Trugreen doesnt keep your yard green, it just kills things

Today started out good, nice and cool in the morning, slight breeze, some thunder in the distance but just a few drops of rain. Lots of folks, including me on occasion, complain about summers in Florida, but it does have it's magical qualities: dew on the banana leaves, weird mushrooms popping up all over the yard, and the constant cleansing of the thunderstorms among other things. I got some much needed weeding done, planted a couple butterfly plants, and while I was goofing off in the yard the Trugreen "ChemLawn" truck pulled up across the street. I hate Trugreen and for the life of me, can't figure out why anyone would want to spray highly toxic chemicals in their yard. So I went over to the Trugreen guy to ask.

Me: Hi, I notice you have a picture of a big Dalmatian on the side of your truck. I'm just curious, is this stuff you're spraying safe for dogs?

Trugreen Guy: Well...They say you're not supposed to have pets or children on it until it dries.

Me: What about adults?

TG: (perplexed look) Them too.

Me: So what's with the big Dalmatian on the truck?

TG: I'm not sure, cute I guess...

Me: Do you think it sends a message to folks that the stuff your spraying in the yard is safe for pets.

TG: Well, it's safe after it dries but I wouldnt go rolling around in it. (laughs)

Me: It looks like it's going to be wet all day today, how does that affect this stuff you're spraying?

TG: Well, it's going to take longer for the stuff to seep in...

Me: The pesticide?

TG: Yes.

Me: Does Trugreen kill all pests equally like ladybugs and butterflies?

TG: It doesnt discriminate.

I chitchatted with the guy for a little bit because he seemed nice enough. Moved down here from Boston, just doing his job, but I made it pretty clear I was skeptical of the chemicals and when he got down to spraying I made a hasty exit. Much to my surprise, the dude comes stomping on in my open back gate five minutes later in his chemically soaked boots to give me his card.

"Hey, if your interested, give my boss a call for a free lawn analysis."

The chemicals must've gotten to this guy's brain. How the hell he could surmise that I might possibly be interested in his toxic product after our conversation I'll never know, but now he was in my yard dripping with the shit.

"You know I eat these things?" I ask, pointing to the squash and papaya trees. "The roots go under the grass and if you sprayed my yard with chemicals the roots would suck it up and it would go into the fruit and then i would eat it."

It took a second for that to sink in.

"Well, give us a call, we might have something that can work for ya."

"Get the hell outta my yard!" I thought. But I didn't say it because I'm too nice of a guy, But I did lead him the hell out of the quickest exit as far away from any edibles as possible. Some folks might think I'm paranoid, which is true, but check this out:

Barry was a professional turf master, and the chemicals he worked with may have mutated his sperm or poisoned the infant in utero. Every time Jackie washed her husband's uniforms, the chemicals may have been absorbed through her skin and permeated the placenta. The child was born with a severe and fatal type of dwarfism. Jackie held her son only once before he died due to massive failure of his underdeveloped organs.

and

Kevin Ryan from Arlington Heights, Illinois, feels like a prisoner in his home. "I can't even play in my own yard because the neighbors spray their lawns and trees", he says. Kevin suffered routine chemical exposure as a toddler from lawn spraying, and now suffers nausea, irritability, fatigue, and loss of memory whenever pesticides are nearby.

and

Christina Locek was a professional ice skater and pianist before her health was destroyed in 1985, when a her neighbor s lawn was sprayed with pesticides. Her cat and dog died that same day, and she suffers headaches, partial paralysis, vision loss, and blood disorders.

There's a host of other pesticide horror stories here. One last spooky thing: I went to the TruGreen website and read this:

"The law does not allow anyone to claim that pesticide ingredients are "safe." All substances (including those found in products we consume daily, e.g. caffeine in coffee, aspirin) are toxic/hazardous at some dose, but present little risk at the intended or recommended dose."

Hmmm, Just as safe as a cup of coffee, eh?

From the National Coalition for Pesticide-Free Lawns:

Of 30 commonly used lawn pesticides, 19 are linked with cancer or carcinogencity, 13 are linked with birth defects, 21 with reproductive effects, 26 with liver or kidney damage, 15 with neurotoxicity, and 11 with disruption of the endocrine (hormonal) system.

April to July

I started out a little late for Spring gardening this year as I just moved into this house in April, but I had a bunch of stuff in pots just crying to get in the ground. I picked this spot in the side yard near the intersection on purpose. Curb appeal.

Here it is in July:
The only bummer so far about having this garden so close to the street is that some shitpipe came and stole my prize acorn squash while I was out of town.

dirt under the nails

Here's a place to document musings on successes and failures in gardening and attempts to cultivate some larger meaning from working with land and making things grow and eating them and how it relates to what's going on in the world in regards to food production, population, climate change, peak oil, and global and local politics. I've been gardening on and off for a few years in Florida but the idea to document it as some sort of political statement was largely inspired by the Edible Estates project by Fritz Haeg. Here's an excerpt:

Edible Estates is an attack on the front lawn and everything it has come to represent!

Edible Estates is an ongoing series of projects to replace the front lawn with edible garden landscapes responsive to culture, climate, context and people!

Edible Estates reconciles issues of global food production and urbanized land use with the modest gesture of a small domestic garden!

Edible Estates is a provocation, a call to arms and a radical intervention on the banal, repressive streets of zombie lawn-lined monotony!

Edible Estates is nothing new, growing our own food is the first thing we did when we stopped being nomadic and started being "civilized"!
Edible Estates is a practical food producing initiative, a place-responsive landscape design proposal, a scientific horticultural experiment, a conceptual land-art project, a defiant political statement, a community out-reach program and an act of radical gardening!

The Edible Estates project proposes the replacement of the domestic front lawn with a highly productive edible landscape. Food grown in our front yards will connect us to the seasons, the organic cycles of the earth, and our neighbors. The banal lifeless space of uniform grass in front of the house will be replaced with the chaotic abundance of biodiversity. In becoming gardeners we will reconsider our connection to the land, what we take from it, and what we put in it. Each yard will be a unique expression of its location and of the inhabitant and his or her desires.

I'm not a "dirt god," I just thought the name sounded cool. My first choice: Dirt Under My Nails, turned out to be already in use as a gardening blog. Lots of people have dirt under their nails it appears. And that's a good thing. But how many Dirt Gods are there? There's one more, as there always is on the internet, but I spell mine with 2 "t"s so don't get confused, not that anyone would as the other dirt god has nothing on his blog since he started it in 2003. But I digress...

I'm far from a gardening expert so if anyone comes across this I welcome input, advice, and comments. Part of the reason for this is to network with other gardeners and share stuff. Over the course of the next several months I'll be gardening at my house and with a group of students I work with at a community school. This is where I'll put down how it's going.