Weedkiller Season Again
It's summer and the sprayers are out again. Every year it's the same thing. People see lovely new growth and decide that the best thing to do with it is to spray it with weedkiller. It's a strange reaction because the weedkilled area looks terrible for months, and then a selection of the most aggressive weeds comes along when growth remumes again. There is no reasonable argument for it, yet for some strange reason it appears to be part of 'looking after one's property'. It's expensive, ugly, dangerous to your health, poisonous to animals, soil, water insects, labour intensive....
In any case, garden centres have the opportunity - and even the responsibility - not to sell weedkillers. A garden centre selling weedkiller is akin to a doctor selling something that makes you ill. Garden centres should be life affirming places that deal with growth, not with death. Sure, weeds grow in gravel, verges and edges grow fast and need dealing with, but herbicides are an unfortunate blip in the world of gardening: a bit like people saying that smoking was healthy in the early days.
As gardeners or farmers, or anyone responsible for any outdoor space, we each have the responsibility for our own little bit of land. Collectively it all adds up to the what we call the world - that's if you include public spaces, roads, parks, woods etc. Weedkillers get everywhere, poisoning plants and animals, including humans. They are not necessary, least of all in gardening. Farmers find reasons to spray their land with herbicides and insecticides, with disastrous results for wildlife and their heath. Gardeners have no excuse; gardening is done ostensibly for pleasure. Although our gardens may be small on an individual basis, collectively they cover huge areas. Furthermore, the treatement of our personal plot should be symbolic of our attitude towards the greater world. Here in Ireland, where green is our national colour, we should remember this: our national colour is not burnt orange-brown. Using any form of poison in a garden negates the purpose of gardening. It's sad that the 'authorities' use weedkiller with abandon. County Councils such as DunLaoghaire Rathdown haven't cleaned the blocked road drains around our Monkstown shop in years, nor swept the pavements for that matter, yet they diligently send out a crew to douse the pavements in weedkiller every summer.
Well, there's the annual anti-weedkiller rant over ansd done with for another year. I hope that one day it won't be necessary. I hope that more garden centre owners will stay on the side of gardening and of the natural world. I hope that people will regard their own plot as a small part of a tiny whole, all of which needs to be treated with respect.
Unless they want a bowling green, it's difficult to see how this brown-yellow collection of dead plants is preferable to some mown or strimmed greenery. The perception that any plant other than grass is a weed is still prevalent in Ireland..