Dandelions may not be weeds, but a lot of people don’t like the look of them.
This leads to a lot of herbicides being used in attempts to keep the yellow flowers at bay.
But according to the Midwest Pesticide Action Center, these chemicals are bad for the environment.
“It’s also bad for people, pets, and pollinators,” said Executive Director of MPAC Ruth Kerzee. “30 most used pesticides can cause harm to people especially people who have asthma. Some dogs are four times more likely to get cancer when exposed too.”
So in an effort to spread awareness of natural lawn care, the MPAC hosted a dandelion pull with the Naperville Park District at Knoch Park, one of Naperville’s sustainable parks.
“In these parks we’re making an effort to use sustainable fertilizers and the most environmentally friendly products on the market and in cases like to tonight just doing hand weeding,” said Carl Gorra, park operations manager for the Naperville Park District.
Teams competed to see who could pull out the most weeds using nothing more than some elbow grease.
Those who pulled the most could win natural lawn care prizes like giant weeders and organic fertilizer.
At the end of the night a total of 122 pounds of weeds had been yanked from the ground of Knoch Park.
If you go pulling weeds out of your own lawn, be sure to replace the holes with dirt to prevent erosion.
Naperville News 17’s Blane Erwin reports.
