October in Colorado marks the tail end of the growing season for Falcon homeowners and hobby gardeners. Kale and spinach might be able to make it through the early frosts, but trees, bushes and tender food crops are done for the year. As residents bag leaves and clean up the garden, soil experts are asking gardeners to pay attention next season to what goes in that dirt. Eastern El Paso County, including Falcon, has a rich agricultural heritage. The New Falcon Herald has published articles about Falcon’s history as an important potato, sheep and ranching region in the late 19th century.However, potato blights, grading and uninformed agricultural practices has reduced the soil quality and growing capacity of the area.ìThe soil of the 1950s and earlier is not the same soil we have today,î said Jordan Hoefing, former agricultural researcher for North Dakota State University. Hoefing is now a nutritional therapy practitioner in Falcon. She focuses on teaching residents to avoid the lasting effects from chemicals in soil that she discovered in her previous career. ìThe soil will keep changing the more synthetic chemicals we put in it,î Hoefing said. ìThey can label the products with what it does right now. But it’s hard for them to say what it does in the soil or in the plants years down the line.îThe byproducts created as chemical pesticides and herbicides degrade will exacerbate any mineral deficiencies already in the soil, said Shawn Speidel, Falcon soil fertility consultant. ìSome popular pesticides will tie up nutrients from the soil. Glyphosate will accumulate in perennial plants and cause manganese deficiencies,î Speidel said. ìWhen you spray a pesticide or herbicide, it never washes away. It stays in the soil,î Hoefing said. ìIf you spray something this year, it’s going to affect the plant and the soil beneath it for years. You’re forever altering that soil.îWhen a chemical gets into the soil or onto a plant, it doesn’t take long to get into a person’s system. ìOur bodies are a big collection of chemicals that make everything happen,î Hoefing said. ìWhen we eat something that has been sprayed with a pesticide, we are digesting that chemical. We are combining that synthetic with the natural chemicals in our bodies. That will disrupt the processes in our bodies.îThis effect also impacts residents who don’t grow vegetables. The quest for green lawns that survive Colorado’s weather changes often means heavy doses of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Children and adults who play or relax on those lawns will be heavily impacted by the chemicals on them and in the soil beneath, Hoefing said. ìOur skin is our largest organ. It soaks up everything you put onto it,î she said. ìSo when you’re playing in the grass that has been sprayed with something and it touches your clothes and skin, it’s going to soak into your bloodstream and affect your body that way.îHoefing said she left the agricultural research industry when she realized the materials she worked with impacted her own health. The effects convinced her to never use chemical herbicides or pesticides in her own yard and to eat only organic produce. ìThere is no hazmat suit thick enough that I would want to work with that stuff again,î she said. ìIt’s that nasty.îThe New Falcon Herald covered one of the unintended consequences of pesticide and herbicide use last month in an article about how those chemicals could be impacting local bee populations and the beekeepers that depend on them. ìThey definitely affect the beneficial insects our gardens and food depend on,î Hoefing said. ìThe manufacturers do attempt to be targeted. But you take a complicated chemical and break it down over time or let it start accumulating, it starts affecting those other bugs, birds and fish the same way it affects us.îHomeowners use chemical herbicides and pesticides to save time and stay in compliance with homeownersí association covenants relating to property appearance. Often, the assumption is that the only way to deal with unwanted plants and weeds is to use a chemical herbicide. The September newsletter from the Meridian Service Metro District to residents directed residents to ìplease check your lawns for broadleaf weeds and spray with a weed killer.îHealthy soil will result in healthy plants that resist insect pests and diseases, Speidel said. ìPlants are like engines,î he said. ìYou don’t expect an engine to start working when there’s 10 parts still missing. You need to look at the nutrient density in your soil. Better nutrition for your plants reduces the need for pesticides in the first place.îìReally, the only way to do it is hand weeding,î Hoefing said. ìWhite vinegar sprayed on weeds will help knock it down and make it easier.î She said it’s hard to get people to care about their own health in a long-term exposure situation, especially when it’s much easier to spray the herbicide and watch the weed disappear. Hoefing said it’s more effective to think about what it’s doing to their children as they play in the yard or eat from the garden. ìThink about the children,î she said. ìThink about how it’s affecting nutrition and their children’s bodies.î
