As we turn toward spring, I invite you to consider “natural is the new perfect” for your landscape. By natural I mean no ‘cides – pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides.

A flawless lawn is precisely un-natural, and our race to keep up with the Joneses is killing us and poisoning birds, bees, fish and aquatic life. I could go into science, citing studies of 30 commonly used ‘cides linked to cancer, birth defects, hormone scrambling, and kidney/liver damage. But we already know the harms of ‘cides. It’s hard to ignore the signs that our law requires sprayers to place on lawns – showing a parent, child, and pet in a circle with a line drawn through it. CAUTION. Don’t walk here. Pesticides!

It’s up to us to reject these chemicals since our government, silenced by money from chemical corporations, refuses to do so despite billions in recent lawsuit verdicts (eg the case of glyphosate, found in RoundUp, a deadly pesticide, especially for honeybees).

A “natural is the new perfect” mindset means rethinking what beauty looks like. Are dandelions beautiful? Spurned as a weed, dandelions are crucial early food for bees, and their greens are loaded with vitamins for our consumption. Milkweed is a monarch caterpillar’s sole food source – in whose leaves monarch butterflies deposit their eggs. Milkweed is vital for monarchs who’ve lost over 90 percent of their population.

You get to choose, and I hope you’ll join me, because natural IS the new perfect.

Jennifer Comeau

Kennebunkport

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