Pesticides are everywhere: Here's how to reduce your yard's chemical footprint
Pesticide applications can result in dead fish.
December 6, 2024
Coming from a family involved in real estate for decades, I have always believed that good development should be synonymous with sustainability.
Our first home was a rundown 1792 stone farmhouse in Pennsylvania on 50 acres of neglected pastureland. During our 28-year tenure, we planted more than 2,000 trees, built a pond and added vegetable gardens, perennial gardens and an apple orchard. We planted corn and hay, and raised horses, sheep, goats, chickens, guinea hens, turkeys, ducks, dogs, cats and four children.
We cared about the environment because it was our backyard. We never used chemicals on our lawns, gardens or crops because our kids rolled in the grass, we brought flowers into the house, and we ate the vegetables we grew. Our chickens slept in the barn but wandered around the rest of the time — we didn’t know to call it “free range."
The kids collected the eggs, which were kept in a woven basket on the countertop. We fertilized the gardens with manure from the horses and compost from leftover produce, and garden clippings. Every fall we raked enormous piles of leaves for the kids, and these were later used as mulch. Our apples had worm holes but tasted delicious and lasted for months. Fields were rotated between corn and hay, and fall cover crops were tilled over in the spring. This is now coined “regenerative farming,” but it was just the way things were done; commercial fertilizers and chemicals were expensive and unnecessary.
We planted native white pines, spruces and oaks because they were readily available and we wanted evergreens as well as deciduous shade trees. We didn’t know the importance of native plants back then, but we did appreciate the hundreds of birds that serenaded us throughout the year and the thousands of twinkling fireflies that lit up the summer nights. Families of barn swallows returned to the same nests every year, keeping mosquitoes at bay with the help of hungry bats.
Kim Frisbie had beehives in Pennsylvania and shared the honey with her neighbors.
We had four beehives, which kept us and our neighbors in honey. But most importantly, our kids could play on our lawns, which were mostly clover, could build forts in the hayloft and treehouses in the oaks, and eat fresh asparagus, snow peas, lettuce and strawberries right out of the garden with no worries about chemicals.
Now I live in Palm Beach with eight small grandchildren, and we are hard-pressed to find places where we aren’t breathing chemicals.
The Lake Trail has become a toxic nightmare: on any given day, one of many “environmental” companies is applying pesticides containing the neonicotinoid Imidicloprid, to the numerous ficus hedges lining the trail. This systemic carcinogen kills any insect pollinator, bee or butterfly that lands on a leaf, stem or flower.
Companies spray regardless of wind direction or speed, although labels clearly state that these are not to be used if wind is blowing above 5 knots. If the wind is coming from the east, unsuspecting walkers and joggers are often the recipients of the sprays, which are especially harmful to small children in strollers and pets on leashes. Lawns and grass areas are coated with fungicides and fertilizers, which kill the essential microorganisms in the soil before leaching into the Intracoastal Waterway, where they are toxic to fish.
A more efficient Food and Drug Administration would have banned these chemicals long ago, as they are in many other countries.
If you avoid the trail, you are still besieged with chemicals applied to properties throughout the island. Few homeowners appreciate the dangers of pesticides and fungicides, especially when environmental “technicians” declare that their lawns and landscapes will perish without weekly chemical applications.
We need to understand the devastating effects to our kids, our pets and ourselves. Since there is little to no regulation of these chemicals on our island, it is up to us to educate ourselves and our neighbors, and to stand up for a clean environment.
I wrote last time about the importance of real organic farming vs. conventional agriculture. Since the early 1900s, fertilizers have been promoted as essential to soil health; pesticides and fungicides have guaranteed healthy plants. But after a century of aggressive use of these chemicals, we are learning that crop yield is less productive, crops are less nutritious and cancers and neuro-related disease are on the increase.
Fertilizers deplete soil micronutrients essential to plant health, while pesticides deplete the surrounding ecosystem of essential pollinators and predatory insects. Conventional agriculture, using chemically treated crops grown with genetically modified seeds, is not sustainable.
Real organic regenerative agriculture prioritizes healthy soil, biodiversity and sustainable ecosystems to ensure crops contain the highest level of nutrients. As organic matter from green manure and low tillage cover crops is incorporated into the soil, more nutrients become available to the plants, translating into healthier produce for animals and people.
Organic is a self-perpetuating system that can last forever. Sadly, the USDA has become less restrictive in its organic labeling, allowing chemicals, plastics and antibiotics to be incorporated into what it labels “organic.” Unless you know your farmer, and buy the Real Organic label, you cannot be sure of purchasing truly organic products.
If you want to reduce your chemical footprint, a great start is to plant more native trees. Replacing ficus hedges provides an opportunity to introduce beautiful, diverse specimens into your landscape. This will also enable you to cancel your “environmental” service as you’ll no longer worry about white fly infestation.
Here are some ways to cut down on the chemicals
Cinnamon bark trees produce red berries that are loved by birds.
Cinnamon bark, Canella winterana, is a stunning specimen tree, which also makes an exceptionally elegant hedge. The deep evergreen foliage gives off a wintergreen fragrance when bruised, and brilliant clusters of orange red, white and purple flowers appear intermittently year-round. These are followed by red berries that are loved by birds. Fast growing, salt and drought tolerant, cinnamon bark does well in sun or shade, reaching an ultimate height of 25 feet. It’s a great plant for any landscape.
Cinnamon bark makes for good hedges.
Florida boxwood, Schaefferia frutescens, is a dense multi-stemmed small tree (to 20 feet) perfect for screens and hedges. Highly salt tolerant, this is invaluable near the coast in sandy soil, doing well in sun or part shade. Bright red berries bring in numerous birds.
Simpson Stopper makes beautiful white flowers.
Simpson stopper, Myrcianthes fragrans, is one of our best native trees, as a specimen or in a dense hedge. With mottled ornamental bark and glossy deep green foliage, this tree also produces fragrant fuzzy white flowers followed by decorative orange berries. It tends to be dense and shrub-like in sunny locations, taller and looser in shade. Birds and pollinators love it, and you will too!
Simpson Stopper, Myrcianthes fragrans, is one of our best native trees.
Finally, Spicewood, Calyptranthes pallens, is a wonderful, adaptable hedge plant that is too rarely seen. Small fragrant white flowers appear in spring followed by edible berries, which ripen from orange to black. Glossy green leaves open pink and have a spicy aroma. Birds are fond of the fruit and find shelter in the branches. This is the larval host plant for Bahamian swallowtail, giant swallowtail and Schaus’ swallowtail butterflies, another great reason to add this to your landscape! Growing to 20 feet, this does well in sun or shade and is happy in damp soil.
The concept of sustainable development is just common sense. Adding more diverse native plants to our landscapes and eschewing chemicals is essential to creating a healthy environment for everyone.
-Kim Frisbie
Original article on the Palm Beach Daily News is HERE.