Garden Toxins

Your garden could be damaged by toxic products you don’t know about.

 

Clearly you can still buy harmful products in stores, but that does not mean it’s the wisest choice. You might not be using Glyphosate (Round-Up ) any more, but chemical companies are creative in changing the active toxic ingredients. Glufosinate is now being used in place of Glyphosate, because of bad press, and there is no proof that it’s any less dangerous. The major difference is Glufosinate is a contact herbicide while Glyphosate is a systemic herbicide. Exposure to these chemicals has been proven to cause serious health issues for humans and animals.

 

When confronted with an unwanted plant, considerations must be given to both the short term and long term solution, ensuring that the immediate action does not create a greater problem.

 

There are ways to organically feed your gardens with compost that start to build living soils and stop the toxic “Weed & Feed” fertilizers that kill your soil and perpetuate the cycle of needing those toxic materials.  Those fertilizers are high in nitrogen, especially for turf, and before the nitrogen can be taken up by the plants, most of the fertilizers have the possibility of being washed into the ocean, where they could cause deadly algae blooms, red tides and other problems.

 

A safe and effective treatment for killing weeds in cracks in driveways/walkways is a combination of white vinegar, salt and dish detergent.  Add to a spray bottle and this will do the trick. DO NOT spray around any living plants that you do not want to kill.

 

If you care about owls, birds of prey and other wildlife that comes into your gardens, NEVER use rodenticides or the exterminator Black Boxes. You will not only be poisoning the rodents but you will also be killing the creatures who eat them.

 

Our good choices will improve soil health, restore biodiversity, support our ecosystem and not threaten human and animal health.

 

Being good stewards of our land requires us to start making a difference, once we know better.