While Sherri Roberts, a professional agrologist and program head at Sask Polytech in Moose Jaw for the Ag and Food Production Program, has been encouraging us to learn more gardening skills, two things have been holding some of us back: The weather and the weeds.
This weekend, Country 106’s Dara Currie finally got through some of the weed issues.
“And what did it take to get you to do it?” laughed Roberts. “You got mad, right? Sometimes anger has a way of being a very productive thing and, when that hits, you’ve got to go and take advantage of it.”
Now that the weeds are gone, what can we do to prevent them in the future?
“Well, there are products that you can spray, but it comes down to environmental quotient,” she said. “There definitely are products you could spray on that driveway (Currie’s problem area) so the weeds would not come back. But, like I said before, some of those are pretty heavy-duty. If you drive by some of these transformer stations, stuff like that, you look at those beds of rocks, and there’s nothing there. Well, they’re using some pretty heavy-duty chemicals that will keep anything from growing for 6, 8, 10, 12 months sometimes, and that’s kind of a tricky thing.”
She noted that while many just want the weeds gone, you have to aware of the damage to the environment that some of these chemicals can cause.
“While they give you that benefit of no weeds growing, some of them will also move down through the soil fairly rapidly, and you’ve got to worry about contamination of your water tables.”
It was also noted that some of these chemicals that people may recognize from farms are not for use in town or without specialized training.
“Farmers do take licenses,” she said. “They go and take a class, and they have to get licensed to use those chemicals. And that’s where some people, they ignore that. Those chemicals are supposed to be used by people that have actually taken a course, and then a test that goes along with it, because they teach you the safety aspects of using some of those sprays. If they didn’t require that, you’d be having them sold by the garden center. But if the garden centers aren’t selling them, it’s because they are restricted.”
She added that the course isn’t hard to do. “You can sign up at Sask Polytech. They give the tests, they give the course. It’s usually an online course. Then you have that. You have the knowledge and the background to use some of these chemicals because, guess what, they’re tested. They’re safe if used properly. But that’s the key, you have to know how to use it properly.”