My wife and I try to lead as much of a nontoxic lifestyle as possible. In place of harsh commercial cleaning products, we choose biodegradable ones or make them ourselves out of baking soda and vinegar. To the great irritation of many of our neighbors, we don't allow the city crews to spray in our yard a carcinogenic pesticide meant to control our neighborhood's mosquito problem; we employ more earth-friendly methods.
As I've reported in this space before, we are slowly working to kill our grass and replacing it with native plant species. The quickest way to accomplish this would be to spray a cocktail of poisons on the grass. We have not chosen this strategy; instead we tarp sections of the grass for a season and then I dig up the roots of the dead grass with a hand trowel.
But, for all our efforts to remain as nontoxic as possible, we have decided that, in one specific instance, we will hire our lawn guy to utilize some pesticides to remedy one serious problem -- Japanese Knotweed!
We have tried a number of more earth-friendly methods to staunch the proliferation of this decidedly invasive species, but we're losing the battle. The knotweed "grove" continues to expand and it's threatening to take over the near alley. Just as important, a young neighbor girl (from across the street) is deathly allergic to the plant and its continued spread could be dangerous to her health.
So, later this month, we're going to bite the bullet.
I'm not exactly sure what vile substance will be utilized to do the deed. I do know that it's powerful stuff and it works remarkably well. In the vacant lot next to the neighbor girl's house, the knotweed was also taking over the entire field. The county came out one day this spring, with poison in hand, and we have seen next to no knotweed there for the rest of the summer.
In the end, I suppose I can assuage my feelings with the knowledge I'm choosing the lesser of two evils. In synthetically killing this invader, the hope is that we can replace it with more native species AND safeguard the health of a member of our community.
Of course, I fully realize that utilizing a poison to do the trick opens up a different Pandora's Box. As the title of this post indicates, this has been an agonizing decision!
As I've reported in this space before, we are slowly working to kill our grass and replacing it with native plant species. The quickest way to accomplish this would be to spray a cocktail of poisons on the grass. We have not chosen this strategy; instead we tarp sections of the grass for a season and then I dig up the roots of the dead grass with a hand trowel.
But, for all our efforts to remain as nontoxic as possible, we have decided that, in one specific instance, we will hire our lawn guy to utilize some pesticides to remedy one serious problem -- Japanese Knotweed!
We have tried a number of more earth-friendly methods to staunch the proliferation of this decidedly invasive species, but we're losing the battle. The knotweed "grove" continues to expand and it's threatening to take over the near alley. Just as important, a young neighbor girl (from across the street) is deathly allergic to the plant and its continued spread could be dangerous to her health.
So, later this month, we're going to bite the bullet.
I'm not exactly sure what vile substance will be utilized to do the deed. I do know that it's powerful stuff and it works remarkably well. In the vacant lot next to the neighbor girl's house, the knotweed was also taking over the entire field. The county came out one day this spring, with poison in hand, and we have seen next to no knotweed there for the rest of the summer.
In the end, I suppose I can assuage my feelings with the knowledge I'm choosing the lesser of two evils. In synthetically killing this invader, the hope is that we can replace it with more native species AND safeguard the health of a member of our community.
Of course, I fully realize that utilizing a poison to do the trick opens up a different Pandora's Box. As the title of this post indicates, this has been an agonizing decision!
What a difficult decision to make. When my house became infested with bedbugs a year ago I wanted to find a nontoxic way to deal with them. None of the natural remedies I found were effective, though, so we had to hire exterminators.
ReplyDeleteThe chemicals they used were pretty foul, but they did get rid of the bugs. Sometimes you have to make the best of a bad situation, I suppose. :)
Same here Trey. We are organic gardeners and we hate using chemicals. BUT, we bought a house that has a gravel parking area which was horribly overgrown with weeds. For two years we battled the weeds by pulling them. We never could win the battle. Finally, we gave in.....bought some roundup and finally.....summer #4 we are weed free. In the Spring we will have to spray what emerges and then throughout the summer pull a few weeds here ans there.
ReplyDeleteBruce
oh, i feel your pain! we used to have a japanese knotweed "grove" or "jungle" as we liked to call it!
ReplyDeletefortunately it is edible and goats LOVE it :) so we are at least keeping it trimmed back using goats!