Educational Concepts Related to Blue Thumb

  1. If the only time you go out to your yard is to mow, maybe it’s time to rethink your yard.
  2. Blue Thumb – Planting for Clean Water and for cleaner air! A gas-powered lawnmower produces X pounds of carbon dioxide. A car...
  3. Over half of the Metro’s water is used on watering lawns in the summer. If you don’t think this is the best use of our dwindling ancient aquifers...
  4. With the changing climate, weather patterns are expected to shift to more periods of drought followed by heavier rains. Native plants are predicted to handle these extremes.
  5. A butterfly and a bird thank you for planting them some food and cover. Blue Thumb
  6. Native plants help filter out pollutants. Blue Thumb…
  7. Native plants find their own water. Blue Thumb…
  8. Native plants help control erosion. Blue Thumb…
  9. Picture of someone doing yard work mowing. Picture of someone lying in a hammock with an umbrella drink looking out into a yard of perennials – the choice is yours. Blue Thumb…
  10. Blue Thumb saves you money. An acre of turf costs... (fertilizer, mowing, labor...) v. Blue Thumb planting
  11. Wouldn’t you love to enjoy your yard without a neighbor’s lawnmower in the background? Silence is golden.
  12. BEAUTIFUL! (Pictures of great project examples.)
  13. (Picture of geese talking to each other)“I double dog dare you to go into that native planting.” “No way! I’m too scared. There might be something lurking. I’ll stay here where in comfort zone.” (Goose in mowed grass.)
  14. Up north feel? (Picture of restored shoreline) Or city lake feel? (Hodge-podge shorelines with failing retaining walls...) You choose.
  15. You wouldn’t do this.(Dump fertilizer into the lake) Did you know this has the same effect? (Mowing clippings into the lake)
  16. “Nothing grows in my shady yard!” Plants have been growing in shade in Minnesota for thousands of years. Use the Blue Thumb plant selector tool to find out what might work for you.
  17. It’s about clean water. The problem today is that streets are connected to streams and pollution is carried right into our waters. Blue Thumb is a solution. Planting for Clean Water encourages raindrops to soak in where they land instead of running off
  18. Appeal to people’s national pride as was done in the past with “Victory Garden” concepts