There’s no magic solution
What’s been done
Weeds have become the common enemy although they are just unwanted plants. Still useful and growing just unwanted in specific spaces during certain times. So how did we go from weed management to spreading poison? And what are some long term solutions that can help grow our perspectives on what a solution to weeds can be.
Roundup, a common household garden product in the U.S. has been linked to cancer, effects on the reproductive system and development. The only reason it’s still legal to use is because a large monopoly of a company owns the product and they’re product was legally approved in the 70’s using results from a testing facility that was later proven to be scientific fraud. Roundup is also a product now owned by Bayer, One of the largest pharmaceutical companies and biomedical companies in the world. Meaning they make money selling the poison and then make money selling the medicine for the poison.
Now how can we grow from this to create a healthier environment for ourselves and our children. Since any chemical herbicide with glyphosate can and has caused cancer, reproductive issues and inflammation, what can we use instead? Well there are natural ways to visually design a garden to be pleasing without using poison on unwanted plants. For Example if you don’t like hand weeding then you can mulch twice a year. It’s in a plant's nature to grow forever and that's a blessing now being seen as a curse.
The change we can steward
Before spreading poison consider looking up the plant to see if it’s edible and medicinal. If you just don't like how it looks mulch over it with wood chips, cardboard or pine straw. If you're on a larger scale consider looking into how your practices may be causing more weeds to grow because of tilling up old weed seeds. Another method is laying a tarp over an affected area for a while before cover-cropping it to suppress weeds, nitrogen fixing cover crops will improve your soil health while suppressing weeds.
Overall a garden full of abundance is no place for poisons. Remember that the earth keeps us alive and thriving so whatever we do to harm it will in turn harm us and those around us.
