It’s not easy being green, my arm aches from being out there day after day shaking those dandelions off the end of my weeder, and it seems like for each one we pull up, another 100 sprout their pretty yellow heads. Fields of golden flowers are everywhere, right now, and while they are pretty in the countryside, I don’t want them covering my yard. My neighbour looked over at me during another session of plucking away the other night, and said, “that’s brutal” he wasn’t talking about the amount of weeds our lawn had, but the amount of work we have put into ridding the lawn of them so far. It’s hours and hours of work, and it feels like we are wasting our time, but we know we are doing the right thing.
They have a brand new baby, and a young dog, and obviously less available free time then we do, but their choice to use a weed and feed on the lawn makes me shudder. It worries me that some of the drift may come over to our yard, where my cat wanders, and chews on grass. It’s hard to say to them, don’t do this, it’s their yard, their choice. Many homeowners in this “we depend on our ground water” neighbourhood have lawn services, companies that will spray many times a year for weeds. Our choice, no pesticides, organic all the way, it’s hard to be green. But it’s worth it, and I tell my neighbours give us a year, and it will look so much better. This didn’t get this way overnight, it won’t look better that fast either. The chemicals we put on our lawns end up in our waterways, the environment, and the animals… do the math, those cows down the street will be drinking water laced with weed and feed someday.
We could use a non selective organic weed spray, that means it will kill anything it touches, but right now there are more weeds then grass blades, and we would end up with nothing more then a brown patch of dirt, so we pull, and we reseed, and we cover and we pull… Even when I am hot and sweaty, sore, and discouraged, I still have this very strong belief in what I am doing is right, and when I believe I am right, am I stubborn. We know that it’s a long term commitment, this won’t happen overnight, the amount of lawn we have will be reduced over the years, and so will the weeds.
So chemical, or chemical free? In the next few days I am going to be trying out a recipe for environmentally friendly weed killer, and I will let you know how it works. I understand how much easier it is to use a chemical pesticide, but I am wondering what choices everyone else has made for their lawns. Still pulling weeds…