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Home / Living / Home & Garden
Apr. 30, 2022 6:30 am
There are lots of good reasons to use fewer garden chemicals in your landscape.
Note I didn’t say “going organic.” There are certainly a lot of good reasons to go 100 percent organic, but if you aren’t quite ready to commit to absolutely no store-bought garden chemicals ever again, consider simply cutting back their use. You’ll save time, money, and help the environment.
Terminology alert: “Chemicals,” per se, are not bad. Water is a chemical, for example. But for the purposes of this article, I will say “garden chemicals” to mean synthetic or inorganic fertilizers, pesticides, weed killers and treatments for plant diseases.
One of the most immediate benefits of relying less on garden chemicals is money. Between high demand because of the pandemic — when gardening was one of the few safe recreational activities we could entertain ourselves with — and supply chain issues, the prices of a number of popular garden chemicals have gone up.
Even in normal times, fertilizers, weed killers, pesticides and fungicides are no bargain. I can easily spend $50 for just enough synthetic fertilizer to cover all my flower beds for a one-time feeding. Of course, if you simply switch over to store-bought organic fertilizer, you might spend just as much or even more. But if you’re smart and rely instead on compost — what gardeners rightly call black gold — it’s practically free.
Another benefit to using fewer garden chemicals is time. Any reason I can find to not make yet another trip to the hardware or big box store is a good one. I hate spending even one hour of a beautiful spring day shopping, instead of gardening.
Of course, composting takes time as well. But it also saves time because it’s such an easy way to dispose of yard waste, such as autumn leaves.
But the best reason to use fewer chemicals is because it’s the smart thing to do for our health and the health of the planet.
It’s nice to eat beautiful homegrown lettuce, tomatoes, and other produce knowing they haven’t been doused in pesticides. It’s also a great way to feed children in your household.
Of course, there also are the additional benefits of less exposure to synthetic chemicals, some of which in the past have been linked to rashes and skin problems if they linger on plants and come in direct contact with you or children. Garden and agricultural chemicals have been in some cases linked to higher cancer rates and diseases like Parkinson’s.
Then there’s the impact on our environment. Each year, it seems, we find out new ways in which agricultural and garden synthetic chemicals are diminishing our bird population, our bee population, and polluting our water.
Then there’s the packaging. These garden chemicals take energy and create problematic waste and emissions in the manufacturing processes and transport. Once home, there’s the issue of properly disposing of the garden chemical. What do you do with a half-used bottle of pesticide, other than find a place that takes hazardous waste?
Convinced it’s time to use fewer garden chemicals? Here are some easy ways to get started:
Veronica Lorson Fowler is co-publisher of The Iowa Gardener website at www.theiowagardener.com.
John Steppe
John Steppe
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