Yard Fertilizer and your Pet.
My question is this, does anyone know if there is a pet friendly chemical free product for your lawn? We have a home owners association that are strict about your yard. |
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| I've never seen a claim one way or the other; however, I do not use more than basic lawn fertilizer, no long residual, no added weed, disease, or preemergent, and always water the product in before they are allowed back on the grass. I have so-so grass at best due to infestation of grubs (there is an organic control but I'm too lazy to use it), invasive weeds and of course the dog damage. It doesn't matter to me. I'm not in a HOA........LOL, in fact I'm one of the few with a lawn, period. If you went with safer fertilizer is might be cottonseed meal or other "organic" fertilizer (sheep manure??). |
| I'm sorry about your dogs and the cancer. While I don't have data for or against, it's my personal thoughts that it likely does cause health issues. We don't use any fertilizer or other chemicals on our lawns, gardens, fruit trees at all. apple trees  side lawn w/ agility stuff  garden  Oh, in our land of snow....it was GREAT going back and looking at green stuff!! |
| The only fertilizer we use is milorganite. Don't use it in the dog area because they think it's the best stuff they ever could roll in. |
| Okay Got Sheep, can we come and live with you??? Love your yard, garden and fruit trees. Not a chance in hell we'd have that here without fertilizer. |
We ALL want to live with Dawn.  Dawn, you have a gorgeous property!I'm sorry that cancer has affected your babies.  My OES-mix had kidney tumors at age 11 so I know how hard it is. And we too have a real lumpy girl... she's 13. We've had the lumps aspirated and a few removed... they're all fatty tumors so far.We don't use any fertilizers, pesticides or lawn chemicals. We do reseed in the spring and fence off areas while it's filling in and water, water, water. A pack can do a lot of damage to the lawn but by early summer, it's looking better. http://oesusa.com/Page271.html Very minimal household cleaners too... homemade laundry detergent, no softeners. There are so many chemicals nowadays. |
| We all want to garden and farm on Dawn's place! I can't imagine the top soil she must have............actually, I'd like to see top soil..period. In my agronomy classes I'd see soil profile pictures with top soil......they were all fake as far as I have had personal exerience. Our "top soil" is what ever blew in the last dust storm. |
SheepieBoss wrote: We all want to garden and farm on Dawn's place! I can't imagine the top soil she must have............actually, I'd like to see top soil..period. In my agronomy classes I'd see soil profile pictures with top soil......they were all fake as far as I have had personal exerience. Our "top soil" is what ever blew in the last dust storm. And I believe I may have an "in" when it comes to moving up to MN to live with Dawn... Hey, some times it's good to be a breeder  I don't use anything on my lawn either for fear of chemicals with the dogs. It sure as heck doesn't look like Dawn's though! Fortunately my neighbors are OK with less than beautiful. In your situation I bet you wouldn't be the first dog owner to be concerned and ask the lawn service about what they're using - maybe they have a "dog friendlier" approach to suggest if you push them a little? Kristine |
Yes, I do have the jackpot where soil is concerned.  I grew up a couple hour's drive to the north, and while it's OK, it's nothing as good as this. I came down here for college. On the 1st college visit I thought it must have just rained..the soil was that dark! Sad thing is, people around here still dump tons of chemicals and fertilizers on their lawn and gardens....they have fallen into the clutches of all the big advertising, apprently. We make a very real effort here to use as little as possible chemicals in our life...in and out of the house. I personally have a huge cancer risk in my family - it's what literally everone on either side has died of for generations. I've already had squamous cell skin cancer. Minimizing risk is one thing I can control.....  |
Quote: The only fertilizer we use is milorganite I can remember in the not too distant past Milorganite (Milwaukee's finest) was considered too dangerous for home use where kids may play top it and Never/Ever for food gardens. All due to high metal content. It's rolling around in my near empty mind the product has been changed to be less dangerous. |
| I remember researching canine cancers during Chloe's illness last year. The EPA states that 60% of pesticides are carcinogenic. And of the dogs diagnosed with canine malignant lymphoma, 30% lived in homes with commercial lawn treatments at least four per year. As previously mentioned, chemicals are unhealthy. |
| I used to use the Scott's 4 treatment system on my lawn. As soon as we got Brick, I stopped. I don't know if the chemicals cause disease but why would I want to find out? So my lawns didn't look as good as they could, but a healthy dog was WAYYY more important than a weed free lawn. They do make all natural, non-toxic fertilizers now. I think I read they're something like cornmeal. Not sure though. Also don't know if it works. But I would definately stop treating your lawn with chemicals. For your dog's sake. |
| Yep, corn based weed preventers. Garden Alive has them. Changed out some sprinkler heads today since MO uses them as WaterPiks during the summer, they were well chewed...brass. So had to try them out...........IF I can brush out all the mud MO picked up in her water play today, she's getting scissored tomorrow. Still too early to give her the beloved fuzzy greyhound look...though I serioiusly doubt we'll be getting moisture......haven't this year. The yard is for the dogs! If or when we don't have dogs, I'll repair the lawn. |
| Thank you for your posts. I spoke to an number of lawn services yesterday. There are organic products that they use but it doesn't have weed control. I care more about my dogs than my yard. I will likely go the organic route for now and aerate and over seed a couple times a year to thicken up the grass so weeds can't grow. I use very little chemical in my home. I am a 2 year breast cancer survivor so I know all about chemical carcinogens etc.. |
   We don't use chemical's either. We lay grass seed every spring (and don't allow the dogs on the lawn for a week afterwords...scared of the grass seed getting stuck in their paws). As long as it's green and plush I don't care what kind of grass it is...or weeds. Awe...spring! |
| I do know milorganite doesn't hurt the lawn or gardens. It may have been changed don't know about that. We don't use it in the dog pen but you can dump the whole bag in one spot and it won't burn. We need something here in order to get a lawn established as all we really have is sand. We do overseed in the spring and sometimes in the fall and it is filling in nicely. |
| What do you guys use to overseed in the spring?? Grass type. |
| we use a perennial that's made for this area and white clover because it roots better. Get ours from the feed mill in town so really don't know the name. |
| Oh man... great pics!!! Now I have SPRING FEVER too! |
SheepieBoss wrote: Yep, corn based weed preventers. Garden Alive has them. We own a landscape company. I'm convinced that any chemical on the grass or dirt is harmful to any living being. This year my yard will be entirely organic. I compost my yard in the early spring (can be done in late fall too) along with aeration and a good dose of corn glutten. In May I use the Garden Alive "Wow Supreme" for fertilizing. The flower beds are fed organically and weed prevention is from the same company. I use a soap base weed killer. To control bugs in the dirt I use milky spore and nematoads (sp). So far, so good. However, nothing is going to help grass stay in perfect shape when 12 thunder paws trample it on the way to asult it with pee and poop. |
| Yep, nematodes for grub control. Worked on project to test them. Early a.m. application as they can't take sunlight, must slide down wet blades, plus hopefully they are alive when you apply them..........but they work as well as chemical pesticides. (I was doing IPM work for the university) Corn gluten is amazing. Remember I'm doing at least 1 acre.....so all too expensive. Also WOW gets great reviews. Do you carry YumYum Mix? Yep, it's those paws that compact the soil, far more damaging than urine. |
We are a chemical free house as well. Our weed control method is me  . I find it very relaxing to get out there with my bucket and weed digger and just go to it. I also over seed in the fall and early spring.Front yard  Side yard  Back yard   |
| ^^^Ooooo, aughhh, that looks lovely. |
| Such beautiful yards!! I am sooo ready for spring. |
| I'm ready to see green. We haven't had moisture since.........November??...I know not since January. Add to it the Feb 2 sub zero drop, already you can see dead plants around town.......sigh |
Oh my.  I live in an area where we have well over 100 golf courses. In the "fall" (September through early October) they do something called "scalping" to all the golf courses and everyone's lawns. The scalping is a process where they mow the grass down to the dirt and overseed with a lawn seed that will make those luscious green lawns that we value in our "winter". The result is a lot of turf debris in our air. During that time, it is so toxic that we have an significant amount of respiratory distress. I am not a person allergic to anything. The "scalping" season is something that I just cannot tolerate. All that crap in the air insures I will have a nasty case of bronchitics shortly thereafter. And I have no allergic reactions to grass in any form. They have yet to seriously deal with this locally, but it seems pretty clear that the chemicals used in turf maintenance at the level we do it here is detrimental to most of the population. That is a long anecdotal story to tell you that I think the chemicals to maintain beautiful turf is toxic. My dogs and I travel until the scalping is completed and my back lawn (where the dogs hang out) is never touched by the gardener. If that stuff causes respiratory problems for people, imagine walking on it. I guess I look at it this way.... would you put Round Up anywhere your dogs could walk through it and then lick their paws? While every turf builder is not as toxic as Round Up, why risk it? Do you really care about your lawn that much? And it was in the high 80s here today. I miss 68 degrees. My sheepie blew her undercoat this week.  |
| I do use Roundup as it ties quickly to the plant and when it contacts the soil, it binds....doesn't move until degraded. (I do have a concern over certain sheepdog who graze but fortunately they are not interested in the weeds I'm killing) BUT......it is applied in the evening when the dogs are in and not running over the ground. Our dry environment dries the product quickly. I prefer it to any other herbicide including the horticultural vinegar which is too acidic for dog paws, only works on annual weeds (which should be hoed out anyway). The scalping season sounds just awful! Rather like burning season in the Everglades.....or our "control" agricultural fires here where farmers burn off winter weeds and the fires escape often into the bosque (forest) along the river. |
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