Little Flags

'Tis the season for beginnings. New growth. The start of new life.

A funny flower is growing in my neighborhood. The fertilizer/pesticide warning flag.

Don't even get me started on just how scary lawn fertilizers can be. Many of the ingredients in the popular 4-step program and others have been banned by the European Union. They can cause cancers, birth defects, ground water pollution, nervous system issues and a host of other nastys. Why oh why are they still in use in America?

Just this weekend I spyed my neighbor spreading more disgusting chemicals on his lawn in hopes that is lawn will turn artificially green. And I left...

When I arrived back home there were thousands of little poison pellets on my driveway. My neighbor, once again, pushed his spreader around the fence and treated ten to fifteen feet of my lawn with his grossness!

All I can see is red!

Many people assume that the lawn fertilizer they purchase from the local home store is safe because it wouldn't be sold if it wasn't. Right? That is a big WRONG! Fertilizer companies have a lot of money and power. Bills to ban poisonous ingredients have been knocked down time after time due to the power of these companies.

Did you know that chemical lawn care manufacturers hide toxic ingredients by labeling them as “inert”? This loophole allows dangerous toxins to go unlisted on product labels.

Did you know that the United States Environmental Protection Agency has allowed officially banned pesticides such as D.D.T. to be reclassified as inert ingredients, allowing them to remain in pesticide formulas?


Did you know that once you spray or spread dangerous lawn fertilizers on your lawn that they can still be found on your property after a year?

In order to dispose of just the packaging of these chemical lawn fertilizers you are instructed to wrap it in many layers of newspaper or plastic. Just the packaging! What about the toxic contents?

When you use nasty fertilizers and pesticides you are killing the soil and all of it's healthy bugs, microbial populations and bacteria. Organic lawn care cultivates a healthy soil leading to a healthy lawn.

My home is built on a lot where all of the good soil was stripped off and sold. Not great for growing grass. Last year I discovered Organica's four step program. Using that organic lawn fertilizer with my rain barrel and composted soil (for bare spots) my lawn looked pretty good last year. I expect it to look even better this year.

Happy Spring!

Update...The friendly people at Organica want me to call them tomorrow. Can I venture a guess that some lucky Gruppie Girl readers will be growing healthier lawns this year? Too soon to tell...