Grass B Gon

So, in a moment of weakness, I bought some (okay two), spray-bottles of Ortho’s GrassBGon…but I just cannot bring myself to use it. I don’t yet have the money to cover my garden with material to keep down weeds and they’re overrunning the new shrubs and perennials that I’m planting. I have a large yard and little money; I’m trying to turn it into a wild-life oasis of sorts; for me and the birds & bees. Sometimes I feel it’s a loosing battle. I had thought I’d ONLY spray deep in the center of existing plants that are thick with grass where I cannot reach…but upon reading the label I just can’t bring myself to spray the stuff.

I’m sensitive to the idea of using chemicals…and the more I garden for the birds, the more I realize I cannot go spraying chemicals onto plants that a label plainly says to use with “Plants that will not bear edible fruit for one year”. So…I might remember not to eat strawberries and raspberries or cherries that develop before a year is up…but what about slugs that eat berries or birds that eat both? What happens if flowers show up and to the insects that show up on the flowers?

When is a ‘little risk’ acceptable? Just this morning I watched a robin wrestle with a long strand of bindweed; obviously a desirable material for nest-building. What would have happened had I just sprayed the weeds…even if the stuff had dried before I left the area in some blind attempt to protect wildlife? Eggs breath…so what happens to eggs laid upon a soft nest of poisoned grass?

The product states on the container:

For liquid products, it is generally safe for wildlife to return once the products have dried. Avoid applying pesticides to non-target areas, and refrain from using insecticides on plants where honeybees are active, or where birds are visibly feeding.

Okay, I don’t eat the buds and flowers or necter or pollen produced by most of the plants in my yard…but bees and butterflies and birds do. So, what to do; what to do?