b'C H A P T E R S E V E Nhad four yard men working for him, including one Buster Crowell, a man of imprecise age who looked after the green house and, on the side, tended a baby alligator in a tank. If the era of manicured, fertilized, automatically watered grounds didnt begin with Roy Tomlinson, he certainly gave that drastic shift in Chatham life style a noteworthy boost.In the years since Tomlinsons death in 1968, that tradition has pervaded all the Chathams. No matter how small the site, each place must have its foundation-hugging fringe of meat-ball shrubs and a lawn. And, to put greenery into the scenery, fertilizers and pesticides are spread across virtually every new yard. Greencapes Sue Phelan and the Cape Cod Commissions hydrologist, Gabrielle Belfit, agree that these chemicals began worrying land protectors in the late 1950s. But, adds Phelan, it wasnt until ten years ago that Cape residents turned into heavy users. That coincided exactly with the building boom. People had to have suburban-style lawnsand workers to look after them.4 Today, the Yellow Pages pinpoint at least eleven landscape gardeners with Chatham addresses; others truck their Gravellys from out of town.More homes meant more septic systems; more homes applied more toxic chemicals on lawn and border. The threatening outcome: greater amounts of nitrogen seeping through soil into the waterways, jeopardizing their age-old life cycles. For years, FCW has stood shoulder to shoulder with people troubled by this ominous result.Down to the Roots of the MatterThe idea had gone nowhere in Wellesley. But as a resident there at the time, Lew Kimball turned into an emissary, importing the plan to Chatham, where it gained a foothold.Lee Kimball and William Hayes at the Environmental Demonstration Garden site close to the Oyster Pond beach.Lynn Landy was instrumental in starting the first phase (different grasses) in 1996. At least nine other FCW members worked afterward to expand the original project into a garden.Gordon Zellner104'