The Inconvenient Truth on Your Lawn Chemicals
The inconvenient truth isn’t just limited to the global warming scale. You don’t need to look too far for your own lawn may be exhibiting it without you really noticing it. Your green dream for your lawn may propel you to take the easy way out and inject your landscape with as much pesticides as you can. But are you really aware of what these pesticides can do to you, your lawn and your pets? The inconvenient truth has long been shelved in lieu of taking the easy way out and yielding green grass in the shortest possible time. After all, that’s what you often see advertised frequently.
Before we head off to discuss the chemicals and how they affect your lawn, let us first understand how your natural lawn exists when it is free of chemicals. Much of the sustenance of the grass relies on the soil. The soil has a natural acidic pH level, and is balanced by beneficial microorganisms that live in your lawn. Insects such as the ladybug, the ground beetle, wasps, fireflies and spiders, together with your friendly earthworm help cultivate the soil and balance that pH level for you. It is out of healthy and well-watered soils that deeply established roots emanate from. But this doesn’t come naturally. It takes a lifetime of love, attention, maintenance and patience on the part of the lawn owner to be able to reap such lovely fruits of labor naturally.
Today, most of the lawns you find are disease-infested and not really the epitome of the green, green grass of home. In come pesticides, so-called quick fixes that “help” you achieve that green soil without hassles and trouble. The pesticides do make your lawn appear greener, and this may be visually appealing to you. But you’ll find that beneath that lovely green exterior lies untold horrors that caused severe detriment to you, your environment and your lawn, with unpredictably long-term repercussions you may not be prepared for.
The chemicals that claim to rescue your lawn actually impede the natural scheme of things in your lawn. For one thing, chemicals affect the pH of your soil. This leaves the beneficial insects with nothing more to do, and more inhalation of supremely harmful chemicals to their biological make. You will find that the natural ways of your lawn in fighting off weeds and disease are now minimized. This will further make your lawn more dependent on the chemicals to survive. You will have to inject more chemicals to produce the same lovely green effect on your lawn.
Now the evil of pesticides doesn’t just go to your lawn, but it extends further to humans, animals and the environment. That is the greatest inconvenience that chemicals cause. While it was designed to help the lawn, it backfired on other elements of the environment. The nitrates and phosphates in pesticides cause algae blooms in the lakes and ponds. This causes a great decrease in the oxygen levels of the water. Most lawns rely on freshwater sources for watering. Now, if oxygen levels decrease, it also affects the water in lakes and ponds. What’s worse, the vapor from pesticides pervades in the environment– weeks, months or even years after it has been placed on your lawn. This poses a great risk and makes your entire area prone to unpleasant diseases and repercussions that pesticides have been discovered to cause.
Adverse health effects have been directly linked to the use of pesticides. Over the years, it has been noted that those who are living in agricultural areas are more prone to a host of unpleasant diseases such as asthma, cancers, birth defects, infertility among males, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Parkinson’s disease, ADHD, and fatal deaths, among many others.
All hope is not lost, however. There are fertilizers which aren’t as harmful as these chemicals. Mineral fertilizers are more able to cultivate the natural ways of defending your lawn from unwanted elements. Organic means and soil testing kits serve as barometers which help you get to the root of the problem instead of relying on chemicals for the shortcut.
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