This is old news by now – I’m surprised Jeff hasn’t pounced!!
Minnesota man accidentally kills entire lawn with herbicide
Sadly, the dead lawn ruined the plans for a charitable fund-raiser, also.
Lots of eye-rolling and sassy comments out there (from "duh" to "d’oh!") berating the guy
for not reading the label. Actually, my first reaction, too (RTFM, as
my Lt. Col. father would say.)
But it’s not so easy sometimes. I was trying to make out the fine print on the
silly peel-off, accordion-fold label on some Spinosad the other day and
it was impossible. Finally gave up and looked up the application info on the interwebs. Not sure if that was the issue, but tiny, tiny print is a huge pet peeve of mine, so I’m comfy laying a bit of blame there.
There is, however, readable print on the front label – the words "non-selective" and "glyphosate" and "grasses" are large enough for even a blind squirrel like me to read. And I don’t know what on earth to think about the garden center employees who "helped" the poor guy.
(Another option: don’t get so worked up over weeds, says she with the
turf-like substance consisting entirely of anything but grass. But hey,
it’s green.)
I think every year I did MG clinic, at least one person would come in and ask what to do about spreading casaron on the lawn instead of fertilizer. Blame it on not wearing reading glasses to fertilize!
I was in Home Depot a few months back and a lady came in complaining that her husband had sprayed her vegetables with a persistent insecticide that ruined her produce. I told her her to contact Clemson about using the soil next year. Also I mentioned this is the time she could get all new bedding material, compost etc and the hubby couldn’t say a thing!
Anything green that doesn’t have stickers makes good lawn in my opinion. And if it does have flowers (e.g., dandelions, violets), so much the better. I’m growing a garden, not a golf course.
Should have been labled:
“Use Only On GMO Lawn Grasses”
–
That label has a lot of double speak! Its a bit confusing and I can see a gardening newbie buying it.
I’m no fan of either lawns nor herbicides, but I actually agree with the poor fellow that that label isn’t clear. Round
Up at least says explicitly “Weed and Grass Killer” in large, friendly letters on the front of the container.
Holly, What you have is a “Freedon Lawn” as defined by the Lawn Reform Coalition (www.lawnreform.org) I have one as well.