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Apr

29

Filed Under Dear SafeMama

My daughter-in-law is concerned about their neighbors use of lawn pesticides and weed killers ~ do you know of any safe products in this area? Thank you

Late last spring, when the weather finally decided to cooperate and allow me to open the windows, I was completely giddy. Opening the windows on a beautiful spring day is one those little joys in life, for me. Whenever it’s even remotely warm enough, I throw them open to air the house out of old stale air. But one day, I was sitting there and I smelled this foul chemical smell coming in and I couldn’t for the life of me figure it out. Until I looked down the street and saw that the neighbors were getting their lawn sprayed with chemicals from a well known lawn company. Of course, they’re well within their rights, but I slammed the windows shut and wondered WHY anyone would want to put that stuff on their lawn when they have small children who play constantly on it.

Living in a cookie cutter neighborhood, I want my lawn to be lush and green and pretty, but not at the expense of my family’s health.

There are a couple of options that I know about:

Greener lawn care companies – There are a couple out there that I know of, but one that I see in our neighborhood on a regular basis is Natural Lawn Care of America. They use a more organic and natural alternative lawn care service.
Good ‘ol vinegar and lemon juice - If spending money on lawn care isn’t your thing, you can use a mix of vinegar and lemon juice (undiluted) to kill your weeds. The problems with this are that a. you’re going to kill your lawn as well, and it takes quite a few treatments to kill the weeds, and it’ll only shock the ground for so long before new weeds appear. I did this last year and it worked on the weeds that I did spray, but we had so many weeds that it was impossible to keep up with. You can also always put a barrier down in your landscaping beds to keep the weeds at a minimum but weeds are like, well, weeds. Nothing but hard core chemicals deters them.

Of course, unless you’re very close with your neighbors, you can’t really delicately tell them that you don’t appreciate them using chemicals on their own lawn, but you can help keep your own lawn greener.

And this is where I turn it over to SafeMama readers. Any other advice? I’ve got limited knowledge on greener lawn care, as I don’t generally fuss too much with my lawn. Leave your answers in the comments.

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Posted by: Statia on April 29, 2009

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9 Responses to “Dear SafeMama: Lawn Care”

Cicily on April 29th, 2009 7:59 pm

We’ve used Alaska fertilizers and have had good results. Though, the mixture does smell like fish and will cause the ground/plants to smell like fish for a bit. But once everything is absorbed, the smell goes away. Here’s a product link: http://www.lillymiller.com/alaska.html
Britta Braught on April 29th, 2009 8:05 pm

I don´t understand what´s so bad about weeds. We have a lot of dandelions in our lawn and those lovely purple flowers (I don´t know their name) and everytime I drive into our driveway I admire those beautiful colors! I don´t care what other people think I love it! Green lawns look so boring and I also know for sure that my son and my pets can run around on our grass all day long without worrying about nasty chemicals.
But that´s just my opinion…
Statia on April 29th, 2009 8:47 pm

Britta, I agree. I’m not so anal retentive about my lawn. I like it kept somewhat clean, but some people live in subdivisions or planned communities with HOA regulations and can’t have messy lawns…
CecilyT on April 30th, 2009 3:40 am

It’s weird that this came up; we were discussing this very thing. We were thinking about organic, but wondered whether it would really matter that much considering everyone around us uses the ‘big gun’ lawn treatments anyway.
TerriAnn on April 30th, 2009 12:48 pm

Boiling water works great on weeds. Just pour right down the middle of the weed!
Val on April 30th, 2009 2:18 pm

There’s a company in the Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio areas called Good Nature that specializes in organic and natural lawn care. You can hire them or you can buy their products. Their website is WhyGoodNature.com.
Kim on May 5th, 2009 2:57 am

We’ve just started using corn gluten on our lawn (you can buy it at most plant & garden places). It actually isn’t terribly effective on dandelions, but I don’t really mind those. It does however help with the control of other weeds. It won’t kill existing ones, but it will feed & strengthen your lawn & help prevent new ones from growing. Unfortunately, as with most organic gardening supplements, you won’t always see immediate results (it can sometimes take a couple of years). In the meantime, at least you aren’t putting all of those toxic chemicals on your grass. Not sure what you can do about your neighbors though…or if you live in an HOA development.
Multi-Tasking Mommy on May 7th, 2009 12:34 am

Our backyard neighbours have a garden bed up against our back fence. Unfortunately, they have decided to make it a prickly weed garden Last summer, I was preggos and just couldn’t keep up with digging out the prickly buggers and now we are paying for it–AND they spread so quickly.
I have covered a huge patch of our lawn with damp newspaper in hopes to kill them and start over again. I’ve read this works.
daddy murph on May 19th, 2009 3:45 am

this is a pretty thorough site, and theyre a non profit too. http://www.safelawns.org/