I talked with my neighbor the other day about lawns. He said he recently had a company spray insecticide, herbicide, and chemical fertilizer to get his grass looking better. I guess he hasn't looked into all the possible dangers of these lawn chemicals.
Just recently, a group of farmers in Argentina sued the makers of Roundup weedkiller saying the use of it has led to birth defects in their children. There was also a recent article saying how herbicides are losing their effectiveness, and that farmers are having to use more and more herbicide to get the same results. Researchers have even shown that Roundup kills human cells in the laboratory.
As the title of this post suggests, I would rather have weeds than risk any negative effects from chemical lawn treatments. There's enough evidence now that any rational person should be hesistant of their use. Provinces in Canada have even banned the use of weed killers.
Having a monoculture lawn is unnatural from an environmental perspective anyways. So it is predictable that weeds will encroach on a pristine lawn.
I really hope this chemical mentality about lawns starts to change. Health is more important than a good-looking lawn.
i have always thought most americans think about and work on their lawn more than their own health.
An irony here is that the “weeds” which tend to grow in poor soils are often exactly those that are best suited to restore the missing nutrients and or soil composition factors. Example… dandelions thrive in clay soils that are low in humus, and their relatively deep roots (for annuals) break up the clay and, over generations, enrich it with humus.
I can remember when I was pregnant, fellow allotmentors warning me not to use roundup, as it was likely to affect the baby – so I didn’t. That was 30 years ago. In England.
Way ahead of the times!