I used to treat my lawn several times a year , first with a lawn service, then on my own. I missed a few applications and realized that my lawn was just as healthy without it, so I stopped completely about 7-8 years ago. Now, I spend a little time each spring hand-pulling weeds, extremely manageable. It was a process, not an event. But it worked and my lawn is now pesticide free. It CAN be done

L.N.-

Do you have almost an acre to take care of? I stopped using Chemlawn 2 seasons ago. I aerate as well as dethatch my lawn. It's amazing the weeds I come across and how they continue to proliferate. My lawn is a far cry from what it used to be.

I'm not against natural lawn care by any means but I wonder how "effective" your annual weed out at Klode will be. One has to get down beneath the surface to pull out the roots and especially w/ these drought like conditions and the ground in Klode most likely being rock hard, I wonder how truly effective and long lasting this weed out was except for a good show for the July 4th weekend. Then again, this may be the beginning of a series of weedouts scheduled for Klode throughout the summer and you just need to keep people not only on board but willing to come out and get their hands dirty on a regular basis vs the one time feel good day in the park.

Then again, there are natural lawn care services out there, though the expense is definitely a consideration and I believe WFB has tried that route.

What you might not have noticed were all the people that were working very hard on the path down to the beach, many more around the playground while their kids were enjoying the swings, and lots of us near the tennis courts behind the bushes. And, by the way, I put the two large yard bags of weeds that I collected in my car and took them back to my house! Please don't imply that the organizers and hard workers from all over the community were dishonest.

Had you stopped to help rather than just drive by, you would have seen people in all areas of the park working, including several groups all the way down the bluff to the beach. We know how many attended because the Garden Club had a list of all volunteers that had signed up to help and we checked them off as they arrived. Our group on the bluff alone carried 4 large yard waste bags up along with many smaller paper grocery bags. Many of the volunteers took their bags of trash home to put out on their curbside this week rather than leave them at the park, since we were not sure when the Village would be able to pick up everything. We had a great sense of community and some wonderful teaching moments with families, students, scouts, athletics, church, and many other diverse groups showing up to help, interactively show their support for our safe parks, and contribute to the ability to reduce the amount of chemicals used in our management programs within the Village. A HUGE thank you to all who attended.

Thanks for mentioning the lawn portion of it, Kevin. One could be led to believe that Klode is essentially weed-free for the time being for all practical purposes w/o that bit of information.

That's probably useful to add to the story, actually. For those that haven't visited Klode in a while, the grass is quite dry, so tearing out the weeds on the lawn likely would have left patches of dirt.