About the new regulations for the Chesapeake Watershed and its effect on lawn care

“New” standards for lawn care that may come as a result of enforcement of water quality rules might make it easier to care for a lawn and at the same time have a lawn that is safe for pets and small children.

In the Victorian times that many people have nostalgia for in Currier and Ives prints and such; lawns had tiny flowers. Violets and clover plants and even dandelions grew along with grass.

The chemical industry knew that the nerve gas they stockpiled in case it was needed for chemical warfare would, if used in smaller quantity, kill insects without causing much harm to humans. After WWII the chemistry used to produce nerve gas for chemical warfare was converted for insecticide, herbicides and chemical agriculture. At around the same time power mowers started to replace hand push mowers. A new lawn care industry was born and the old Victorian lawn standard began to fall to favor "modern" force fed lawns that looked more like outdoor carpeting than real plants.

If you are willing to accept a few tiny flowers, clover, in the springtime dandelions and also cut your grass long enough to have a leaf to produce the nutrients it needs and leave the cuttings in the lawn; your lawn will need no fertilizer or poisons to kill insects and weeds. Your lawn will be healthy and grow well mostly on its own. In my experience the Japanese Beetles will affect your neighbor's around you that use chemicals and ignore your lawn. Just check the ph and add limestone to bring it up if necessary.

The lawn care industry exists almost entirely for the purpose of selling petro chemicals. You don’t need to have the fake lawns that petro chemical industry says that you need.

And you can eat the dandelion in a salad; it won’t have harmful petro chemicals in it that were derived from nerve gas.


The Daily Local (dailylocal.com), Serving Chester County, PA
Lawsuit settlement to change rules, enforcement for local water quality
Changes expected in Chester County municipalities linked to Chesapeake Bay watershed
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
By ANNE PICKERING, Staff Writer