Sustain Myself

We have been having problems with our lawn for about 6 months. It all started when the dog started to dig us a new Olympic size swimming pool. While I appreciated her efforts (as I would love a pool) I discouraged her from continuing as I knew this would be another of those doggie projects that she will start and never finish (She doesn’t have a great attention span.) Ever since I filled in the pool and with it, included some of her pooh to discourage her from digging in the same spot (which worked very well – no holes since!) we have started getting patches of dead grass all over the place! Small patches, big patches, patches that climb on rocks! Being a newbie to gardening, I just kept piling on the dynamic lifter, blood and bone and lawn ‘repair kits’ from Bunnings. The only thing that changed was the arrival of some strange, stringy grass species in the pool area…

(The pictures above are two sections of my lawn, only about 50cm apart)

So, after speaking to a few people at Flower Power (our local gardening shop) we seem to have Lawn Grub. Of course all the shops we talk to about treating lawn grub sell only toxic chemicals to treat the grub! These chemicals recommend you wear gloves and a mask to administer them and that children and pets should not come into contact with the lawn during treatment!

Ergh, I thought I was just going to have to let Baci keep digging the pool as there is no way we were going to treat our lawn with chemicals, I’d prefer it was gone. But alas, there are solutions! Lots of solutions! Why do these shops only sell the chemicals? I’d hate to know how many people have purchased these chemicals and applied them to their lawn and not kept their children or pets off it. And, even if they did keep them off, they will never know when (and if) it is safe to go back on the lawn! Why are people so quick to use toxic products as a quick fix?

It really concerns me.

In the meantime, I think I have decided to use Organic Plus on the lawn. Here are some quotes about it from Hortons Turf;

I’ve never seen a lawn killed by lawn grubs. Your lawn will recover quickly but if they bother you then use "Organic Plus" fertiliser with Neem and this will control the grubs but won’t harm the predators.

We use and recommend "Organic Plus" because it is environmentally friendly, slow release, has everything in it for most lawns and contains Neem to suppress lawn grubs. 40 grams per square metre 2 o 3 times a year is plenty.

So, after a few weeks with Organic Plus, I will post a follow up.

Also, how could I be angry at this…

Oh, and heres a picture of the Pecker Sisters… Just for good measure.