrated Pest Management

Erin Hoover: So, can you talk a little bit about key aspects of integrated pest management?

[00:07:00] Laurel Moulton: Yeah, there’s actually six uh, steps, technically in the Integrated Pest Management process. Um, those include, um, the most important step is identifying the pest or disease or problem that you have. You, you can’t know how to manage it unless you know what it is.

Once you have identified the pest, identified the disease, or identified the condition that’s causing the problem, then you can seek out the, the lowest impact ways to remedy the situation.

After you identify the pest or disease, you need to monitor the pest population because, you know, just because there’s one caterpillar on your kale, that’s not a disaster. You’ll, you want to check to see if there’s you know, if there’s a hundred caterpillars and are they eating your kale and what you’re willing to accept.

[00:08:00] So that, um, that gets me to the next one that’s developing thresholds. So you monitor it, you decide what you can accept. Is it okay to have some weeds in your lawn? Probably. I think so anyway. Um, is it okay to have a couple holes in your spinach or your kale? Probably. So you just, you just need to decide what your thresholds are for deciding to treat the problem, deciding when it’s a problem.

Being a home gardener, you can set those thresholds a lot higher. Because it’s usually your garden is for personal use, whereas a farmer might have to worry about people paying money for the crop. So, they have to set lower thresholds, um, for addressing the problem.

Finally, uh, you use a combination of management tools, um, to address it. We, we always advocate that you start with techniques that are preventative, like keeping your plants healthy, choosing the right plant, putting you know, certain plants that are prone to, to pests. You might put floating row cover over them. So prevention is, uh a great, easy kind of passive way to garden.

[00:09:00] Um, and it saves you the more labor-intensive steps that you might do if the problem becomes, uh, bigger. Finally, you need to time the management processes. So, this ties back into identifying the pest or disease. There’s certain for, for any pest or disease, there’s a time in its lifecycle where it’s most vulnerable.

So, if you just see these pests, you establish that they’re a problem and you go to the store and buy a product and spray it on you might just waste that if you’re, uh, applying it at a time when the insect or, you know, disease isn’t susceptible.

A really good example is, uh, in years when we have big tent caterpillar populations, when folks see them crawling on the ground, it really grosses them out. So they wanna spray them at that point. But at that point, once they’ve come down, come down from the trees and they’re crawling around, they’re not causing any more damage. Uh, they’ve stopped eating, they’re just looking for a place to pupate and go through their life cycle. So any pesticide you spray at that time is probably a waste.

[00:10:00] And then finally you need to assess how things went and adjust your methods in the future if it didn’t work. So it’s a whole long process, but it’s kind of circular process that you should just be constantly applying in your garden.

You know, take good notes, um, understand what works, things like that.

How do Integrated Pest Management Practices Help Safeguard Clean Water?

Erin Hoover: So how can these integrated pest management practices reduce runoff into the water, or, uh, help to safeguard clean water?

Laurel Moulton: That’s a really good question because if you’re just thinking about pest management and thinking about reducing the use of pesticides, that’s just one way. And if you’re applying pesticides the right way, it’s going to be less likely that they get into the waterway.

[00:11:00] So in integrated pest management, uh, something that folks don’t often talk about is a preventative technique is keeping your plants healthy. If you are using too much nitrogen fertilizer, when plants are um, over-fertilized with nitrogen they emit chemicals that aphids can sense and that attracts aphids.

So if you’re over-fertilizing, that can cause pest problems because you have all that succulent new growth that’s attractive to pests. So, so yeah, don’t over-fertilize, and you could save yourself from aphids, and you could save yourself from nitrogen running off into the water.

[00:12:00] Also, just taking care of your soil will help your plants grow better. So using compost. Keeping your soil covered, whether it’s by with mulch or um, cover crops, things like that, that will keep the nutrients in the soil. It will help with water retention, all sorts of things that will, that will keep your plants healthy.

So, for me, the pollution runoff has to do with pesticides, but also it just has to do with general plant care to keep your plants healthy. When your plants are healthy, they’re more resistant to pests and diseases, and that’s a huge part of integrated pest management.

Integrated Pest Management Approaches for Common Pests and Plant Problems

Erin Hoover: So you talked a little bit about aphids. What are some other common IPM approaches for common pests?

Laurel Moulton: I like to give the example of fungal diseases; Powdery Mildew and some others. With fungal diseases, once you actually have the disease, you can’t cure it. The only thing you can do with fungal diseases is prevent them. Um, that’s what all those products out there, you know, copper-based, whatever, all of those are just preventative.

So, you can prevent fungal diseases by proper planting practices and designing your garden in a way that there is good air circulation.

[00:13:00] So orienting the rows in your garden, so with the direction of the wind, so you have lots of air flowing through. In some cases, even though having hedge rows and really diverse plantings, even though that can help with some things like, you know, diversity in your garden promotes diversity and insect life and you have more beneficials, but in some cases crowding things will encourage fungal disease because those damp and low airflow situations encourage fungal diseases. So, um, good plant spacing, orienting your garden in the right way if you have that choice.

And also I love to promote, um, planting resistant plants like for powdery mildew in the Pacific Northwest. It’s just a fact of life, but there’s some types of squash and cucumbers, um, and melons that are resistant to powdery mildew.

You know, they may develop it slower or they may not develop it at all, so you don’t have to spray anything on them. So, I always, uh, promote, uh, the use of plants that are resistant to a disease that, you know, that is a problem in your garden.

[00:14:00] Some other things you can do. Um, I mentioned soil runoff.

Keeping things covered, not over fertilizing. One thing you can do is get a soil test and apply fertilizer and other soil amendments, um, in an educated way. Uh, so you aren’t applying things you don’t need. It also saves you money. Just a side note, if you don’t care about water runoff and you don’t care about the other things, at least you must care about saving some money.

So, but you should care about the other things too. And then, another thing I like to say, since you know, I’m giving all these examples and vegetable gardens and kind of high production areas, but lawns are another thing. One of the most important things to do with a lawn is, well, number one, set your thresholds.

So, do you really need a 100% green lawn that’s only grass? Is it okay if there’s some clover in there? For me, I don’t worry about weeds in my lawn because they’re just plants and I’m just not that concerned. It, you know, you might have a different threshold and that’s okay.

So if you’re keeping your lawn healthy through fertilizing it, we really discourage the use of combination products that may include an herbicide and a fertilizer.

[00:15:00] They’re promoted as you know, it’s just quick and easy. Just apply one product, but you may not need. Um, the herbicide that’s in the product, or you may not need the fertilizer. Um, you should only apply the product that you have established that you need. So avoid those combination products. Um, if you’re applying fertilizers in your lawn and you have a fertilizer applicator, it’s really important to calibrate it, to know exactly how much you’re applying.

Also watching the pattern of how you’re applying it. I had a neighbor once and I watched him, uh, run his fertilizer applicator right up to the edge of the lawn. So, half of it was throwing fertilizer into the street. Um, and that was going straight into the storm drain. So just, just be aware of that.

[00:16:00] Um, better yet, use compost. Um. You can use slow-release fertilizers, but even better, um, you can top dress with a thin layer of compost each year. Just rake that in. Um, you can’t go wrong with adding compost. Organic matter. So yeah, manage your lawn in a sustainable way.

Erin Hoover: Okay. Going back to what you were saying about airflow, it kind of made me think of, um, some more ornamental beds or like what you said with the hedgerows. Would varying the heights of your plants—so shrubs next to lower growing perennials and things like that help with airflow too?

Laurel Moulton: Yeah, I mean that could help, like if you have fruit trees. Keeping them spaced and pruned well that will help protect, prevent fungal diseases in a vegetable garden, keeping things, you know, well aerated, and you know, high air flow is good.

[00:17:00] In a general ornamental garden, if you’re not having trouble with fungal problems, then you can just plant away. I mean, I know in the ornamental areas of my garden, I’m kind of a big fan of a, a wild garden, so I, I don’t put much space, but I also don’t plant things that are particularly sensitive to, uh, fungal diseases like roses, for example.

That’s, that’s one that you would, uh, you know, probably look for a cultivar that’s resistant to black spot or, you know, something like that. Or, you know, you wanna keep some better air circulation there. So it’s really, um, it depends on what type of garden you have and what you’re planting,

Erin Hoover: Because you think with roses, normally you, at least in a more formal garden, you see them.

They are pretty well spaced, probably for that reason.

[00:18:00] Laurel Moulton: Yeah. Unless you’re me, just, yeah I, I like old English roses that ramble a little bit and, and I don’t mind a little bit of black spot on them, but also in, in my current situation, I can’t plant roses anyway because I don’t have a deer fence. But if I could plant them.

I wouldn’t adhere to spacing instructions. Yeah. I just can’t help it. Yeah.

Common Pest Management Misconceptions 

Erin Hoover: Okay. So, are there some common pitfalls or misconceptions, uh, related to pest management that, uh, you’d like to share?

Laurel Moulton: Yeah. Yeah. So one of the most common, uh, misconceptions about pest management I see is that there’s a product out there for everything.

Or, you know, sometimes I kind of look at, you know, online forums and somebody says, oh my gosh, I found this caterpillar. What do I spray on it? And I can’t tell you how often I see that. And so I guess that’s just what we’re used to is “you have a problem and there’s a product that you can go buy to fix that”.

[00:19:00] And so I just hope that people will think outside the box because a product isn’t always a solution. Oftentimes it’s just garden design, um, choosing a different plant, um, how you take care of the plants, the things that we’ve talked about. And, you know, if you think about it. Even if you use organic practices, oftentimes people think that organic is just automatically better, but you’re still using a product.

You know, it, organic products oftentimes break down quicker than conventional ones, so that’s a benefit, and they’re probably less likely to get into the water supply. But just the act of buying a product that you don’t need is, you know, just think about the shipping, think about how that product is manufactured, it’s in a plastic bottle. You have to dispose of it.

So anyway, I would encourage people to think outside the box, um, you know, use prevention, have a little bit of tolerance for imperfection, and don’t just go straight for a product to fix every problem you have or think about if it is a problem too.

[00:20:00] I mean, just think about that. You know, somebody saying, I have a bug. What do I do to kill it? Just because you have one bug, even if it’s a pest, it may not be a problem.

Erin Hoover: When you were talking about the container for the, the chemical that you buy, it also, it reminded me that, you know, and if you don’t use it all, you have to dispose of it properly according to the label.

And you know, there are a lot of things to consider, especially if you buy something and don’t end up using it.

Laurel Moulton: Yeah, absolutely. And washing out the container and you know it uses water, it uses resources. Using less resources is kind of the direction that we need to do, need to go.

Resources for Integrated Pest Management and Water-Friendly Gardening

Erin Hoover: So are there some WSU extension or other Master Gardener resources that, uh, I can direct listeners to about IPM and water-friendly gardening?

Laurel Moulton: Yeah, I would definitely point out we have a resource called Hortense, um, that is a website that is accessible to anybody, and it’s made for home gardeners, and I love that one because it’s laid out specifically with Integrated Pest Management in mind. It gives you, you know, it talks about how to identify the pest, what damage it causes, what the life cycle is like, and what some management options are. Everything from prevention all the way down to you know, using chemicals.

[00:21:00] The Pacific Northwest Management Handbook, the Pacific Northwest Disease Management Handbook. Those are both more comprehensive resources that are also laid out in a way that will help you use Integrated Pest Management techniques.

So if you’re interested in learning more about non-point source pollution, um, which is basically pollution that comes from landscapes and gardening is, you can go to the Washington Department of Ecology and just look up non-point sources of pollution and you can read all about it, ‘cause it’s, it’s not just chemicals from your garden. It’s not just fertilizer. It has to do with pet waste and, you know, all sorts of other things.

[00:22:00] Um, and you can do cool things in your landscape to prevent other things such as runoff from your roof, um, or from your driveway, things like that. And another good resource is WSU has a video about turf management Integrated Pest Management.

Um, so if you go to the WSU extension publication website, you can just Google that. You should find a link to that video, uh, to learn more about lawns specifically.

Erin Hoover: Okay. And we’ll try to put links to most of those in the show notes as well, so people can find those.

How to Support Clean Water in Your Own Community

So what are some easy, impactful actions that gardeners can take to support clean water in their own yards and in their communities?

Laurel Moulton: Some, some impactful steps that folks can take. I would say, first of all, learn how much water your landscape actually needs. It’s usually less than you think, so be careful with water, conserve water. It’s definitely becoming a, a more scarce and precious resource.

[00:23:00] So using this water means less runoff. The second thing is, um, manage your, your soil well. Um, and that includes just, you know, making sure your sail, your soil stays in place, making sure you’re adding organic matter, making sure you’re adding mulch, um, and keeping your soil friable so water can soak in and be held there, um, and nutrients can be held in your soil as well.

And then just think about, uh, the preventative techniques like cultural and biological control methods that you can encourage in your garden. Um, just so you’re using fewer products in general. Just because something isn’t getting into the local water source directly from your garden, like fertilizer or um, or pesticides.

[00:24:00] There, there are other things that get into our waterways, like plastic containers or you know, things that don’t degrade in the environment when you throw those away or you recycle them. You know, you don’t necessarily know where they go after they leave the curb, you know, hopefully they, they get recycled or put in the appropriate place.

But the truth is a lot of stuff ends up in our waterways somehow. So just minimizing the use of plastic resources, chemical resources, things like that, and try to keep water and components of your garden in your garden.

Erin Hoover: Well, this is our final episode kind of outlining the different program priorities.

This is the ninth one. What you’re talking about, about actions that gardeners can take, it reminded me of how much so many of these program priorities overlap and how focusing on any one of ‘em actually has action in all the other program priorities as well.

Laurel Moulton: Yeah, absolutely. Um, our gardens are all connected. The world’s connected. Our priorities are all connected, so that’s a really good point.

Final Thoughts about Integrated Pest Management and Clean Water

[00:25:00] Erin Hoover: Any final thoughts you’d like to add about IPM or the clean water priority?

Laurel Moulton: Yeah, just keep gardening, you know, keep experimenting and, you know, we all make mistakes, but there’s always opportunities to improve. Um, this is that time of year where you’re looking back on your gardening practices and what worked and what didn’t, and making plans for next year.

So, I think it’s really important to take notes, you know, keep a journal and reflect on what worked and what didn’t. And you can always make improvements next year. That’s the beautiful thing about gardening.

Erin Hoover: Definitely. All right. Well, thanks for being here today, Laurel.

Laurel Moulton: It’s always a pleasure. Thanks for having me.

Erin Hoover: Thank you for joining us on this episode of The Evergreen Thumb, brought to you by the WSU Extension Master Gardener Program volunteers and sponsored by the Master Gardener Foundation of Washington State.

We hope that today’s discussion has inspired and equipped you with valuable insights to nurture your garden.

[00:26:00] The Master Gardener Foundation of Washington State is a nonprofit organization whose primary purpose is to provide unifying support and advocacy for WSU Extension Master Gardener programs throughout Washington State.

To support the Master Gardener Foundation of Washington State, visit www.mastergardenerfoundation.org/donate.

Whether you’re an experienced Master Gardener or just starting out, the WSU Extension Master Gardener program is here to support you every step of the way. WSU Extension Master Gardeners empower and sustain diverse communities with relevant, unbiased, research-based horticulture education.

Reach out to your local WSU Extension office to connect with master gardeners and tap into a wealth of resources that can help you achieve gardening success.

To learn more about the program or how to become a Master Gardener, visit www.mastergardener.wsu.edu/get-involved.

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[00:27:00] The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed by guests of this podcast are their own and do not imply endorsement by Washington State University or the Master Gardener Foundation of Washington State.