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poison is ....poison, period! Use it at OUR peril.
A necessary evil? Possibly! Accepting the status quo is NOT an option.
Weed free fields? Where does Mother Nature's children feed?
Is the Honey Bee the Canary in the mine, or is it the Monarch Butterfly?
I'm off the soap box now. IMO don't use any poisons."ray, where does mother nature's children feed in fields/cropland or backyards that provide nothing to sustain them? where is the benefit? it is up to us to provide the landscape/habitat that benefits/nourishes all living species, and in the circle is the plants, bugs, crustaceans, fish in our river's and streams, all birds and wildlife, and all insects. glyphosate herbicide such as Roundup, may be a necessary evil, but it is a 'tool' and without the proper/managed use of it to restore or provide plantings where once nothing grew, or clean up 'junk' weeds/grasses to provide that diverse landscape, then one is wasting intensive labor and money. if anyone thinks just by throwing wildflower seeds down is going to get the job done, it won't. there is a flip side to the 'poison' and the necessary evil to get you the means to a good end.
our land and the river on it has been abused by over 100 years of poor farming practices, and we are smack dab in the middle of nothing but corn and soybean fields. at one time some of the land near the river was leased to a local gravel company that stripped the river of sand, rock and gravel and also removed the top soil from an area in a nearby meadow. all that grows in that section is nothing but some type of sparse brown grassy junk and there is not one bug to be found in that soil. this is the 5th area we have begun restoration on in about 6 years now. we took back one corn field from a lease farmer, and a large section from another, and two other areas where we wanted to restore natural and native plantings. those 4 areas took about 3 years to produce all types of native/pollinator friendly plants/grasses that bloom from spring to fall.
restoration or planting for pollinators is not easy in larger fields or tracts of land. it is labor intensive, requires expensive equipment/or equipment you rent or hire out, and the seed is not cheap. soil samples were taken, and we have worked with a company to provide us with seed mixes to match the soil and landscape they are planted in. those 4 areas are now finally providing colorful mature plants/grasses that are full of insects, butterflies, nibbling critters and birds, and most of all, my honey bees. it started with site preparation and the use of of a glyphosate herbicide to rid the ground of whatever junk was growing there to give the new seeds a chance to grow and mature. sounds corny but 'if you build it, they will come', but do it right from the get go, if you don't, and without roundup in the initial preparation, it won't happen and one might as well take whatever money invested, open a trash can and throw it in.
the company we have worked with, i can't say enough about them. prairie restoration is all they do. we could have hired them to do all the work and management but was rather expensive, so we took it on ourselves. they are out of northfield, minnesota:
Praire Restorations Inc.also, i have attached a simple pdf file on the
Guidelines for Establishing a Prairie and what it involves.
i don't disagree that some folks misuse and overuse herbicides. folks want perfect yards, lawns and gardens, etc.. the herbicide for us, was a necessary tool in the arsenal, and a beneficial end to justify the means; a colorful diverse landscape that attracts, provides and sustains 'mother natures children'.
