RE: hollyhocks/pest control
- To: "'perennials@mallorn.com'"
- Subject: RE: hollyhocks/pest control
- From: P* S*
- Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1999 14:09:26 -0800
Crabgrass can also be killed with a propane blowtorch (held above the plant
for about 10 seconds, until its edges begin to curl-- you don't need to
cremate the plant!) or with boiling water. It can also be hand-dug, if you
don't have too much.
One major help in educing lawn weeds is to have a healthy lawn (feed it,
water it correctly) and to leave the lawn fairly "long" so that weed seeds
cannot germinate.
Sue P.
SPesznec@lhs.org Milwaukie, OR.
> ----------
> From: Miller, Devon
> Sent: Monday, January 25, 1999 9:58 PM
> To: 'perennials@mallorn.com'
> Subject: 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.
>
>
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