Just like tobacco was considered safe in the 1950’s, pesticides and chemical fertilizers are advertised as being safe today. The truth is they are toxic for our environment. Manufactures are selling us a bill of goods or, to be more accurate, a bill of bads. Chemical fertilizers and pesticides have been linked to contamination of drinking water and to serious health risks to children, adults and animals.

It is a myth that chemicals are necessary to grow beautiful gardens. There were beautiful gardens long before chemical fertilizers and pesticides came into wide use after World War II. Especially hard hitting is the myth they are needed for lawns and roses. Our gardens have been free of chemicals and pesticides for 20 years and it grows lushly and naturally from a few inches of compost spread on the gardens yearly.

Nitrogen from chemical fertilizes leaches into our aquifer and runs into the bay. As a result, algae grows out of control, eventually stripping oxygen from the water which fish and other aquatic life need. Dead zones have already begun to appear, notably in the Gulf of Mexico, which is fed by nitrogen-rich water from the Mississippi river.

Canada banned the “cosmetic” use of pesticides in 96 municipalities, including Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. The Connecticut state legislature recently passed a bill that bans the use of pesticides on the grounds of primary schools. Connecticut is working to extend it further. It is a difficult fight against the big money of the chemical companies.

Modeled on a tactic of the tobacco companies, chemical companies have pushed through laws in 40 states specifying that no township or municipality can enact pesticide regulations stricter than those of the state as a whole. We cannot ban chemicals and pesticides from use on Long Island. It would take a statewide law. We can only urge residents not to use chemicals and pesticides.

Pesticide Facts from Environment and Human Health, Inc.(EHHI):,

• Increased odds of childhood leukemia, brain cancer and soft tissue sarcoma have been associated with children living in households where pesticides are used.
• Some inert ingredients are suspected carcinogens; others have been linked to central nervous system disorders, liver and kidney damage, birth defects, and some short-term health effects.—Attorney General’s Office of New York
• The use of household pesticides has been associated with a variety of childhood cancers. Switching to 7th Generation dishwashing and laundry soaps and cleaning supplies will prevent more chemicals from draining into our water supplies.
• The use of pesticides often harms wildlife and their habitats. Both dogs and cats are known to eat grass. There have been many cases of pets’ deaths from lawn treatments. Commonly used lawn-care chemicals can persist in soil, the air we breathe and water for weeks, which can lead to the contamination of aquatic resources and local wildlife.
• In addition to contaminating surface water, pesticides can contaminate ground water, potentially causing health problems for people drinking it.

Organic Lawn and Garden Care

Compost happens! It’s a major miracle in nature’s grand scheme. And miracle is the only word to explain how rotting vegetable scraps, plants and leaves become fine black velvet humus, rich in sustenance. It is so clean that it protects plants from diseases, parasites, and toxins. It is a medicine for worn-out soils, an elixir for healthy ones. A good dose of humus can raise a soil’s water-holding capacity from only 20 percent of its dry weight to between 300 and 500 percent.

Mistakenly, many homeowners believe it is sufficient to add a chemical fertilizer to their garden each year. Fertilizer does add a few nutrients but they don’t help the soil structure, and over time the soil compacts, preventing nutrients from reaching the roots of the plants. Earthworms can’t live in soils with chemical fertilizers.

Yearly replenishment of the soil with an inch or two of humus is the single most important step in building a lawn and a garden. Fertilizer is not necessary, humus is. If you can’t give up the fertilizer habit, please buy organic ones.

It is simple process to make your own compost. Simply pile up fall leaves in a bin or an out-of-view place on your property and let it rot. Within six months to a year it will be ready to spread on your gardens and lawn. Or, shed the leaves in the fall by running over piles with a lawn mower or feeding them into a leaf shredder and return them to the gardens to decompose.

An Organic Lawn

To keep a lawn lush organically requires a three-to-five- year period of rebuilding the soil and replenishing it with a suitable population of microorganisms, beneficial fungi and bacteria that have been destroyed by the lawn toxins. Once this is done the cost of maintaining the lawn drops way below that of chemical-based maintenance.

Mowing high—leaving 1.5 to 3.5 inches of grass—is better. Longer grass discourages weeds and insect pests, while shorter grass promotes shallow root growth and thatch. Leaving the clippings on the lawn is the natural way to put the nutrients back into the soil. Buffalo grass and creeping fescue don’t need mowing.

Web sites for more information:

www.greenparty.ca/en/nobe/1023
www.safelawns.org
www.beyondpesticides.org
www.ehhi.org/reports/lcpesticides/