TheMondayGarden.com

The Monday Garden, Eco-gardening at its best

April 17, 2005, Issue 160

The rosa multiflora and wineberry are leafing out in Hoyt Street Alley and the Japanese knotweed is coming up right through the parking lot pavement around the corner. There's garlic mustard, loosestrife, and mugwort, competing for space under the Asiatic bittersweet and porcelain vine which are climbing up the Norway maple and the ailanthus. Oye! What to do? And how do we do it without killing the native plants that we want to keep (and ourselves for that matter)?

picture: the Japanese knotweed (polygonum cusipdatum )sprouting just north of Hoyt Street Alley, Stamford CT April 2005

First things, first: Don't plant the bad stuff. Invasive plants got here because humans brought them, generally intentionally. There are plenty of enjoyable garden plants that don't do harm, and there are plenty of native plants that actually do good by thriving without artificial supplements, and by providing food and shelter for the wild ones. Really, you can at least try to live without euonymus and barberry!

TheMondayGarden.com, Eco-gardening at its best

April 16, 2006, Issue 202

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GOOD NEWS: Now you can get rid your lawn of weeds without chemicals or a backache. Indeed, it doesn't even cost much to become the envy of your neighbors. Not only that, your community group can help spread the good news by selling the product as a fund raiser!

This past week, I cleared the undesired broad-leaf weeds and the crabgrass from ¼ acre of lawn in an hour flat, leaving plenty of time to over-seed with new grass, weed the garden, and actually enjoy the spring flowers. Imagine that!

This "better mouse trap" of weed and invasive plant control, dubbed "The Dandelion Terminator" or the "DLT-100", is the invention of Ed Reed, a Montana carpenter. It is a special drill bit-like device that fits into the average electric drill and that effortlessly cuts the broad-leaf tap rooted weeds away just below the root crown, making it hard for the weeds to regenerate.

The DLT-100 costs $25 and change -- about the price of a ½ gallon or less of nasty weed killer. Further, there is no way that the DLT-100 can cause cancer or asthma, or result in dangerous chemical residues building up in your water or your lung tissue. The DLT-100 also totally selective -- you decide which plants to keep and to kill. Some may even find the DLT-100 so much fun to use that they'll be praying for weeds.

PICTURE: My mother, who normally doesn't operate an electric drill, having no problem taking out some fleabane.

I did two days of testing on untreated lawns that had plenty of "weed" samples. I found that the DLT-100 works even better than the inventor claims in that it handles a much wider variety of plants than just the broad-leaf tap-rooted lawn critters like dandelions and plantain. I also found the DLT-100 extremely easy and safe to use (but please, READ THE INSTRUCTIONS!).

Now, here's the even better part: anyone can use it, regardless of bicep circumference and mechanical inclination. And the guys love the DLT-100! In my second trial, at a friend's house, her husband tested the DLT-100 and was absolutely sold -- he's getting one pronto. So if you're trying to wean your man off the lawn chemicals, buy him a DLT-100. In no time, he'll be skipping the herbicides and encourage the weeds so that he can impress the neighbors with his very own Dandelion Terminator.