Question
QUESTION: In response to your question, I used Scotts?Turf Builder?With PLUS 2?Weed Control.........did I cause harm?  I sure hope not!  Please give me your thoughts.  Thank you so much for your time!
ANSWER: Yes, I can see this is going to be a busy summer.  Did you save your receipt?  You, Amanda, are the first official Scotts Problems customer.  See the Scotts website:

http://www.scotts.com/index.cfm/event/ProductGuide.product/documentType/product/

where you will find the company line on what grass should NEVER come into contact with this Scotts product.

First, the good news.

Fortunately, the product you used is based on 2,4-D and MCPP... NOT the Atrazine in their 'Professional' formula.

If you had St Augustine Grass, you would be giving your lawn its last rites.

But this formula, while banned in numerous states because it is incredibly poisonous, is guaranteed not to burn Bermudagrass.

You may simply have a case of Blase Bermudagrass, common in Spring, and almost always cured by paying more attention to your lawn.

I would like to say here that you must pay the right kind of attention.  But most people are like you.  They see all the Scotts products on the shelf, and it all looks so plain and simple.

Bermudagrass, by nature, needs regular aeration and topdressing.  That's the way to keep it from getting compacted and making your Bermudagrass happy.

It will never be THAT happy, however.  Because putting 2,4-D on your lawn is wiping out anything alive in the soil.

But that's nothing compared to what it's doing to you and anyone who comes in contact with that grass.

Remember, it is illegal to sell anything made with 2,4-D in MANY states.

Actually, 2,4-D is considered one of the safest herbicides on the market.  

But if you took a lifesavers-size vial of 2,4-D and rubbed it on the skin of 4 kindergarten children, it would kill 2 of them.

They don't have to drink it.  They just have to touch it.

If you want a beautiful Bermudagrass lawn, I can help you do that without anything made by Scotts.  It will be cheaper, simpler, and much prettier than any grass you grow with Agent Orange (which was based on 2,4-D).

Meantime, see the Texas Coop Extension Service page on Bermudagrass (http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/plantanswers/turf/publications/bermuda.html) which will give you a lot of advice about invigorating your Bermudagrass with overseeding and other treatments it probably needs.

Keep in touch.  Thanks for writing.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: First and foremost, I would like to say thank you for your time and assistance.  In the previous e-mail, you mentioned that you could help me to have a beautiful Bermudagrass lawn without using any Scott's products and it would be cheaper, simpler, and much prettier than any grass you grow with Agent Orange (which was based on 2,4-D).  Could you tell me what it is?  Also, will this product keep down the weeds?  Once again, thank you for all your help!


Answer
Excellent question, Amanda.

Years ago, when they invented 2,4-D, Malathion and other herbicides, it all looked so easy.  Those products were state of the art, back in their day.  Lots of Research and Development money was committed to making life easy and error-free.  Dupont's slogan at the World's Fair in 1963 was Better Living Through Chemistry.

It took time before people began to realize that these chemicals had side effects.

So the answer for a while was to warn people to be careful when using them.  State and Federal governments passed laws that made those printed warnings mandatory.  There was a minimum size of the letters in the warnings to make sure people COULD read them, to make sure they were visible and not too small.  The most dangerous chemicals had to put a Skull and Bones to really drive the point home that you HAD to be VERY CAREFUL when 'handling' them.

But I, like most people, figured those 'warnings' were a mere liability buffer.  A big American company would not sell me anything that was REALLY hazardous to my health.  I didn't personally know anyone who was getting sick from Malathion.  It wasn't like I was drinking the stuff.  It wasn't like I used it constantly.  Besides, these products were effective.

So over the years, I paid little attention to warnings, I did not wear gloves when handling, I did not take any of them seriously.  Through the years, I heard stories describing the health problems of ordinary people who lived across the street from these Fertilizer factories, or who worked on their assembly lines; these people had weird, incurable, sometimes fatal diseases, their bodies poisoned, their blood and livers a chemical waste dump.  By the time I was a parent, it was clear to me that if you can't pronounce it, it probably is not good for you.

When I was in high school, Photosynthesis was still a mystery.  No one knew exactly how a plant made energy out of sunlight.  Today, we know that and a lot more.  We can trace isotopes in the soil, we can watch molecules glide through roots and phloem and xylem.  We understand so much more about our grass and our gardens than we ever understood before.

So you want to know: 'will this product keep down the weeds?'

Weed control is a major Lawn issue.  Yes, 'this product' does that, and it does that better.

If you pour Scotts Weedkillers and Grubkillers on your grass, you don't just kill weeds and grubs.  You kill 80 to 100 percent of the Earthworms.  You kill highly specialized bacteria and fungi that your Grass NEEDS and weakens without.  Along come the Bad Fungi, and you have a case of Dollar Spot and Red Thread and everything else.  For that, Scotts has Funguskiller.  Now your Grass is lost.  Unless you feed it constantly with instant water-soluble N-P-K -- which is impossible -- it gets weaker and weaker.  More Weedkiller is needed.  The Grass things.  You feed it Nitrogen and Phosphorous to build roots and Iron to rev it up.  All this is costing you money.  And your Grass is now a chemically dependant, helpless swath of turf.

This doesn't begin to address the health problems of the people who mow this lawn, or the pets who fetch the Frisbee, or the children who play tag.

Now that you have applied one of those Scotts products from the Dark Ages, you are headed in the wrong direction.

It would be so easy.  If you could only stop having those powders and liquids applied.

First:  Don't put any more down.

Second:  Make sure your Bermudagrass is mowed faithfully, all summer long, at the correct height.  Simply mowing at the right height is pro-grass and anti-weed.  I'll send you the links to studies that prove it.  Just ask.

Third:  Water faithfully all summer long.  Not constantly.  Faithfully.  Pay attention to the grass.  If it is dry, water it.  If it is not dry, don't water it.  That will avoid Fungus problems that are lurking on your lawn due to the Scotts that you have applied.  It is also pro-grass, anti-weed.

Fourth:  Encourage birds to visit.  Get a birdbath.  Hang up a birdfeeder.  Keep it stocked with birdseed.  Keep water in the birdbath.

Spray not.  It hurts the birds.

You want birds because they're Nature's natural grub controllers.  And they sing.  They're wonderful.

Fifth:  Write me if you have any more questions.  I'll answer them honestly and as quickly as time allows.  Any odd problems, write.  At the very latest, you should write to me in August.  It will be time to prepare for autumn.  There are things to do.

This is easy, and it's a good way to live.  You don't have to like Tofu, and you don't have to eat Granola, and you don't even have to be anti-fur.  And you don't have to listen to any flakes, Amanda -- sure we have flakes in this business, but they're everywhere.

You just go with the flow.

Weeds can be biologically manipulated and controlled.  Science has come a very, very long way in 50 years.  We know so much more than we used to.  It's amazing.

Best of all, we can use all that science in our own gardens and lawns.  You don't have to be a Chemist to know how to bake a cake.  And you don't have to be a Microbiologist to grow a lawn.