On The Lamb

Here is an online link to this week's The List: Top 5 Home & Garden Events on page 24 of today's print edition in the Washington Examiner. The photos featured in the listing and the ones at left here are by Amy Lamb. (Click on it for larger view.) She is a fellow GWA member and does some really stunning work. Her plant portraits have a real lush feel and you can't help being drawn deeply into them. I think I stood at the Emerging Peony one for a good 20 minutes examining the minute details.

While you are perusing The List, check out the story on page 4 in this issue of the Examiner about a company that sprayed a pubic golf course's grass with herbicide instead of fertilizer. According to the article: "A government contractor mistook a herbicide for fertilizer and scorched 36 putting greens at Hains Point, one of the nation’s busiest golf courses and one of the few public tracks in the District of Columbia." Where do I begin with this one? Why did they even have their tanks filled with such copious amounts of herbicide to make that mistake? This golf course park borders the Potomac River and that pesticide (and the intended fertilizer) washes directly into it. Why are they even wanting to spray vast amounts of fertilizer in late July? That is a complete waste at this point in the growing season! This whole story stinks from top to bottom. Maybe one good thing to come of it will be a reexamining of how our public lands are cared for overall. We, the public whose tax dollars pay for these contractors, should demand that all public lands have organic lawn care policies. That way they won't be able to mistake one toxic chemical for another.