Ahhhhhh, weed killer/garden!

[Highlandsunrise]

By accident, I mixed Scott's Turf Builder Plus II Weed Control into two of my garden boxes and planted the Fall vegetables. I thought it was the 16-16-8 we bought for the garden. (I'm not getting smarter with age). When I realized what I had done, I called both the phone number on the Turf Builder bag and the USU Extension Service and they both said the same thing. Pull up and destroy all vegetable plants and don't eat anything grown in that soil for one year. That means, I clearified, don't plant any food crop in that soil for one year from the day that particular weed killer went into the soil. That includes all my producing bean and cucumber plants. I am crying as I pull them up.

If it is that dangerous, I don't want to use it anywhere. Don't want DH to breathe it as he spreads it on the lawn. Holy Cow, I have been giving the grass clippings to the chickens!

[JayE]

That is good to know. Maybe I shouldn't spray Roundup on the weeds in my garden a few weeks before I plant.

[Highlandsunrise]

I have been told by sources that seem credible that Round Up is the only one that we should use on the vegetable garden. Commercial growers do use some kinds of herbacides on their crops but they employ professionals to manage the application because the wrong one at the wrong time can be dangerous.

[prairiemom]

I would never use Roundup for any reason, ever. First, I believe that Monsanto is in the "evil and designing men" category. Don't get me started on all the wicked things this company has done to destroy farmers, destroy the organic movement, control what we eat and manipulate prices. They will never get a dime of money if I can help it.

Second, it's dangerous. Even used correctly it is dangerous. Years ago I had some nasty perennial weeds that would not go away despite 3 years of digging them up. So I sprayed some Roundup on them. 15 min later my right arm was red and swollen. I mean really swollen. I called their number, they gave me all sorts of instructions. Apparently the wind had carried some of it to my bare skin and just the skin contact could have made me very sick. As it was I just got a topical reaction, but was told to watch for other symptoms for 7 days. SEVEN DAYS!!!

For weed control I love my hula hoe--it gets rid of weeds in a snap. One pass through the garden, the entire 40X40 garden is weeded in about 30-45 min. Then control future weeds with a layer of newspaper covered with grass clippings or weeds. After your garden is done, till this in and you won't need chemical fertilizer.

There are so many easy ways to fertilize and build healthy soil naturally that I've never used chemicals to do the job. I know the argument: plants can't tell the difference between nitrogen from a natural source and nitrogen from a chemical source. That may be true as far as the plant is concerned, but there are so many DANGEROUS chemicals used as binders and emulsifiers in that fertilizer and the plant (not being able to tell the difference and doing what plants do) takes it up into it's roots and then you eat that. It just doesn't sound good.

I just read an article that says that the nutrition content in our food has been declining over the last 50-60 yrs as we are using more hybrids, GMOs and chemicals in the food production. The food looks the same, tastes pretty much the same, weighs the same, still makes bread and goodies like it always has, but the mineral, protein and nutritional content has been dramatically altered.

[signseeker]

I think there's a book called Empty Harvest that talks about the declining mineral/vitamin/nutritional content of foods lately.

I don't like the chemical weedkillers, either. Especially with kids on the lawn all the time.