Lawn chemicals bad! How can we fix that?

[slowmover]

Mechanical aeration and twice-annual applications of compost at 1/2" deep works well for lawn health. Good dirt = good results.

The second is irrigation. Controlled irrigation over a lawn with excellent tilth pretty well takes care of all other potential problems.

I'd use chemicals the first year until the above is done. Properly. Some properties are quite far gone (going back decades). Starting over is never cheap, and that is the attraction of chemicals to act as substitute for mechanical labor.

[jtbo]

Lawn, hmm, mine is all natural without any odd chemicals, however there is less lawn and more other things, but it really does not bother me as it is still green, well mostly:


Now my pet hate of sorts is attitude where things must look nice, despite how things work, it is way too common to see that kind of attitude everywhere.

For example there are people who buy those pesky carbon credits and try to appear as environmentally awakened, but while they do that, in other end they put out more trash out and buy more useless stuff than 10 of practical minded guys who don't care about how things look as long as things do work.

What really tickles my nerve in bad way is how most of green movement seem to be just way to force people to do things that appear nice and sell instead of going to root of the problem which is hyper consuming of this date.

Now with lawn, such persons are easy to identify, they put those do not use the lawn signs, spray paint lawn and use silly amounts of chemicals to make lawn appear as nice looking, but if we take that grass to laboratory it would require class III protection to handle such hazardous substances, hardly one can say such to be any lawn, it might be lawn like chemical disaster or something, but not a lawn.

I did buy once pizza cheese, without looking enough closely what it was made of, it was cheese like vegetable oil product, sure it did look like a cheese, but there was no way to eat that as it was certainly not tasting anything like a cheese, so what is point of such thing, why would I make pizza that looks like a pizza, but is not a pizza, one that hardly could be even eaten?

Is it marketing or education that creates individuals that don't stop and think bit further than just the surface?

Only substance I put my lawn is wood ash, it changes Ph a bit so that there would be bit more grass and bit less of mushrooms and those other things growing, but I think it is lost fight, that green stuff grows even on surface of car if not driven for some time, I think it is in the air here

I think that nature is always finding it's way, we can only change direction slightly, but many times I choose not to, I like to see where nature will end up to, so I have been curiously observing what will come of one tree on my yard, there is lot of life in it as can be seen from the photo:


It is bit hard for me to understand why to force nature to be what it is not, it would be wiser to adapt and accept nature as it is, but I guess we are too civilized for that.

[Cd]

Great idea !
Not to divert the thread, but on a similar subject : blowers !

Not only do they pollute the air, but the airwaves as well !
I swear on somedays I can hear them over a mile away.

Ok back to the topic of lawn pesticides, some of these chemicals such as pesticides and herbicides are so poisonous that they kill insects and plant life for an entire year.

That's just scary.

Think about it. After a year of rain and weather they still have the toxicity to kill.

[slowmover]

In line with my above post: check depth of topsoil. That usually is enough to tell what will be needed. The chemical balances present can be done via soil analysis.

Bringing in tons and tons of quality topsoil, and re-grading the property usually only happens if one has big $$. But there is no challenging the effectiveness. Drainage that favors collection at some point remote from the house, gets rid of standing water problems near the house (or in basement), and spreads evenly across the property is ideal.

Chemicals have their place, and only enough to halt problems in place until mechanical means can be employed to re-set the property, is their role.

You can bet that anyone who gardens will have a small arsenal available to them. And knowing how to use it properly is everything. Being a "purist" is stupid if it means that insects or other pests destroy ones efforts prior to a matured property that is fairly drought and freeze resistant.

.