Lawns On Drugs—Just Say NO
Once upon a time, spring was aglow and fragrant with the bright colors and sweet scent of beautiful plants like dandelion and clover, both of which have numerous culinary and nutritional values, and medicinal properties. Today, the lawn chemical company’s marketing methods have reshaped our vision of how a lawn should look and have convinced many of us that anything other than a blade of grass on a lawn is a terrible thing.
Commercial lawn chemicals, despite claims by dealers as being safe, are not in the best interest of a healthy environment. Getting a lawn hooked on chemicals renders it virtually useless in fighting infection and pests on its own. The lawn’s immune system gets weakened and becomes even more susceptible to disease. With nature’s system of balance out of wack from over-spraying, we have to rely on even more spraying of chemicals to do what nature used to do for free. Lawns are now becoming addicted to chemical fixes to remain artificially healthy.
There are other problems associated with using chemical fertilizers. For example, phosphates from fertilizers travel directly into our rivers and lakes when it rains and blue/green algal blooms result from too much nitrogen/phosphate in the water. When the blooms die, the algae rots and is consumed by bacteria which depletes the water of oxygen. This has a negative impact on aquatic life, contributes to huge dead zones in the lake, is unhealthy for swimmers, and adversely affects the fishing industry.
Also, pesticides like 24-D (a defoliant used in Agent Orange), Diazinon, Dursban and others are linked to cancer according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.Chemical drift remains in the air days after application which contributes to respiratory irritation from fumes. Petroleum-based residues from lawn chemicals can remain on lawns for days after application and can get tracked indoors.
Think about it, is all ofthe above worth a green lawn? We need to deprogram the images sold to us by the lawn care companies of what a lawn should look like. But, if you still desire a mono-culture look of just green, there are many organic and safer alternatives to petrolum-based chemicals and fertilizers.
For more information, visit www.organiclawncare101.com.