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* jcc maccabi*
GAMES®& ARTSFEST'
AUGUST 17-22, 2014
•
11 Kindmandments
Event helps teens learn
respect and compassion
and remember the 11
slain Israeli Olympians.
The Woes
Of Weeds'
Elizabeth Applebaum
Special to the Jewish News
W
Several ways to keep unwanted plants at bay.
Eliezer Finkelman
Special to the Jewish News
W
hen the snow finally melt-
ed after our long cold win-
ter, all around suburban
Detroit, we got to see our lawns again.
They looked grayish brown. In a few
days, though, they turned a beautiful
shade of dark green — and also grew
a bumper crop of bright yellow dan-
delions.
Most homeowners do not appreci-
ate the beauty of dandelion flowers;
and later the yellow flowers turn into
powder-puff spheres of gray seeds,
which then parachute away, leaving
elderly bald heads.
But what can you do about weeds
on the lawn?
Garrison Keillor sounds a note of
retreat, "Maybe people have chosen
the wrong side, and history is with the
dandelion."
Some people have more hope. They
aim to clear their lawns of weeds
by one means or another. After all,
Comerica Park and the local golf cours-
es have perfect lawns. How can we?
Do It Yourself?
Some rely on physical removal. You
can find a number of specialized weed
removers at your local hardware store.
Among the best is an elegant tool called
the Weed Hound with retractable metal
teeth at the end of long handle. Place
the teeth around the plant, and, with a
twist of the wrist, you can often rip the
entire plant out of the ground. You do
not even have to bend over. With the
Weed Hound, you can pull hundreds of
plants in an hour.
But you will not win this battle
easily. You can remove hundreds of
weeds, but you might have thousands.
22 June 26 • 2014
The resilient plants can fight back. If
you leave a little of the long taproot,
experts say, the entire plant can grow
back. Even after the plant has been
uprooted, the yellow flowers turn to
parachute seeds that go airborne on a
puff of breeze.
Or you could try self-medication.
Buy a commercial fertilizer-herbicide
combination at your hardware store
and follow the instructions. This may
work well, and at an affordable price,
but you might second-guess yourself
about whether you have treated the
right conditions or used too much or
too little of the stuff or applied it at
the right time, too early or too late.
Get Professional Help?
Or turn to experts. Lawn care compa-
nies like Hersch's Lawn Spray in Oak
Park can provide full service. That com-
pany has been treating lawns since 1980.
Such expert specialists in lawn care will
know what kind of fertilizer you need
and what kind of herbicide, fungicide
or pesticide to take care of the specific
problems of your lawn.
Whatever blemishes your lawn has,
they have seen it and treated it before.
They know what to do to get you a
weed-free, green lawn; their reputa-
tion depends on succeeding at that
task, year after year, yard after yard,
satisfied customer after customer.
Alternative Methods?
Or take a different approach.
When Denise and Peter Rodgers
were expecting a baby, they followed
advice to stop putting chemicals on
their lawn in Oak Park, the better to
protect their unborn child. After Ted
was born, they decided not to start
again. If the chemicals might not be
safe in pregnancy, why risk using
them at any time? Now, in Huntington
Woods more than 30 years later, they
still champion the cause of chemical-
free lawn care.
Denise marvels that "people buy
organic fruits and vegetables at Whole
Foods or Trader Joe's, and then they
spread all sorts of chemicals on their
lawns:'
If you decide not to use chemicals
to kill pests, weeds or fungi on your
lawn, call Denise at Oakwood Veneer
Company in Troy, and she will give you
a neat sign that advertises "This Lawn is
Pesticide Free and Proud:'
To keep her lawn neat, Rodgers
mows high, so the grass crowds out
weeds, and pulls individual weeds with
hand tools. If you need more aggressive
help for your lawn, she recommends
getting help from Jeff Copeland of A-1
Organic Lawns in Highland.
After a long career in green agri-
culture, green energy, landscaping
and environmental studies, Copeland
branched out into lawn services 14
years ago. His goal is to help people
establish good lawns without using
pesticides, herbicides, fungicides or
fertilizers derived from sewage sludge
or animal by-products. He calls this
"Zero toxic input to you, your family
and your pets."
Instead, he uses minerals, top dress-
ing with precisely chosen varieties of
grass seed and extensive know-how to
enrich the soil.
Grass, he says, "needs three things:
water, sun and soil. If you have a nice
soil, it is not a challenge to have a nice
lawn."
Notice that he wants "a nice lawn,
not a perfect lawn:' He also does not
promise to get it for you right away; it
takes a while for a diminished soil to
recover.
❑
hen the JCC Maccabi
Games & ArtsFest opens
at the Fox Theatre this
Aug. 17, amid the excited conversa-
tions about sports and art, competi-
tion and "Where are you from?" and
"Isn't this the best week of your life?"
will be a somber moment of memory
united with hope for the future.
An initiative of the Jewish
Community Center of Metropolitan
Detroit and Partners in Torah, the
Kindness Project is headed by Rabbi
Tzvi Muller, who will present the 11
Kindmandments to help teach partici-
pants ways to be thoughtful, compas-
sionate and fair during the week of the
event — and for the rest of their lives.
The Kindmandments offer practi-
cal tips for ways to be nice, from
congratulating all winners to making
certain no one is left out of activities.
Throughout the week of the
Games/ArtsFest, teens also will be
observed by "kindness spies:' and
those who step forward and exhibit
outstanding behavior will be honored
and receive prizes.
The 11 Kindmandments recall the
11 members of the Israeli Olympic
team who, during the 1972 summer
Olympics in Munich, were taken hos-
tage and murdered by the Palestinian
terrorist group Black September.
Each year, the JCC Maccabi Games
remembers the murdered men:
Yossef Gutfreund, Moshe Weinberg,
Yossef Romano, David Berger, Ze'ev
Friedman, Eliezer Halfin, Amitzur
Shapira, Kehat Shorr, Mark Slavin,
Andre Spitzer and Yakov Springer.
"The JCC Maccabi Games &
ArtsFest is about much more than
sports and arts workshops:' said the
event's director, Ariella Monson. An
integral part of the program is helping
participants discover ways in which
they can contribute to their communi-
ty and help build the future. Learning
and living the 11 Kindmandments will
help teens understand the importance
of kindness and respect for others
and ways they can have a tremendous
impact on the world:'
❑