If you decide to incorporate an edible garden into your landscape, be sure you’re not the only one who knows about your new endeavor. If you are, you may emerge from your home with the same great disappointment as I did today. The lawn fellow sprayed my bright tender greens with insecticide.
Shudder, chills, mutter, groan–the horror!
But yes. Alas, it’s true. My sweet wonderful landscaper put an end to my glorious edible salad bed landscape, shown here in the foreground of my rosemary hedge. It’s not his fault. I didn’t label it as edible landscape. I didn’t advise him I was cultivating foodstuff around the house. I merely amended my soil with compost and worm poop and assumed (yes–I know what that stands for!) that he would know that it was new growth.
Yet he mis-identified my tender green sprouts as weeds. But with nothing else to do–you can see my lawn is a barren wasteland of frost damaged grass–he decided to spray the perimeter for weeds. Under normal circumstances I’d be celebrating, but today?
Not so much. So please, take a word of advice from a woman who knows: communicate with the man (or woman) whose job it is to care for your grounds. You’ll be glad you did.
As for me? Next time I’ll be sticking big, broad, conspicuous white plant labels in my newly planted edible landscape! No sense in risking it, right?
Not a chance.
I’d like you to consider that herbicides persist in the soil. They also can kill benefitial insects that would otherwise protect your garden from pests. Please consider that anywhere herbicides have been sprayed in the past, they can easily make their way into the foods that you eat. I respect your decision to use herbicides in and around your garden, but I would be concerned if you plan to plant edibles anywhere you’ve sprayed herbicide in the last 5 – 10 years.
Perfect. 🙁 Now I’ll have to plant flowers in this location. Who eats flowers!?!?!?!?
But thanks for the info — safety FIRST!