How not to Kill Your Garden

today I'm writing about organic gardening tips. I guess you would say organic gardening is my passion. plant-based organic gardening that is. I wanted to cover a subject that a lot of people are not aware of. There is a method of gardening which is called sheet mulching where you lay down a layer of newspaper or cardboard and then you put hay or straw on top of it what it does is it keeps your garden more or less free of weeds and also keeps the soil covered so you don't have to water as often. but there's a new problem

Hay, straw and animal manure contains aminopyralid it is a persistent herbicide that will make your plants die.

You have to be very cautious these days because this aminopyralid pass through animals and end up in their manure and also can end up in compost that you buy at your big box store. it's really a shame that we have to be cautious about every little detail of what we do to grow our Gardens organically and it will not be listed on the label. Many gardeners are not even aware of this persistent herbicide. Tomatoes seem to be the most affected. universities in the United States and also the government are recommending these herbicides and they are saying that it is safe to eat the farm animals that eat the hay.  

aminopyralid animals eat the hay or straw it goes through their digestive system and It can still kill your garden. and from what I understand is that the effects of aminopyralid last for up to seven years in your soil. Farmers have no idea that it'll affect your garden like this. so what is it that you can do to safeguard your garden your family because you don't want to be eating these herbicides either.

If you don't treat your lawn with pesticides and herbicides you could use grass clippings. Another method would be to buy organic hay or straw but with the price point of $29 a bale it's not very economical. I plan to do a podcast about this subject 

on my plant based podcast@ https://www.healthyandplantbased.com

 Pete Balasch Jr 402-431-3556 call or text me

Read more about aminopyralid at: 

https://lee.ces.ncsu.edu/2016/03/herbicide-carryover-in-hay-manure-compost-and-grass-clippings/