{"product_id":"dangers-of-chemical-lawn-pesticides-fertilizers","title":"Dangers of Chemical Lawn Pesticides \u0026 Fertilizers","description":"\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"text-decoration: underline; color: #ffff00;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDangers of Chemical Lawn Pesticides \u0026amp; Fertilizers\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003ehttps:\/\/www.rd.com\/article\/lawn-fertilizer-dangers\/\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch1 class=\"post-title\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThe Dark Side of the Perfectly Manicured American Lawn: Is It Giving You Cancer?\u003c\/h1\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"byline-row-wraper\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"byline-wraper\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"byline\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\n\u003cimg data-ll-status=\"loaded\" height=\"50\" width=\"50\" src=\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b44bf7adf6354c5d3b331ec04b2c0bd9?s=96\u0026amp;d=mm\u0026amp;r=g\" alt=\"McKay Jenkins\" class=\"avatar lazyloaded\" loading=\"lazy\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-src=\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b44bf7adf6354c5d3b331ec04b2c0bd9?s=96\u0026amp;d=mm\u0026amp;r=g\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"post-author\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.rd.com\/author\/mckay-jenkins\/\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-href=\"https:\/\/www.rd.com\/author\/mckay-jenkins\/\"\u003eMcKay Jenkins\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"update-date-wraper\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"post-updated-date\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eUpdated: Apr. 15, 2016\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"byline-source\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eFrom the book\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eContamination\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"dek\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\n\u003ch2 data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eYour grass may be greener than your neighbor's, but at what price?\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cimg data-ll-status=\"loaded\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/dark-side-of-the-american-lawn.jpg?resize=1024,683 1024w, https:\/\/www.rd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/dark-side-of-the-american-lawn.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https:\/\/www.rd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/dark-side-of-the-american-lawn.jpg?resize=768,512 768w, https:\/\/www.rd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/dark-side-of-the-american-lawn.jpg?resize=568,379 568w, https:\/\/www.rd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/dark-side-of-the-american-lawn.jpg?resize=760,506 760w, https:\/\/www.rd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/dark-side-of-the-american-lawn.jpg?resize=600,400 600w, https:\/\/www.rd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/dark-side-of-the-american-lawn.jpg?resize=380,254 380w, https:\/\/www.rd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/dark-side-of-the-american-lawn.jpg?resize=15,10 15w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" height=\"427\" width=\"640\" alt=\"dark side of the american lawn\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/dark-side-of-the-american-lawn.jpg?fit=640,427\" class=\"size-large wp-image-148500 aligncenter lazyloaded\" loading=\"lazy\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-src=\"https:\/\/www.rd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/dark-side-of-the-american-lawn.jpg?fit=640,427\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"credits-overlay\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"image-credit noskim\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eYASU+JUNKO FOR READER'S DIGEST\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"dropcap-first-word\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eO\u003c\/span\u003en a beautiful April day, I decided to meet outside with my students at the University of Delaware, where I teach journalism. We sat on the central lawn between two buildings that just happened to bear the names of two gargantuan chemical companies: DuPont and Gore. In the middle of a conversation about agricultural pesticides, a groundskeeper, dressed from feet to neck in a white chemical suit, drove by us on a mower. He wasn’t cutting the grass, though; he was spraying it. And not from one nozzle, but from half a dozen. Up and back he went, describing parallel lines as neat as those in any Iowa farmer’s cornfield. Not a blade escaped the spray. This became a perfect teaching moment.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e“Who’s going to ask him what he’s spraying?” I asked my students. One young woman marched over to the groundskeeper. He turned off his engine, they spoke, and she returned.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e“He said he’s spraying 2,4-D,” she said. “He said we didn’t need to worry, because he sprayed where we’re sitting at five this morning.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eWhich would mean about seven hours earlier. My students chuckled uneasily. He was wearing a full-body chem suit, and they were sitting on the grass in shorts and bare feet?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThey’d never heard of 2,4-D, or 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid. But they had heard of Agent Orange, the notorious defoliant used in Vietnam, and 2,4-D, one of the most extensively used herbicides in the world, is a constituent of Agent Orange (it did not cause the bulk of the devastating effects associated with Agent Orange). It was developed during World War II, mostly as a weapon to destroy an enemy’s rice crops. Despite its history, 2,4-D has long been seen as safe for consumer use.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eIn the 1940s, botanist E. J. Kraus of the University of Chicago fed five and a half grams of pure 2,4-D to a cow every day for three months. The cow was fine, according to Kraus, as was her calf. Kraus said he himself had eaten half a gram of the stuff every day for three weeks and felt great. This was apparently good enough for the rest of the country; within five years, American companies were annually producing 14 million pounds of the stuff. By 1964, the number had jumped to 53 million pounds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv data-nativo-placement-id=\"1095008\" id=\"article_nativo1\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eToday, annual sales of 2,4-D have surpassed $300 million worldwide, and it’s found in “weed and feed” products, like Scotts Green Sweep, Ortho Weed B Gon, Salvo, Weedone, and Spectracide. At first, its impact on humans seems mild—skin and eye irritation, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, stiffness in the arms and legs—and many lawn-care companies have dismissed health concerns. Plus, the businesses add that the amount of chemicals in sprays is very diluted.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e[pullquote] With 80 million home lawns and over 16,000 golf courses, you get close to 50 million acres of cultivated turf in America. [\/pullquote]\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBut the effects are more worrisome when considered over time. Because 2,4-D is designed to mimic a plant’s natural growth hormone, it causes such rapid cell growth that the stems of treated plants tend to become grotesquely twisted and their roots swollen; the leaves turn yellow and die; and the plants starve to death (2,4-D does not have this effect on grass).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eUnsurprisingly, 2,4-D also appears to affect human hormones. The National Institute of Health Sciences lists it as a suspected endocrine disrupter, and several studies point to its possible contribution to reproductive-health problems and genetic mutations. Although the EPA says there isn’t enough evidence to classify 2,4-D as a carcinogen, a growing body of research has begun to link it to a variety of cancers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eA 1986 National Cancer Institute (NCI) study found that farmers exposed to 2,4-D for 20 or more days a year had a sixfold higher risk of developing non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Another NCI study showed that dogs were twice as likely to contract lymphoma if their owners used 2,4-D on their lawns.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eLike flame retardants, this compound also tends to accumulate inside people’s homes even days after the lawn has been sprayed. One study found 2,4-D in the indoor dust of 63 percent of sampled homes; another showed that levels of the chemical in indoor air and on indoor surfaces increased after lawn applications. After 2,4-D was sprayed, exposure levels for children were ten times higher than before the lawns were treated—an indication of how easily the chemical is tracked inside on the little feet of dogs, cats, and kids.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThanks to pressure from campus activists, my university replaced 2,4-D with “softer” herbicides and began putting signs on lawns that had just been sprayed. Of course, 2,4-D is one of scores of pesticides in use. According to David Pimentel, professor emeritus of entomology at Cornell University, 110,000 people suffer adverse health effects from pesticides every year, and 10,000 cases of cancer in humans may be attributable to pesticide exposure.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv data-nativo-placement-id=\"1118520\" id=\"article_nativo2\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThe Greening of America\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"dropcap-first-word\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eI\u003c\/span\u003en 1900, 60 percent of Americans lived in rural areas. Today, 83 percent live in cities or suburbs. With that change has come an astonishing shift in the landscape. Over the past half century, Americans have become obsessed with grass. When you add up the country’s 80 million home lawns and over 16,000 golf courses, you get close to 50 million acres of cultivated turf in the United States, an expanse roughly the size of Nebraska. This space is growing by 600 square miles a year.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBy 1999, more than two thirds of America’s home lawns had been treated with chemical fertilizers or pesticides—14 million by professional lawn-care companies. A year later, the U.S. General Accounting Office reported that Americans were spraying 67 million pounds of synthetic chemicals on their grass every year, and annual sales of lawn-care pesticides had grown to $700 million.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThe landscaping trucks rolling through our suburban neighborhoods seem to represent something more than a communal desire for lush grass. Could it be relief from anxiety? (Why else call a company Lawn Doctor?) For one thing, hiring lawn-care specialists is a public declaration that you have the money not to take care of your yard yourself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eDiligent lawn maintenance and chemical use are also associated with approval and social status, Ohio State researchers reported in 2012: “The main factor influencing a homeowner’s decision to use lawn chemicals is whether neighbors or other people in the neighborhood use them. Homeowners crave acceptance from their neighbors and generally want their lawns to fit in with their surrounding community, so they adopt their neighbors’ practices.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eWe also create manicured lawns to play the most chemically dependent of pastimes: golf. By 2004, there were just under 15,000 golf courses in the United States—a patchwork of chemically treated turf the size of Rhode Island and Delaware combined.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eEven grass seed comes coated with chemicals. A close look at a bag of Scotts grass seed reveals it has been treated with Apron XL fungicide, whose active ingredient is Metalaxyl-M, or methyl N-(methoxyacetyl)-N-(2,6-xylyl)-D-alaninate. The bag requests that the product be stored away from foodstuffs, kept out of the reach of children, and not be applied near water, storm drains, or drainage ditches. (A Scotts spokesperson says that its products are designed to be safe when used as directed.)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv data-nativo-placement-id=\"1118521\" id=\"article_nativo3\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eAs the use of chemicals has become widespread, lawn companies have found an unexpected source of profits. Herbicides like 2,4-D preserve grass but kill weeds like clover. Clover, however, pulls nitrogen out of the air and fixes it in the soil. Without clover, soil becomes nitrogen poor and fails to support plant life. So chemical companies now replace the depleted nitrogen, which homeowners used to get for free from clover, with synthetic nitrogen, for which they have to pay.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eIn America’s watersheds, nitrogen runoff is considered among the worst problems for water quality. Since synthetic fertilizers are water soluble, a good amount runs off your lawn after a rain, where it mixes with runoff from other homes and ends up feeding the plants in bodies of water. Doused with chemicals, algae grow and grow, creating “algae blooms” that—as they decay and die—suck most of the oxygen out of rivers, lakes, and bays and lead to massive “dead zones,” in which neither fish nor plants can live.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eIn 2007, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation published a report card on the bay’s health that showed just how much trouble chemicals can pose. The bay received an F for nitrogen pollution, a D-minus for phosphorous, an F for water quality, an F for dissolved oxygen, and a D for toxics. On a scale of 100 (with 100 being the best), the bay’s health was rated at 28.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eIn California, scientists are discovering that algae blooms off the coast not only remove oxygen; they also release a toxin, domoic acid. It enters the food chain when fish eat algae, then moves into the sea lions that consume the fish. If a sea lion is pregnant, her fetus can be contaminated, and years later, that mammal may develop epilepsy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eOne Man’s Chemical Conversion\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"dropcap-first-word\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eP\u003c\/span\u003eaul Tukey knows about pesticides; the man who invented 2,4-D was a distant cousin. When Tukey was a kid in the late 1960s, his grandfather hired a biplane to spray his 300 acres of fields in Maine a couple of times a year. The fields were mostly planted with cattle feed, not with crops intended for human consumption. For Tukey, spraying day was a thrill.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e“My grandfather would go out in the field, dressed in his wool underwear and thick heavy pants, and wave the biplane over his field,” Tukey recalled. “They’d drop this white powder, and he’d get back in the truck looking like Frosty the Snowman. Then we’d drive to the next field, and he’d do it again. My grandfather was getting doused 20 times a day, but he would never let me get out of the truck. I always wondered why I couldn’t go out and get dusted.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv data-nativo-placement-id=\"1118522\" id=\"article_nativo4\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eTukey’s grandfather died of a brain tumor at 60.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eTukey also followed his family’s agricultural tradition but charted his own course. For years, he operated one of southern Maine’s largest landscaping services and considered his job ideal. He worked outside in shorts and sandals. He never bothered with putting on protective gear.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eIn 1993, he started getting nosebleeds. His vision became blurry. But with business booming, Tukey was too busy to worry. One of his jobs was tending the grounds of a hospital where he hired university students for the work. One day, their professor, an eminent horticulturist named Rick Churchill, came by to say hello to his students. Tukey went out to greet him.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eChurchill’s eyes were focused on the weeds, which Tukey’s crew had doused with herbicides and which were curling up and turning brown.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eChurchill said, “I asked him how anyone in good conscience could be applying pesticides on the grounds of a hospital where there were patients being treated for cancers that could be linked to their exposure to pesticides. I asked whether he knew anything about the toxicity ratings of what he was applying and how dangerous many of these compounds were to an individual compromised by illness.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThe words cut deeply. “It was devastating,” Tukey told me. “In Maine, Rick Churchill is an icon.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e[pullquote]“You have broken bags of poison,” Tukey told the manager. “They all say, ‘Keep out of reach of children’!”[\/pullquote]\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eTukey did some reading, and what he found was troubling. Pediatric cancers in Los Angeles had been linked to parental exposure to pesticides during pregnancy. In Denver, kids whose yards were treated with pesticides were found to be four times more likely to have soft-tissue cancers than kids whose yards were not. Elsewhere, links had been found between brain tumors in children and the use of weed killers, pest strips, and flea collars.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eTukey also learned that exposure to lawn chemicals was particularly alarming for people who spread them for a living. One study showed a threefold increase in lung cancer among lawn-care workers who used 2,4-D; another found a higher rate of birth defects among the children of chemical appliers. When he finally went to the doctor for his rashes and deteriorating eyesight, he learned that he had developed multiple chemical sensitivity. And his son—conceived in 1992, during the height of Tukey’s use of synthetic chemicals—was diagnosed with one of the worst cases of ADHD his physician had ever seen. (Several recent scientific reports suggest that toxic chemicals may play a role in ADHD.)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e“All the evidence indicates that you don’t want pregnant women around these products, but I was walking into the house every single night with my legs coated with pesticides from the knees down,” he said. “Even when my son was a year or two old, … [he] would greet me at the door at night by grabbing me around the legs. He was getting pesticides on his hands and probably his face too.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv data-nativo-placement-id=\"1118523\" id=\"article_nativo5\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eTukey’s Breaking Point\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"dropcap-first-word\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eI\u003c\/span\u003en the midst of his research, Tukey was driving one day when he saw a sign: A store was having a big sale on Scotts Turf Builder. Tukey made a beeline. He was going to buy the store’s entire stock. Once inside, he walked to the lawn-care section. Tukey noticed a woman standing by the lawn chemicals. At her feet, a girl was making sand castles from a broken bag of pesticides. Suddenly, something in him burst—the DDT squirting over his grandfather’s fields, the chemicals that he’d sprayed outside the hospital, and now a child in a pile of pesticides.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eTukey told me, “I said, ‘Ma’am, you really shouldn’t let your child play with that. It’s not safe.’ I’m fundamentally shy, but this just came out of me.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThe store wouldn’t sell the stuff if it wasn’t safe, she told Tukey. She took her child and walked away. A manager came up and asked him if there was a problem. Tukey said there was.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e“You have broken bags of poison on the floor,” Tukey said to the manager. “All those bags say, ‘Keep out of reach of children’!”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThose labels are there because of government formality, the manager said. The stuff isn’t dangerous. The store wouldn’t carry it if it was.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e“That really was the stake in the heart of my chemical career,” Tukey said. “By then, I’d already made myself sick. I’d already been questioned by Rick Churchill. When I saw that girl making sand castles out of the pesticides, [there] was just a sudden gut-level reaction I couldn’t have anticipated. I was shaking when I left the store.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eTukey issued a decree to his employees: His business was going organic. It was time to start weaning his company—and customers—off synthetic chemicals. Most clients were fine with his decision, just as long as it didn’t cost any more and as long as their lawns continued to look the same.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eMore than 170 municipalities in Canada have banned lawn pesticides, especially on public spaces like school yards and sports fields. Denmark, Norway, and Sweden have banned 2,4-D. In 2009, the European Parliament passed laws banning 22 pesticides that can cause cancer or disrupt human hormones or reproduction.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv data-nativo-placement-id=\"1118524\" id=\"article_nativo6\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eHow to Bring Back Butterflies\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"dropcap-first-word\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eC\u003c\/span\u003eertainly, switching to a less toxic lawn company can reduce your family’s—and neighbors’—exposure to synthetic chemicals. It would also reduce the pollutants you contribute to the watershed. But there is another option, one that gets into the more inspiring realm of restoration. There is a way to think of your yard as more than a burden that needs to be mowed and weeded. There is a way to think of your yard as transformational, even magical. Doug Tallamy can show you how.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eWhen Tallamy, former chair of the entomology department at the University of Delaware, walks around his yard, he sees things most of us would not. He can look at a black cherry tree and spot the larvae of 13 tiger swallowtail butterflies. He has planted scores of trees: sweet gums, tulips, white oaks, river birches, and sugar maples. But he’s really interested in bugs and birds—and boosting their numbers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eSuburban development has been devastating to avian populations. Most of the birds we see in our yards are probably house sparrows and starlings, invasive species from Europe. If you study the population numbers for native birds, you’ll find the wood thrush is down 48 percent; the bobwhite, 80 percent; bobolinks, 90 percent. An estimated 72 million birds are killed each year in America by direct exposure to pesticides, a number that does not include baby birds that perish because a parent died from pesticides or birds poisoned by eating contaminated insects or worms. The actual number of birds killed might be closer to 150 million.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eIn mid-Atlantic gardening circles, Tallamy is a bit of a prophet, his message freighted with both gloom and promise. It is the promise of ecological renewal that he most wants people to understand. His vision is based on three ideas: If you want more birds, you need more native insects; if you want more native insects, you need more native plants; and if you want more native plants, you need to get rid of—or shrink—your lawn.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eTallamy says that when we wake up in the morning to birdsong, it’s often being made by hungry migratory birds that may have just flown 300 miles. What is there to eat? Too frequently, ornamental trees that bear none of the insects the birds need—and chemically treated grass. Tallamy’s prescription: Put in native plants that will make your yard a haven for caterpillars, butterflies, and birds. In the mid-Atlantic region, this can mean swamp milkweed, butterfly weed, buttonbush, joe-pye weed, and a rudbeckia species like black-eyed Susans. At the University of Delaware, Tallamy and a team are restoring native species to the campus.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eAnd me? I ripped up 20 percent of my lawn and planted two flower gardens, two sets of flowering shrubs, and seven vegetable beds. Now my daughter helps me pick eggplants, tomatillos, okra, and Swiss chard. My son can identify not only monarchs and tiger swallowtails but also which plants they like to eat. How? Because last year the butterflies were not here, and this year they are. We replaced the grass, which monarch caterpillars can’t eat, with native flora they can consume. It’s as simple as that. Milkweed and joe-pye weed were born to grow here. All you have to do is plant them and wait for the butterflies.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv data-nativo-placement-id=\"0\" id=\"article_nativo7\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eWise Moves for a Lush Lawn\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e1. Get tested.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e“Spending money on fertilizer without a soil test is just guessing,” says Paul Tukey. Good soil is key to a great lawn, and a soil test can tell you what’s in the dirt and what’s missing. For a test, call your county extension office (a national network of agriculture experts).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e2. Plant clover with your grass.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eClover competes with weeds and fixes nitrogen in the soil. John Bochert, a lawn and garden specialist in York, Maine, recommends a seed mix of white clover, perennial rye (it germinates quickly), fescue, and bluegrass.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e3. Mow high, and leave the clippings.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eTaller grass provides more leaf for photosynthesis, develops deeper roots, and resists weeds. The clippings act as fertilizer. “Lawns mowed at four inches are the most weed-free,” Tukey says. “If you did only one thing, adjusting your mower height would be it.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e4. Cut back on watering.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eFrequent watering leads to shallow roots, so “water once a week if at all,” says Tukey\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e5. Apply compost.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e“Weeds need light to grow,” Tukey says. “Spreading compost on a lawn in the spring prevents weed seeds from germinating.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e6. Listen to weeds …\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e“Weeds are nothing if not messengers,” says Tukey. “Dandelions are telling you the ground needs more calcium. Plantains are telling you the ground is too compact and needs aerating.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e7. … and to insect\u003c\/strong\u003es. Beneficial nematodes, which are microscopic worms, eat some 200 species of insects, including grubs that become Japanese beetles; you can buy them from farm and garden stores. Mix them in water, and spray them on your lawn.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv data-nativo-placement-id=\"0\" id=\"article_nativo8\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eEdgar Allen Beem,\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003efrom\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eDown East\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"s1\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eFROM\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan class=\"s1\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eCONTAMINATION\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"s1\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eBY MCKAY JENKINS, PUBLISHED BY AVERY, AN IMPRINT OF PENGUIN PUBLISHING GROUP, A DIVISION OF PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE LLC. COPYRIGHT © 2011 BY MCKAY JENKINS.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Deblen the Tree \u0026 Turf Doctor","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42103192846518,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/www.deblenthetreedoctor.com\/products\/dangers-of-chemical-lawn-pesticides-fertilizers","provider":"Deblen the Tree Doctor","version":"1.0","type":"link"}