Female Mallard
(
Anas platyrhynchos)
This adult female
Mallard has been frequenting our backyard likely in search of a suitable nesting site. While she seems be enjoying her stroll through the lawn and I love her visits, I cannot say the same thing about grass. Sorry folks but I am a grass hater in the form of a pristine, green, outdoor growing, carpet. I can say that even though we
laid sod last year as a quick fix before hosting a large outdoor event. Don't get me wrong, grass does have some uses like preventing ground errosion and ground cover but for the most part, the way grass is used is not environmentally friendly.
We are so used to seeing perfectly manicured, chemically dependent, expanses of green lawn. A considerable amount of money is spent to keep them looking that way using fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, copious amounts of water without even considering the environmental impact of maintaining lawns. People pay a huge amount of money to kill dandelions in their yards yet will pay to buy dandelions for their salads. Does anyone see the irony in this? People are complaining about the rising cost of food yet instead of vegetable gardens they have a well manicured yard. Does anyone recall
victory gardens? During WWII the government encouraged urban citizens to plant backyard gardens to provide their own fruits, herbs and vegetables, something rural folk had been doing all along. Preserving the bounty from the garden was a high priority as well. A small patch of yard can provide a surprisingly large amount of food instead of grass, something many have already realized.
Quebec introduced it's
Pesticide Management Code in 2003 with the final phase effective in 2006.
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty announced his
pesticide ban for the sale and cosmetic use of pesticides on Earth Day to go into effect 2009. More than
300 pesticides, herbicides and fungicides will be banned under this legislation including products like Round Up, Killex and Weed 'n' Feed affecting lawns and gardens. Farming and forestry operations will be exempt from the ban as will pesticide used for healthy and safety concerns. This announcement has sent some residents into a stock-piling mode for these pesticides as stores have already started pulling pesticides from their shelves. However, since the ban includes the
use of for cosmetic reasons some of these folk will likely get themselves into a bit of hot water. The City of Toronto has begun fining up to $5,000 to people using pesticides and guess what, neighbours or anyone can easily file a complaint that someone has used a pesticide. I doubt the manufacturers are very happy about this new ban. What this ban will do is if force property owners to use organic methods for weed control. However, folks against the ban say that this will force property owners to do more mowing as a means of control, something that will increase CO
2 emissions. Compounding the problem is many municipalities have noxious weed control bylaws in place so it is up to the property owner to remove the noxious weeds on their property or the municipality will enter the property and remove them at a cost to the property owner along with in some cases a fine.
What really needed is a paradyme shift of public attitude to see that instead of grass there are other low maintenance, environmentally friendly ground covers and at least part of any property with a lawn should be used to grow fruits and vegetables.Personally, I
agree with the pesticide ban but I don't think M
cGuinty went far enough. I think he should have banned grass used for cosmetic reasons aka lawns. There are so many other maintainence free ground covers that could be used in place of perfectly manicured lawns. The problem is when some people have replaced their lawns with wildflowers or other suitable ground cover, municipalities have waved their little fingers under the property owner's nose, slapped them with a fine and told them to rip out the ground cover and replace it with grass. Heaven help the environmentally friend homeowner who has to deal with a home owner's association! M
cGuinty should encourage the citizens of Ontario to use low maintenance ground cover that does not need mowing. Just think of how much we could reduce our carbon emissions just by not mowing grass. He should encourage and even provide an incentive for every citizen in the province to grow a modern day version of victory gardens!
Happy Gardening!
Garden Gnome
©2007