Neighbor is drenching his yard in pesticides right now...

[sarah_bella1050]

We have only lived here since October and we immediately put in a winter garden which is currently still producing lettuce, radishes, onions, snap peas, and swiss chard. Went to take my dd to ballet today and noticed the neighbor has a pesticide truck spraying tons of stuff all over his property and the fence line. The fence is about 6-8ft from where our veggies grow and our compost is directly in front of it. I am seriously annoyed right now, the guy has been spraying for about 15 minutes non-stop. Is my produce still even edible??????

[annekevdbroek]

You'd have to ask him what was sprayed and consider washing your veggies really well. Was it pesticide, an herbicide (weed killer), or fertalizer? The yard service places, like Chemlawn or whatever, have different things that they apply. If it was an herbicide and got in your graden it will be pretty easy to tell - because your plants will die. I'd consider how high the fence is, the direction of the wind, etc.

[Shellie]

Ugh I'm so sorry.

I saw a master gardener speak recently and he said you can always tell which neighborhood have a lot of bad spraying, since there are few birds/bees. That's my neighborhood...haven't heard a bird chirping in months but I don't know who all is doing all the spraying.

[sarah_bella1050]

Dh went over and talked to the sprayer and he told him that it was Big n' Tuff and Sur flan both are herbicides. He was out there straying the .25 of an acre the neighbor has for over a half hour. It was really hard to look up info on this stuff, but I did read that Big n' Tuff is a ground water polutant.

[philomom]

Oh, I hope it wasn't windy. As a master gardener.. I deal with a lot of phone calls at our extension office about dead and wilted plants from "pesticide drift".

[sarah_bella1050]

It was a bit windy, but everything seems to still be alive. Do you think it's still OK to eat? Most of the lettuce was covered from the other nights heavy rain so I'm figuring that is OK. What do you guys think?

[mattemma04]

I would be nervous too. I have moved most of my edible plots more towards the middle of my yard to prevent the exposure to overspray from neighbors.I used to have cukes growing up our chainlink,but with neighbors spraying the other side to avoid cutting the grass by the fence...well that put an end to using the fence for food plants!

The food is probably safe,but I would probably feed it to my rabbit,and replant in a new plot.

[Owen'nZoe]

I am so, so sorry. I hate to say it, but this is exactly why I put my veggie garden in my front yard where it borders the sidewalk, instead of in the back, where it would be near a property line. Everyone in my neighborhood sprays, too. During the downturn, one neighbor stopped, which was very welcome, but I'm afraid they'll start up again, too, as the economy gets better.

In our state you can sign up to be on a list for pesticide/herbicide notifications. If your name is on the list, your neighbors/their lawn companies must notify you in advance of spraying. At least then you'd be able to prepare.

[elanorh]

Dh's sister and her husband have a "fish friendly lawn" sign on their lawn, since they don't use artificial fertilizers or pesticides on their lawn (they live in an area with a lot of fly fishers - I didn't find the sign when I looked online).

I've seen "kid friendly lawn" signs too - again, didn't find them with a quick google online though.

I did find this: http://www.shopbeyondpesticides.org/ If you can afford it, it might be worth getting just to prompt some of your neighbors to think about whether they need to put so many pesticides on their lawns.

We have one neighbor who does this with a service - just to her front lawn, thank goodness. Most of the rest of our neighbors either ignore their lawns, or are meticulous - but if they use pesticides/fertilizers, it's not noticeable (I suspect some of the pelleted fertilizer/weed killer in the spring).