Last updated on August 20th, 2022 at 12:17 am
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.