RE: hollyhocks/pest control

I agree completely about pesticides.  What I sink to, occasionally, is
weed-killers for our lawn.  I just don't seem able to get rid of crabgrass
without it, and then it gets into the garden.  Any suggestions about how to
avoid herbicides?
 ----------
From: Pesznecker, Sue
To: 'perennials@mallorn.com'
Subject: RE: hollyhocks/pest control
Date: Monday, January 25, 1999 3:39PM

> We have the same experience but keep on trying. I think it is kind of a
> nostalgia thing as my grandmother raised such beautiful hollyhocks. I can
> remember her making such colorful little dolls out of the flowers. I know
> she did not spray them, they just grew kind of wild outside of her
> potting shed. I doubt if they used sprays on anything , their lone
> concession to pest control was dusting the tomatoes.
>
I'm with your grandmother.  I won't use any non-botanical, non-organic
pesticides-- I was forced to use rotenone once, and that's it.

In Tracy Di Sabato-Aust's wonderful book, "The Well-Tended Perennial Garden"
(many of you have talked about it), she makes emphatic comments about
pesticides.  She rarely uses them, feeling that they upset what should be a
natural balance in the yard.  She accepts the occasional loss of a plant to
insects or slugs, and almost never "treats" them with poisons.

In our yard, after three consecutive years of swearing off pesticides and
herbicides, we have seen the gradual return of beneficial insects and wasps,
Mason bees, praying mantises, lady bird beetles (e.g. lady bugs"), and tree
frogs, none of which were there when the yard was being sprayed with
chemicals.  We have also made efforts to welcome birds into our yard, with
feeders, etc., and have planted appropriate flowers to attract honeybees
from an apiary 0.5 mile down the road.  As these "beneficials" have
increased, our problems with insect and grub damage have plummeted.

Also, Milwaukie (where I live) sits virtually ON the water table, and I have
profound ethical feelings about not dumping chemicals into the soil that
will certainly leach into the ground water, going on to contaminate local
streams, rivers, etc.  But then, I lean heavily towards being a bleeding
heart environmentalist!  (I grow bleeding hearts [Dicentra], too!)

Sue P.


 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@mallorn.com with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE PERENNIALS

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@mallorn.com with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE PERENNIALS
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index