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Re: weeds
In article <MOD$970930.29762@rec.gardens.ecosystems>, "Don Chapman"
<don@bio-organics.com> wrote:
> Jesse Dinkin <netfam4@ix.netcom.com> wrote in article
> <MOD$970928.18368@rec.gardens.ecosystems>...
> >
> > Please help me save my marriage!!!!
> >
> > After reading Toxic Deception and some other similar books I have no
> > interest in using an herbicide to rid my lawn of weeds.
> > What product or method can be used in lieu of herbicides or do I have to
> > just learn to live with them.....
> > PS my wife wants to use chemicals and I can't do that.
> >
> In very general terms, your usual options for non-chemical control of weeds
> are:
>
> 1. Hand-remove them.
> 2. Apply heat to kill them - boiling water, flame-thrower
> 3. Bake them with a plastic sheet (solarizing)
> 4. (My favorite) Cover the soil with a thick mulch. Pull out the few that
> grow through the mulch, or skim them off with a shovel blade laid flat.
--
> Don Chapman
Don,
Although that advice might work for a vegetable garden, it does not sound
practical for a lawn....if you use most of the aformentioned methods, the
lawn will be killed along with the weeds.
We understand that the best way to get a good lawn non-chemically, is with
proper lawn maintainance....and living in an area or region that can
naturally sustain a lawn type planting.
Keeping the lawn relatively tall will help control certain weeds, (like
crabgrass), which do not like the shade. It is also good to reseed (top
seed, over seed) in the late summer. This helps give the grass time to
germinate and get a good foothold *before* all the weed seeds are ripe and
germinate.
Then, as you mentioned, there is hand maintainance. This can be done by
either pulling weeds individually, or hitting them with some naturally
occuring phytotoxic substance, like diluted cider vinegar....but that
seems about the same amount of work as hand pulling.
And fiinally, it does help to be able to get to the point aesthetically,
of allowing some weeds in the lawn.....just like in other gardens, they do
not have to be untouched by nature (eg: insects) in order to be perfect.
We have all been taught to believe in an agricultural aesthetic that is
naturally unsustainable. Like, 'there is no such thing as a free
lunch'.....you can achieve perfection, but at what environmental cost?
Bill & Harvey
SKID Zone 6 CT USA
References:
- Re: weeds
- From: "Don Chapman" <don@bio-organics.com>