Nitrogen

We had tree stumps ground up in February. Can we plant grass there this spring and, if not, what's the alternative? Usually a lot of sawdust and ground-up woody material is incorporated with the surrounding soil to fill the hole left by the removed stump. This organic material quickly begins to decompose, using up nitrogen in the soil. To grow grass seed successfully, you need to return that nitrogen by adding a nitrogen-containing fertilizer. If there is a great deal of sawdust in the mix, consider replacing the top 3-4 inches with topsoil before seeding.

Is it a bad idea to cut back perennials while the leaves are green? Are the plants still benefiting this late in the year? I want to use the green leaves on my compost pile as "greens." If I wait until the leaves turn brown and compost them, do they still provide nitrogen to the compost pile? This late in the season, you can cut back your perennials for use in your compost pile. If you wait until the foliage browns, they will not provide the nitrogen or "green" source that you desire for your compost pile.

On the farm Like many dairy farmers, Kate and David Dallam hire a nutritionist to regulate the feed for their cows. Well aware that proper diet is crucial for a cow's health and milk production, the Dallams, owners of Bloom's Broom Dairy in Bel Air, learn the fat and protein content from reports every few days from the cooperative that processes the milk. Correct protein levels in feed are important, experts said. Too little leads to low milk production, and too much can be an expensive waste of feed.

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation and three other environmental groups notified Mirant power company yesterday that they plan to sue to stop what they described as illegal amounts of nitrogen oxide pollution pouring from a power plant in Montgomery County. The air pollution from the Dickerson plant -- the equivalent of what 40,000 sport utility vehicles would spew in a year -- helps create low-oxygen "dead zones" in the bay and triggers asthma attacks and premature deaths, according to the foundation, which was joined in the legal action by the Environmental Integrity Project and Chesapeake Climate Action Network and the Maryland Public Interest Research Group.

My bean, squash, cucumber and pepper plants are stunted and yellow. We cut down a huge maple tree and roto-tilled all the wood chips from the cuttings in the garden. The garden has produced well in previous years. The wood chips are the culprit. Fresh wood chips are very high in carbon and low in nitrogen. Microorganisms use nitrogen to break down the wood chips, robbing your plants of nitrogen. This only creates problems in the early stages of decomposition. Your remedy is to supplement the nitrogen loss by adding nitrogen fertilizer.

More than $7.1 million in revenue has been collected this year from 175 owners of wastewater treatment facilities as part of the Chesapeake Bay Restoration Fund, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. announced today. "The revenue from this historic effort is enabling us to make future generations proud to call Maryland home of the Chesapeake Bay," Ehrlich said in a statement. "I applaud Comptroller Schaefer and the state comptroller office's work with the Maryland Department of the Environment for getting this program up and running so quickly."

You hear a lot about "lack of leadership" as a reason we're still struggling to clean up the Chesapeake Bay - more than 20 years after we began. A classic example of how this keeps happening will be on exhibit soon, as the legislature tries again to pass a "California car" bill - and Maryland's Department of Environment likely opposes it again. Maryland auto dealers would have to offer consumers the same wide choice of low-polluting and fuel-efficient vehicles as California, which long ago rejected the Environmental Protection Agency's nationwide standards as too weak to solve its pollution problem.

SAVING THE BAY is about to get a little easier. I'm talking about the imminent explosion of less-polluting, higher mileage gasoline-electric hybrid passenger vehicles coming to market. Hybrids can significantly improve air quality and water quality. For example, the one I drive, Toyota's mid-size Prius (look for my Bay plate: KICKGAS), emits about one-tenth the nitrogen of a typical late-model vehicle. That's big - or it would be if lots of us drove them. Nitrogen's a key ingredient in smog, and the bay's biggest pollutant.

PEOPLE WHO spend a lot of time in and around the Chesapeake Bay gauge the success of restoration efforts by the white bathing suit test: Does the suit stay white after it's been in the water? That may not be a scientific measure of the level of pollutants, such as phosphorus and nitrogen, but it clearly indicates whether conditions are getting better or worse. Which may be more than the complicated computer modeling of the federal-state partnership, charged with managing the bay cleanup, is able to do. Using calculations and projections, the Chesapeake Bay Program boasts that phosphorus pollution has dropped by 28 percent since 1985, while nitrogen pollution declined by 18 percent.

MARYLAND'S governor and legislature, by passing the "flush tax," have taken a bold new step to clean up sewage. But now's no time to smell the roses. It's time now to tackle manure - the back side of foamy white milk and luscious golden chicken - flowing bounteously from farms throughout the bay's six-state watershed. I have nothing against manure. It smells like home to me. Mom would corral me as a toddler in the feed bin as she pushed it through our chicken houses. When we cleaned the houses out, the dog and I reveled in the fragrant piles outside our log cabin (yes, log cabin - it's still on Spearin Road near Salisbury - and no, I'm not 100 years old)