Toxic (a rant from my inner dryad)

[beetiger]

I got a postcard from a lawn service in the mail. This isn’t terribly unusual, as I do live in the suburbs, and have a lawn, and people often try to sell us services. But this postcard was sent in compliance with the New York State notification law, to tell me that our next-door neighbors are having something truly awful applied to their lawn next week, probably while I’m sitting at home recovering from amniocentesis. I’m not quite sure which pesticide or herbicide they are using, but everything I’ve heard of on the list on the card is damned nasty. And since the lawns are pretty much contiguous, I’m sure my lawn’s getting some too, probably now, in the fall when I wanted to collect the fruit from the trees in my yard, and over the next few years when Mothra would like to be out playing. So much for using my friendly dandelions for dandelion wine. I was in fact actually hoping to use my backyard some, this Memorial Day weekend.

SavaLawn “The Responsible Choice” (!) has conveniently included a card to fill out “to stop receiving these notices”, presumably by having them replaced with advertisements for their fine poisoning services.

Dandelions, violets, and crabgrass. I’m pretty sure these are the main undesirables that grow around here. We’re not farmers. There’s no crop. There’s no yield to be worried about. I’d forgive them if their house were infested with termites, but seeing as this is a lawn service, I doubt it.

I’m pretty sure these are the same neighbors who, two summers ago, left the nasty anonymous note in our mailbox accusing us of ruining the neighborhood. Arranging to have our lawn mowed had become low on the chore pile while I was not-quite-noticing that I was beginning a major depressive cycle, and apparently our house needed to be washed, too. I’m tempted to leave them a non-anonymous note about ruining the neighborhood by poisoning everyone, but I’m afraid of being harassed, or perhaps getting a reputation as a racist, since they are the only black residents on the street, and since generally pesticide application is acceptable behavior around here.

I hate suburbia.

Comments

[quoting-mungo.livejournal.com]

There is no chance you can talk to these neighbors and 1) ask them what it is they are poisoning against (that's a legitimate question!) and 2) explain to them what you would have wanted to do with YOUR lawn. It might not help this time, but with luck, they understand your point of view. If they get to put out poison now and keep you from using your lawn as you want to, by the time that poison's gone, you should, by my reasoning, be allowed to use your lawn for as long without them ruining it. Ick, poisons.

There are ways to make undesireables dislike where they are WITHOUT using chemicals.

Well... One can hope?


-Alexandra

[jenett]

My instinct is to suggest letting suburbia help, in this case...

If you want to try doing something to address this, I'd suggest calling/visiting the local library, and asking if there's any information on relevant laws or groups in town which are concerned about pesticide use, water quality, or hazards to children, and see if you can be put in touch with them. (The latter is the reason you want the local library).

From my own experience growing up in suburbia with a highish emphasis on lawn care, I know there were groups of that kind (well, at least by the 90s) and that while it might not resolve the immediate problem, might get you some more information or assistance.

[blink]

[bookwurm.livejournal.com]

Dandelions, violets, and crabgrass.

When on earth did violets become a "weed"?! I always thought they were a lovely wildflower. My parents grow them deliberately in the woody part of their yard, and the blooming of the violets is one of my big signs that spring is here.

Re: [blink]

[beetiger.livejournal.com]

I love the violets that grow in my lawn, personally. But I guess they aren't grass, so some people think they Just Don't Belong.

[redbird]

Can you go over and tell them that you understand they want their lawn to look good, but you're pregnant and concerned about the effects of the chemicals on your unborn child? And that you use the fruit from those trees, and spraying is bad for them, but you'd be happy to share some when it ripens? Because you are a farmer, or at least an orcharder, and there are crops.

Poison Poison Everywhere...

[tempralisis.livejournal.com]

We had a similar problem several years ago. Our neighbor (who believes that there are two natural shapes to bushes: sphere and spiral) decided to spray some nasty something all over his lawn. Both my brother and I have asthma (and grass poison is at eye level for our dog) so my mother politely requested them to stop, on the grounds that she couldn’t afford to have us die that particular weekend. This worked... although it took a little explaining before they understood.

-Tau

P.S. I didn’t realize that one could use dandelions for anything. I always thought they were there to add color to the lawn in the spring. And puffy things for kids to play with.