Author: Dianne DeLongchamps
- What questions should I ask a lawn care company about pets and kids?
- What are the active ingredients in what you're applying?
- When can we be back on the lawn after a treatment?
- Does your program use synthetic pesticides, or is it organic only?
- Is your equipment gas or electric?
- Will you work around a play area, or treat in the morning?
- Does the word "organic" on a fertilizer bag mean anything in Colorado?
- FAQ
What questions should I ask a lawn care company about pets and kids?
Ask what product they’re applying and its active ingredients, what the label says about when people and pets can be back on the lawn, whether the program uses synthetic pesticides, what equipment they mow with, whether they’ll work around a play area, and what to do if something goes wrong. Specific answers mean someone read the label.
Here’s how Clean Air Lawn Care answers all six across Fort Collins, Windsor, and Timnath. Custom organic fertilizers and organic soil builders, non-toxic. Bio-based weed control including Moose Juice, our own blend, plus natural pre-emergents. No 2,4-D, no dicamba, no MCPP. All-electric, solar-charged equipment. Re-entry is two to four hours, or until the lawn is dry, whichever comes later. We post turf signs after every treatment, as Colorado requires. And Luke, or local expert and Co-Owner, will work around a play area if you show him where it is.
What are the active ingredients in what you’re applying?
It’s the one question nobody can answer with an adjective.
A real answer names the product and its active ingredients. Synthetic herbicide names look like 2,4-D, dicamba, MCPP, or glyphosate. Organic fertilizer materials look like feather meal, alfalfa meal, soybean meal, kelp, or various micro-biology.
If nobody can tell you, that’s your answer.
When can we be back on the lawn after a treatment?
Not “how many hours.” Consumer lawn labels usually state re-entry as a condition, not a number. Two real examples:
- Weed B Gon (2,4-D), EPA Reg. 239-2665: “Do not allow people or pets to enter the treated area until sprays have dried.”
- EH-1470 Weed & Feed, EPA Reg. 2217-926: “People and pets may reenter treated area once dust has settled.”
NPIC’s general rule fills the gap: “Keep pets away from treated areas for the amount of time specified on the pesticide label or until any sprayed pesticides have dried completely, whichever is longer.”
Anyone who’s read the label answers this in one sentence. Ours: two to four hours, or until the lawn is dry, whichever comes later.
Does your program use synthetic pesticides, or is it organic only?
This sorts a company fast, and it catches the in-between case: organic fertilizer with a synthetic weed treatment. When getting a legitimate lawn care program, you just want to know what you’re buying. See How Different Lawn Care Companies Handle Pet & Kid Safety in Fort Collins.
Is your equipment gas or electric?
Gas engines put exhaust and noise right against the house.
Everything we run is solar-charged electric, no fumes, zero tailpipe emissions. On noise, University of Georgia Extension notes that “battery powered lawn equipment tends to be quieter than gas powered equipment, but these may still exceed safe noise limits.” However, we have shown folks how we can talk at a normal level and still be heard when the equipment is running
Will you work around a play area, or treat in the morning?
It tells you whether a company runs a route or runs accounts. Sandboxes, dog runs, trampoline pads, and school-pickup timing are normal requests.
Does the word “organic” on a fertilizer bag mean anything in Colorado?
USDA’s National Organic Program states that for fertilizers and soil amendments there are “no NOP standards for labeling these products as organic,” and it leaves that labeling to individual states.
And Colorado’s fertilizer rules, 8 CCR 1202-4, contain no definition of “organic” at all.
So on a fertilizer bag here, “organic” carries less regulatory weight than it does on food. Nobody enforces it the way NOP enforces the organic seal at the grocery store.
That’s why “check the ingredient list, not the marketing” is the right instruction, and it applies to our bag as much as anyone’s. Our program contains no 2,4-D, no dicamba, no MCPP. That’s checkable. The word on the front isn’t.
Same goes for “eco-friendly,” “green,” and “natural.” None of them are defined in Colorado fertilizer rules either.
What we offer is on our services page.
Ask us all six. For the record, here are our answers: custom organic fertilizers and organic soil builders, non-toxic. Bio-based weed control including Moose Juice, our own blend for clover and dandelions. Solar-charged electric equipment. Two to four hours or until dry before kids and pets are back out, whichever comes later. And yes, Luke will work around a play area if you tell him where it is. Cleo and Arlie, our dogs, are on our grass every day, which is a large part of why the program looks the way it does.
Clean Air Lawn Care Northern Colorado is owned by Dianne, Paul, and Luke DeLongchamps — a family business serving Fort Collins, Windsor, and Timnath with organic lawn treatments and solar-powered electric equipment.
