Au Naturel Pumpkin Patch-Pesticide Free Is Good For Me

I never had much of a green thumb growing up, I just helped my mom.  She grew big gardens and beautiful indoor plants.   Last year I finally had somewhere to grow a small garden, and I was going to give it my all.  The garden was decent, the flower beds full of gorgeous wildflowers, but the crowning glory was my pumpkin patch!

The reason it was so amazing was that I never bought pumpkin seeds, never planted a thing! The pumpkins and gourds I bought the previous year were really hardy, and I kept them around long after the holidays, not throwing them out until spring.  I had a bonfire pit in the yard so I just chucked them in the pile.  Awhile later I realized a little pumpkin patch had started to grow all on its own.  A couple weeks later I saw another small patch had started in our ditch.  We got quite a bit of spring rain that year and the pumpkins were loving it! They took off like crazy.  By the end of the season I had about 20 total.

I think people have gotten so far away from nature now that they forget the magic of it. It is absolutely amazing to me that with little effort at all, in fact just tossing out old pumpkins I could help create a whole new environment.  How many people know that sometimes it is that easy to grow?

We live in small spaces next to one another, and we don't have the space or the time or whatever it is to plant.  When you start thinking about how far people have gotten from planting and the earth and dirt and knowing the land, it gets scary.  Scavenging, gathering, and planting is how humanity made it, how could we get so far away from this?  It's clear that plants have thousands of beneficial uses, and many dangers we should be aware of.  It is only hurting society that we have gotten out of these practices.

Even more frightening many places have bans on growing your own food.  It makes you ask the question why would a place ban growing food?  Especially when big corporations tell us how we need pesticides to grow food for all the starving people. What reason is there to not grow food?  Why grow grass in the first place?  When did this shift of natural land to grass lawns happen?  What happened to victory gardens?  Why don't we care now that a basic necessity is being outlawed?

 Well this girl does! In defiance I grow as much and as often as I can.  I buy heirloom plants and support local companies.  I never use pesticides.  It is literally not only throwing your money away to greedy companies, but killing the environment and us.

 The great thing with nature is that if you take care of it, it creates wonders all the time.  Nature free of human intervention continues on, but imagine what the world could be if we nurtured it.

So plant a tree, buy a pack of heirloom flowers, and most importantly forget unjust laws and grassy lawns.  Instead grow food that benefits you and pollinators.

Our backyard is a haven for birds all year with a couple big trees providing shelter, but when I planted a garden I noticed just how busy our little haven became.  Butterflies, bees, insects, and arachnids now shared the yard with the birds and the moles.  It's one of the great joys of my life to just be outdoors somewhere and watch the wildlife.  When you stop and listen nature has great lessons to teach us all.

Sometimes nature doesn't care what you think and comes to you.  This is a wildflower bed in my yard and neighbor Dilly cat who loves to help garden.

Filling The Pockets of Those That Don't Give A Damn About You

It was a beautiful summer afternoon when my young brother and I were riding bikes around the neighborhood.  Suddenly a utility truck of some sort passed by us, and I was instantly assaulted with a noxious odor and taste in my mouth.  We were caught off guard and worse we were stuck on a street we couldn’t escape from.  Reluctantly we were sprayed with who knows what.  The heat, mugginess, and physical activity had us breathing hard and sucking in the now chemical laden air.

I was flabbergasted and irate, so I immediately started looking for answers.  What I found out was that although many people were aware of a pesticide truck spraying, few if any knew what was actually being put into the air.  There were no community boards, signs, or websites to direct me.  Not sure where to get the information I wanted, I called the local street department and learned what product was being used, and some restrictions to spraying such as wind speed and humidity.  

Unsatisfied with these results I started my own research.  I read chemistry books and scientific journals every chance I could, carrying stacks of papers out on my lunch breaks. Using my job to it’s full advantage, I talked to professionals in the chemistry field that analytically test insecticides and herbicides.  As professionals they must follow EPA regulations on handling these chemicals.  To do their job correctly these scientists have to understand the properties and behaviors of pesticides.  For instance it's helpful to know if chemicals are more harmful if inhaled, how well they absorb through skin, and how long they last in different environments such as soil or water.    

In the meantime, I filed a freedom of information request with my local village.  Specifically I requested the material safety data sheet on the chemicals being sprayed by the truck.  The MSDS is used to acquire information such as the identification, chemical qualities, and hazards.  The MSDS that I received stated the chemicals were permethrin and piperonyl butoxide.  I was assured by many that these chemicals were among the least toxic on the market, but the MSDS stated they could cause allergic reaction, skin/eye irritation.  Large doses of permethrin in lab animals had produced diarrhea, bloody nose, and tremors.  

My local insecticide sprayer had told me that only a couple people had previously complained about it.  One was an elderly couple that said it incited asthma attacks and another had complained about it causing a rash on their dog.  The truck sprayer had also told me that often he would see kids running behind the truck trying to get sprayed.  

During my research I found that the E.P.A. classifies permethrin as a possible human carcinogen on the basis of animal studies in which mice developed tumors from high dose levels.  The EPA states that permethrin is highly toxic to freshwater and aquatic organisms.  It is highly toxic to honeybees and other beneficial insects.  The EPA also states that permethrin is highly toxic to bees exposed to direct treatment on blooming crops or weeds, and that it should not be applied or allowed to drift on these crops or weeds while bees are actively visiting the treated area. 

 Locally, the village board quickly decided to end the insecticide truck shortly after I asked for the MSDS.  Before I could even attend a board meeting, they called me and stated they would finish the chemicals already bought and would buy no more, spending the money otherwise.  I never saw the truck again.

 After decades of use pesticides have infiltrated the soil, the water supplies, and our own bodies.  For decades to come, we will have to unravel and undo these damages caused.  The high costs of pesticides comes not in the name of saving the homeless and the hungry, but to fill the pockets of all those that don't give a damn about you.