Lawn Poison

Do you use lawn poisons?

(You might detect a HINT of bias in this poll :evilgrin: )

Thanks for the idea!

:hi:

;)

No choice but to put chemicals down the first season or we would have lost all our new sod.

Since then, though, we have tried not to use them.

Just in the immediate area around the house where we needed something to control erosion. And used no chemicals of any kind.

We do have a multitude of various kinds of plants in our "lawn" but since the butterflies and bees seem to like them, we would not want to get rid of them. Now that we are moving into warmer weather, those early spring plants are dying back and the grass is taking over, a beautiful green area that has insects to feed the bluebirds and the flycatcher with occasional wildflowers to make it more interesting and to feed butterflies, bees and hummingbirds.

All we do is mow.

But then I am not in a homeowners' association that requires a sterile green expanse so my "lawn" just has to make me and the wildlife happy.

Too bad we couldn't have just come bought sod from you :)

We are in Florida so termites are expected. But the house is basically concrete - slab foundation with insulated concrete form walls, Hardie board siding and metal roof. We have no wood in contact with the ground. Any wood in direct contact with the concrete is pressured treated and not near the soil.

Even without all that protection, our 30 year old mobile home never got termites in any of the wood, so I thought it was pretty wasteful. But we could not get our inspection approvals on the new without that treatment, so we were stuck having to allow chemicals to be pumped under and immediately around the slab.

The sod we transplanted is Centipede that invaded our pastures. It was not the best sod in the world - kind of thin and mixed with pasture grasses, but it was cheap since all we had to do was to pay the guys to cut and lay it. And all we had to do is water it for it to take hold. Centipede is not the most popular grass, but I like it especially since it really does not like being fertilized. Just mowing and if it gets a little tired maybe de-thatching is all Centipede needs to be happy.

Now that it is established it should be drought resistant, too. We are still watering some of the places where the ground got compacted during the building process and we ended up with hard bare red clay but the centipede is growing in from the edges.

For our best and largest area around the house we have the area where the septic tank drain field is that was a lovely "lawn" of centipede but had to be torn up - we seeded it with rye grass and wildflowers the first fall (2008). The rye held the raw dirt in place over the winter and gave us a nice green field then the wildflowers came up through the rye and we had a wonderful vista of flowers all summer. It was mowed in February to chop down the volunteer oaks and tall stalks. Now the rye is going to seed and the wildflowers are blooming again. A quarter acre of coreopsis and blanket flowers make a nice view!

Screw dandelions.

little bit of a disconnect between my wishes and my partner's actions - he puts on fertilizer each spring. He's slowly coming around though letting it naturalize more and more. I spotted a large circle of renegade oregano in the lawn and asked if he'd be mad at me if our entire lawn turned into an oregano field - he barely reacted - and then he pointed out where the wildflower meadow was taking over the lawn in other areas. Big progress for him.

Lawns are a distraction from the good life.

I love a good drought. :evilgrin:

go right through to our groundwater.

Since there are plenty of effective organic solutions around, anyone who uses them just doesn't care about the environment and their fellow citizens.


Cher

Some pesticides are highly immobile in the soil and go absolutely nowhere. The more mobile pesticides, if applied according to the label, will have little mobility.

I worked a farm for fifteen years and most lawn herbicides were originally developed for agricultural applications. (I'm thinking of Roundup specifically).

Those perfectly manicured lawns with carefully edged disks of mulch surrounding trees that appear in the suburbs as if they had immigrated from corporate office parks annoy me. They are not designed to be aesthetically pleasing, they are the result of the equipment and chemicals used to maintain them and the need to do so efficiently to cut cost.

For my part - let yards grow and don't cut it until critters become a problem.

... have no idea what is used on their lawns. They hire lawn care services, and are never home when the crew is working in their yard. It's a concern around here because we are right next to the lake which is our source of drinking water.

no lawn. Lawns are expensive and wasteful,imo. I prefer an urban/suburban organic garden. Gardens can be successfully integrated into any landscape. Plant fruit trees, blueberry bushes, edible flowers and herbs in the front yard. Most people don't know the difference between edibles and ornamentals, so the "yard police" are usually none the wiser.

I also incorporate plants that attract beneficial insects and birds. Not only do I get "free" pollination, but I get to enjoy the birds and butterflies. It's a win-win all the way around. Happy gardening, DU'ers.:hi:

get rid of the grass and plant everything else or just let it go..amazing..just beautiful...

in my backyard makes a beautiful "lawn" all by itself. I've actually pulled up the remaining grass and let this native plant take over. I don't now what it is; it's dark green, has fonds with small, narrow leaves, forms a dense mat and only grows 3-4" high, but dies off in winter. I also let the Boston ferns take over in areas that I don't use much. Chemlawns kill birds and baby raccoons; I know because I've taken a number of them to our local wildlife rehab. If it's not good for them, it's bad for us too!

What do you use?

Absolutely devoid of any and all lifeforms other than perfectly manicured grass. A small conical or square shrub surrounded by white pebbles can be added if you're the creative type.

maybe I can get the grass on the lawn to grow as well as it does on the driveway.

It does very well on paving bricks too.

only 36 responses, but still one of my more successful threads

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x3012344

- Insecticide?
- Selective herbicide?
- Non selective herbicide (Round Up, Triox)
- Fertilizer
- Fertilizer mix
- Organic (Natural) repellents or poisons

Otherwise it is repuke style push polling

I stopped watering what used to be my lawn almost two years ago. My back yard is a desert tortoise pen with a few tomato plants on drip irrigation.

We are trying to return our yard to native plants, except for food for us and the wildlife. Tomatos, milk weed, basil, turk's cap, that kind of stuff.

I'm gradually converting all of my original landscape watering system to either drip irrigation or capped pipes that don't leak. Old pop-up sprinklers waste a lot of water even when you have them shut off at the spray head. The older they are, the more they leak.

round up all the self appointed yard police, home owner association heads, golfers and their fans, pro football players and their fans, pro baseball players and their fans and shuffle them all off to gitmo.

Then, while they are locked up, catapult some new propaganda that perfect manicured lawns are low class and clover, dandilions and front yard food gardens are the best way to increase the resale value of your home.

Once everyone is retrained we can let the yard police back out.

Speaking of lawns, I'm watching my stupid cat standing guard over a mole tunnel in the front yard. Mind you, there are 4 squirrels and innumerable birds in the tree above her, but she is transfixed by the mole. She does this everyday, all day long, and has yet to catch a mole. I'm thinking sitting on the tunnel while purring is giving the mole an unfair advantage, but I could be wrong.

I'm glad she never catches them,as they're great for aerating and they eat all the grubs, so I don't have any Japanese Beetle problems.

I miss our cat....... :)

I didn't want to do it but I have lost the earth friendly method of battling these god damn fire ants in my yard and in my garden beds.

I need to get my yard back. Hopefully once this round is over, I can try again using diatomaceous earth and boric acid concoctions.

I just couldn't take it anymore. I really felt horrible as I loaded up my buggy with 2 big bags of Eliminator and a rolling dispenser yesterday afternoon.

I haven't tried them yet, but I understand they're really very effective. I can't find the article I read, but here's a source you might find useful.

http://www.cleanairgardening.com/organicbuyers.html

I don't know about you, but I'd do just about anything to eradicate fire ants. They're building condos all over SC.

I knew I was in deep trouble.

I can't believe how fast they're spreading this year. Horrid little creatures that none of the regional critters want to touch. So they just spread on unchecked.

Got one in my shirt the other day, I guess it crawled up my glove, arm and into my shirt. Sucker stung me right between my armpit and boob. Just awful and the absolute last straw. After that, it was war.

I feel for you guys in SC - your winters are even milder than ours so I know they've taken over SC.

Michele Bachmann. UGH!

BTW, a little bit of household ammonia dabbed on the bite or a cold iced tea compress will take the sting out, or at least it does for me.

in case of emergencies. The tenderizer + enough water to mix has saved me a few times.

:rofl: You're spot on about them behaving like the GOP crew :rofl:

Nasty buggers.

He'd get a sledge hammer, a metal pipe, and a funnel. He'd quickly pound the pipe into the ant hill to a depth of about 12 to 18", and put the funnel in the pipe. He then would pour about a cup a potassium cyanide into the funnel followed by two cups of muriatic acid. He'd pull the pipe out of the ground. No more fire ants.

..and never will. I'm fairly convinced that they're a detriment to all the flora and fauna in the surrounding environment.

But I'm not sure if that's what you mean by lawn poison...
:shrug:

and my husband has wanted to poison them, but I won't let him. I spent many lazy hours last summer digging up the offending plants, and I'm glad I did. Besides, I kind of like seeing the pretty yellow flowers after our long, long winter.

the grocery store.

(or will be anyway as soon as it warms up enough). I've been growing my own veggies here since 1990. The yard is small but we're making the best use of it. :)

We all may need to eat our lawns when there is no food at the super and we have no money. My lawn is clover, arugula, fava beans, years-old collards, lambs quarters, and still planting.

Yeah me! :woohoo:

Their paws don't like it. Their maws either.

Every drop of water I drink first falls as rain on that yard, soaks through the grass and then the soil and finally finds its way to my pump. What kind of idiot would I be to pour poison on top of that grass?

That of course is just the practical end of it. If we had municipal water I still would not poison these few acres of earth I worked so very hard to buy, the same little part of this earth that I have promised my son and have encouraged him to hold for his son.

I'm not going to scream "Fuck You!" at people who do use poisons on their yards - but I think it.