# Playing in the grass (fertilizer)



## livinlovinlaughin (Mar 23, 2010)

I'm not sure if this is the right place for my question...

I told my hubby no fertilizer in our yard unless it is organic. He doesn't want to spend the extra money. If anyone knows of a thrifty organic/natural/non-toxic lawn fertilizer, bug (chiggar) controller, or weed killer for the lawn please share.

My main reason for posting is this: I feel that my yard will be safer for my child to play in because of my choice. Now I am worried about him playing on other lawns that are swimming in year round treatments. I know they say keep kids/pets off the lawn for a day or something but that is just not safe enough for me. Does anyone else think about this? Since I told my hubby he couldn't put the crap on our yard he asked if we would let our child play at in my parents yard. What is a mom to do. I do not feel like I need to shelter him. I know to wash his hands but should I change his clothing too? Seems crazy I know. Any thoughts?????


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## Oubliette8 (Apr 15, 2009)

I worked at a lawn and garden store for awhile. While fertilizer is not my specialty, I wanted to point out that being natural or organic does NOT mean a product is non toxic or safe I've had customers ask me if their pet could eat organic lawn treatment for instance because they thought organic=safe. This is NOT the case. Plenty of natural and organic things are very toxic.

Even with organics you'll want to research them- for instance one product- Milorganite, is an organic nitrogen fertilizer. It is also made of processed sludge from the Milwaukee Waste treatment plant.

For bug control, you might look into natural bacterias and nematodes. It will depend on exactly which bugs you want to kill what products you use. Spinosad is a bacteria based insecticide that kills a wide range of pests, but it is also ineffective on others. Another product on the market is called Milky Spore- if you have Japanese beetles, this is a bacteria that ONLY targets their grubs. It is expensive initially and takes a year or two to seed your lawn, but then it is effective for 10-20 years. Another idea is nematodes. I've heard of them being used to control fleas in peoples yards, but am not well versed in what other species you can get them for. You order live nematodes and then release them into your yard where they multiple and consume the targeted pest. You may also be able to find pesticides that use citrus or peppermint oils. Neem oil is also an effective pesticide.

For herbicides- citrus oil will kill some plants, and is available in commercial preparations.

One thing to keep in mind is that in general, organics are more labor intensive than chemicals. They may need to be applied more frequently. And treatment may need to be repeated.

One other thing to think about is the location of your yard- if you are that concerned about lawn chemicals, you should consider how much run-off your yard is exposed to from neighbors etc. Even if you use all organics, if you live in an area with heavy rain and your down hill from a lawn treatment loving neighbor, you can expect your yard will still be exposed.

Do you have a good local garden center near you? Or perhaps an agricultural extension office? Those would both be places to ask these kinds of questions. Some garden centers are not very helpful, but others have wonderful, highly knowledgeable staff. It wouldn't hurt to ask around and see if you have a resource like that near you, especially since they'll be most familiar with local soil types, grass species, and pests which can be very important- what is suitable for one species of lawn grass may not be for another, and what works well in one soil type may be completely useless in another.


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## leighi123 (Nov 14, 2007)

I dunno about fertilizer, but there are some plants you can plant to keep bugs away (it worked great in our garden)
Ds is allergic to all sorts of chemical stuff so we dont use fertilizer (the grass looks fine other than where the dog dug it up!)


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## livinlovinlaughin (Mar 23, 2010)

Thank you so much for the great info. I just saw Milorganite in an ad and started investigating...finding exactly what you said. Never realized organic/natural is not always non-toxic. Thanks for pointing it out. Chiggars are my main concern in my yard as far as bugs go. You made another great point I had not thought about, we do live on a hill. Our neighbor next to us going uphill does not treat his yard but yards on the other side are treated. I wonder how far and fast it will travel.

We plan to go natural (no treatments) for our yard. As far as worrying about run-off iinto our yard and other outside areas... what to do?







What do other mothers do? Do you let them be kids and play in the dirt and grass or keep them out? How much do you worry what effect it will have on them? What precautions are enough? Just washing hands? Washing all exposed skin immediately after playing outside? Change clothes? I am new to this. I would love to hear what others do or think about this issue.


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## mama2soren (Feb 12, 2009)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *livinlovinlaughin* 
What do other mothers do? Do you let them be kids and play in the dirt and grass or keep them out? How much do you worry what effect it will have on them? What precautions are enough? Just washing hands? Washing all exposed skin immediately after playing outside? Change clothes? I am new to this. I would love to hear what others do or think about this issue.









What can you do? Even if you lived in an isolated place and knew your yard was 100% chemical-free, you'll want to go to parks or to friends' homes, right? We remove shoes at the door, wash hands with soap, and figure that spending plenty of time out of doors is about the best thing we can do with our kids. I'm a pretty "toxin-conscious" person, I would say, but I won't let that get in the way of enjoying free play in the dirt.


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