trader4 wrote:

Jim wrote:
Harry K wrote:
Jim wrote:
symplastless wrote:

To winterize or not to winterize lawn
snip

this is precious, simply precious

Yeah. I have seen that several times over the years and there is so
much truth to it. I see that the annual 'what to use to bag leaves'
threads have started over alt.home.repair. Even after they have been
told the simple way is to mow/mulch em, they still go on about buying
fancy equipment to vacuum them up.

Harry K

http://www.milkyspore.com/

I've been trying to move my customers towards organic methods.
triple shred, putting leaves through the shredder three times
produces some dense mulch. with the new and deeper understanding
acquired recently for how many of the selective herbicides and
insecticides as well as improper or incorrect applications of
nitrogen actually have a great negative impact on the environment
as well as the ground water, I've decided it is now time to make
some changes concerning how the suburbanites acquire and obtain
the lawns they desire.

in short, if the chemical bonds with the soil at the molecular
particle level then that chemical is removed from my list of
what is acceptable to use. the list is getting short.

Jim-

What difference does it make if any particular chemical bonds with the
soil at the molecular level as opposed to just going straight on to
the ground water or into lakes, streams via runoff? I'm not even
aware that chemicals are made to molecularly bond to soil to begin
with.

it's not that the chemicals were made to bond with the
soil, it is that they do. as for run off, there are
proper precautions one can take to minimize run off
the simplest of which is to adhere to the proper
applications rates. when chemicals such as herbicides
are applied within the correct rate the vast majority
of the chemical is taken up by the target plants and
never achieves run off status.

most people have no idea of how to calibrate an application
device so as to know their exact output. they have not sought
the training and therefore have no understanding for distance,
time, pressure or volume.

it was a good decision when the full strength chemicals were
placed out of reach of joe home owner...

organic is the total solution to the problem...
http://www.milkyspore.com/