Sunday, May 2, 2010

The Other Side of the Fence

You know the saying "The grass is always greener on the other side."

Well...in our case it may not be greener, but it sure is better looking!

We are the only home in this entire town (or maybe just our block - not quite sure) that has a yard FULL of dandelions. We mow and the next day they are popping their little lovely yellow heads up again - just to taunt me I am certain.

I hate it.

I hate it, I hate it, I hate it. (Stomping my foot and furrowing my brow).

We come pulling down our lovely street. The mountain laying majestically before us, birds singing, white picket fences, rose bushes in full bloom all down the block...



and then at our address this...




So the other day I called TruGreen Chemlawn. I often see their little men riding around our neighbors yards spraying their little magic juice. I was excited about the possibility of saying goodbye to the pesky little things, so I wanted to check out my options.

My biggest concern though was the thought of my little children running around the yard in their bare feet after the little chemical man just sprayed the yard full of dandelion killer. I wanted to see if they could give me any comforting words about the safety of their product, and put my mind at ease.

When I called a woman answered. I explained to her my concern and her response was "Ummm....Yeah. We typically tell parents to not let their pets and children play on the grass for two hours after we spray. Then it will probably be okay." Um, probably be okay? It wasn't like I was asking what the ice cream flavor of the week was - I wanted to know if it could cause damage to my children...and I get a "probably be okay." Didn't sit so good with me!
I asked her if there was anything a little more concrete she could give me. Statistics, chemical make-up of their product, any green product that would take care of them (the dandelions that is) without using chemicals? She laughed and said that there was no way that you could kill dandelions without using chemicals.

And so, we've decided for now to stay the only house on the block with the yard full of thistles. Do we have any other options? Do any of you know of any other alternatives out there that are safe and non toxic?


4 comments:

  1. haha! we're the SAME here! we do have a lawn service called Safe Earth coming out to work on it. they irrigated, then seeded...now we just have to water often. they said good healthy grass should push out the weeds. there are safe things that will kill one weed at a time...it will also kill the grass so you have to be careful. we bought some from a garden store last year...it was mostly vinegar i think. anyway, google it! i'm sure you'll find stuff. but, for us...we'd rather have weeds than chemicals any day! :)
    em

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  2. We have the same problem with the dandelions LOVING our yard. We use Scott's Weed and Feed. While it's not natural, Jet says (since he's the one that uses it) that they can play in the yard again after the dust settles. meaning, the spreader makes dust and you don't want them to breathe that in, but once it's on the ground it's alright.



    But I found an all-natural one:
    http://www.ehow.com/way_5530564_weed-feed.html

    scroll to the bottom of the page...

    We've used it for a couple of years now and it's worked REALLY well for us.

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  3. Thanks so much Em and Christin! I am going to look in to those options!!

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  4. We use True Green and love them. They have worked with us {at least our guy has} to come right before it rains, so that the chemicals do what they need to do...or call to set up a time so that we can wait a full 24 hours before letting the kids onto the lawn ~ and many times we'll schedule a day trip to the children's museum, etc...to avoid it. They really do a great job and we've loved them! Not all of the applications are liquid ~ some are bitty pellets that the kids wouldn't get too... :)

    ReplyDelete

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