We all want our lawns to look like the outfield at Yankee Stadium, but what lengths are you willing to go to get them to look that green and pristine? Are you the type that personally gets down and dirty, combining natural products with patience and pride? Or do you have a landscaper who has cultivated an immaculate lawn with the use of grass protecting pesticides?
Don’t get me wrong; I am not saying that all landscapers use harmful pesticides. I am merely suggesting that you check to see whether or not they do. The reason I say this is because recently my neighbor suffered a stroke and was forced to employ the services of a landscaper. Within a few weeks his yard looked like the back nine at Augusta. All the neighbors commented on it. How could we resist? It stuck out like a huge green thumb compared to our scraggily looking lawns.
That yard envy only lasted a few weeks because it was soon discovered that the lush lawn was to blame for a horrible tragedy involving my neighbor’s dog, Gigi. Apparently, Gigi loved the lawn as much as we did and started to nibble the grass. Not long after she would vomit and experience seizures. Eventually the dog contracted skin cancer. The cause? Gigi’s vet blamed it on pesticides. My neighbor’s lawn man didn’t tell him that he was spraying pesticides on his lawn. Gigi’s paws were totally raw from walking on sprayed grass—something that could have been prevented had my neighbor known not to let her play in the front yard.
I don’t have a lawn guy and I don’t know what standard practices are required in the landscape business, but I would assume if a person was going to spray poison on someone’s lawn it would be necessary to inform them that you are doing so. I did some research on pesticides and found that the Environmental Protection Agency has linked pesticides to Parkinson’s disease, Hodgkin’s disease and liver cancer. One of the major culprits in insecticide poisoning, Diazinon (an active ingredient in Ortho, Spectracide and Real-Kill, among many other pesticides), is “so dangerous that the EPA has banned it from all household and gardening products as of 2004.”
You don’t have to use poison to achieve a spiffy lawn. Some alternatives to pesticides include: bug-eating birds, kelp spray and insects that prey on vegetarian pests to achieve healthy lawns. And, again, I’m not saying that you should not employ the services of a landscaper I am simply suggesting that if you do, you question him or her about what methods he or she uses in caring for your yard.