It's a new law passed by the provincial Liberals just a week or so ago. All chemical pesticides and fungicides are banned. By the way this does not apply to golf courses, just us ordinary folks. The big wigs have to have their perfect lawns to play their games you know.

Sure exempt them they are just one of the biggest polluters around. Makes my blood boil. Now don't get me wrong I use a lot of green products. It's the exemption that gets me.

Hey Gil,

Can't really comment on your post, just wanted to say Hi.

Sierra

Dammit! I think you mean provincial NDP by the way. I'm so POed right now, guess I will have to hit up the farm supply store and see if they can still sell it.

Hi Sierra! Missed you!

Hi Gil :)

Oilpainter, I believe, is referring to the Ontario Cosmetic Pesticide Ban Act. I hadn't heard that Manitoba has put such a law into effect. I hope not, cause I'm just next door and if they ban me and my little drop in the bucket compared to what the farmers spray every year - makes me want to get outta town when those crop dusters start flying.

Yes I should have mentioned it was the Ontario Liberals that legislated the ban.

GOLF COUSES ARE EXEMPT-- that is the part that gets to me. Golf courses where their excessive use of chemicals pollute our streams. It is a poorly thought out law that leaves the home owners with very few options.

Me too - no comment on the chems, just wanted to say hi and welcome back, Gil! If i used weed and feed on my lawn, there'd be none left because it's all weeds! LOL

Not sure if this applies to Alberta?
I'm pretty well green for some years already, if we want bees & nature back, this is a first step one can
make, in the meantime we're pointing fingers at golfcourses.
At my acreage the grass I don't treat anymore since I have honey bees for about 5 years now, I have
learned to accept and live with it, when you see a honey bee on dandelion or other weed it makes me feel good.

Konrad

I'm not chemical happy... I have never used Weed n Feed in my life - in fact I had never fertilized my lawn before last summer. But I have a really big lawn now, and it is infested with Creeping Charlie. It hops lawn edging and gets into my dianthus, and I can't control it manually. I just wanted to give it one shot of herbicide and see if it made a difference.

My DH says if we fertilize the lawn, the grass will choke out the CC. I'm concerned it's too shady for that to work. Aah what to do what to do.

Maybe Brenda or Laurie know where to get it? Brenda? Laurie?

Gil try your local UFA farm supply store, they should carry some.

There is a post in garden web on how to get rid of creeping charley in "ask the yard doctor". Someone suggested borax. Check it out. That might be your answer

Try carefully spraying vinegar onto the creeping charlie. Use cardboard to keep the spray contained; vinegar will make short work of most plants.

It's boneheaded banning Round-Up. It's totally safe for humans, and is rendered inert once it contacts soil. Ah well.

Borax stays in the soil for a couple of years, so whereever you spray it will remain lifeless for a while.

Shazam: I did a lot of reading on Round-Up last year. It does seem pretty safe and my personal opinion is to agree with you... but after about 3 weeks of research on the product I didn't find any solid 3rd party research on long term effects. Also, there is some wording that worried me from the manufacture on their product related to growing of produce on an area that has been sprayed recently.

Regardless I think a lot of fear of Round-up comes from how effective it is. In the end however, it is the way it completes it's task that has convinced me of it's safety. Even after using it on a big section of grass a couple years ago I'm still looking for more information.

Northspruce: As for lawn... Just my 2 cents on the topic http://sites.google.com/site/severegardens/resources/ground-cover/grass-and-clover

Oilpainter: I'm totally with you. I think it is crazy to make exempt some of the heavy users. I'm not a politician and I don't play golf so there is no sympathy. I do think this is going to happen over time as some places are enforcing separate By-Laws that do cover usage on golf courses and other commercial green spaces.

- Andrew

The MSDS for vinegar is a nightmare. It's also very effective - difference being that spraying Roundup in your eyes probably won't do anything, while getting 95% acetic acid in your eyes means you might go blind.

"Organic" pesticides are a marketer's dream.