Lake Elmo: Rob Olson on Killing His Lawn, and the Rebirth of Breathe Easy Music Fest

The past few months have been a rollercoaster ride for Breathe Easy Music Festival’s Organizer, Rob Olson.

Last month, the Lake Elmo father of two boys with Cystic Fibrosis, was hoping to rid his backyard of weeds—just weeks prior to hosting the second annual music festival benefitting the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation—when he accidentally destroyed his 40,000-square-foot lawn by covering it with an herbicide that kills grass, too.

The mix-up turned his once lush lawn, brown—and forced him to cancel a music festival that raised more than $20,000 for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation last year.

After media reports went viral on the web, Olson said an outpouring of support has just about left him speechless—and resurrected the music festival with a special headliner, Bret Michaels.

The Breathe Easy Music Festival will go on (indoors in Minneapolis) Aug. 26 at the Pourhouse.

Olson sent Stillwater Patch a copy of the letter he emailed to his neighbors explaining the entire incident. Check it out.

Hi neighbors,

I know that some of you are wondering “what the *&%$ happened to the lawn at 881 Jasmine?” or you think you know because you saw the news or heard rumors. I thought I would spell out the whole story to answer that question and some others for you like, what’s going to happen to fix it and when.

In case you don’t know this already, we are the family that puts on the Breathe Easy Music Festival to benefit the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation each year in July. We had a FANTASTIC event planned for July 28^th but because of the lawn issue, we had to cancel the event. KARE 11’s Boyd Huppert came out and spent 2 ½ hours filming and interviewing the story, which later aired on the 10 p.m. news. This was apparently a sensational enough story that CNN picked it up and it went VIRAL. In fact, if you search the words “Rob Olson lawn” on any search engine, you’ll see dozens of stories. I received calls and emails from newspapers, radio stations and even INSIDE EDITION came out and filmed/interviewed us for over 4 hours! (Inside Edition has not aired yet, we expect it any day now). You can find these reports on my Facebook page WALL and you can find my Facebook page by searching for me at rob.olson@comcast.net if you want to see all the details.

With only 2 ½ minutes to report the story on KARE 11 and only 1 ½ minute on CNN, the REAL message that I wanted to get across, seems to have been lost by a lot of people. The purpose of this email is to tell the entire story, share the CORRECT message and to explain what really happened.

What happened?

I have been using a product from Fertilome that I’ve purchased at Dege Garden Center called “Weed-Out” for about five years, pictured below.

This is a VERY EFFECTIVE weed killer product that, within two to three days of spraying, the weeds are DEAD. I’ve always been happy with this product and it costs about $10 per quart which covers about 10,000 square feet of grass. I’ve purchased it for at least five years from Dege Garden Center in Oakdale from day one.

In early July, I saw that my back yard was getting a large amount of weeds and needed some attention. The front yard was looking good for the most part because a friend had sprayed it last spring with a “pre-emergent” weed killer and it worked great! I had one bottle left of the Ferti-lome weed killing product (pictured above) from the previous year and I needed about five total to cover the back yard. I went to Dege Garden Center to purchase the weed killer. I was looking in the section for these types of products and I didn’t see it. A lady came by and asked, “Can I help you find something?” I said, “I’m looking for the Fertilome weed killer in the brown bottle”. She handed me this:

It was $35 per bottle! I asked, “Why is this so expensive??” She answered, “Because it has a pre-emergent and post-emergent and will keep the weeds dead for up to six months.” I remembered my friend talking about the product he used with the pre-emergent weed killer and I thought, well it’s definitely worth the extra money if I don’t have to again for rest of the summer. The way she explained it, and the way it looked, it seemed like I was buying a stronger version of the same product I’ve used for many years. So I grabbed four bottles and took them up to the counter.

I walked over to the granular fertilizer section and I then asked for assistance in getting fertilizer for the rest of the summer and winter. A man loaded me up with a total of 14 bags (the bill was over $800 total!). When the guy rolled my 14 bags of GRASS fertilizer to the counter, I asked him, “When can I put the fertilizer on after the weed killer?” He grabbed the bottle of DOUBLE PLAY and started reading. (If you notice, it says “Weeds ‘em Out – Keeps ‘em out.”) He opened the instructions and searched to answer that question. He looked for about a minute and then called another man over. “When can he put the fertilizer on after the weed killer?” he asked the other guy. The second man grabbed a bottle, studied the outside, opened up the wrapper and studied for a moment and then said, “First you put the weed killer on and it must be dry for about a day or two. Then you can put the fertilizer on and water it in right away.” It all made sense to me because I’ve done both weed killing and fertilizing but never so close together.

I brought the bottles home and found the mixing instructions on the outside of the label. I sprayed my entire back yard and part of the front yard with a (borrowed) pull behind sprayer. This was on a Friday and I fertilized on Sunday afternoon and watered that day.

On the 4^th morning, I noticed that the grass looked sickly in the areas that I sprayed. Sickly enough to where I took a photo. Concerned, but not yet alarmed. It was a very hot day (90+dg). When I got home from work and walked in the back the entire yard was VERY brown. I was sick to my stomach. I called Dege Garden Center and asked the guy that answered the phone “What is going on with my lawn?” He asked me what I put on it and when I told him Double Play he said, “Oh no!! Your lawn will die and it will not come back for up to six months.” I was mortified. My stomach dropped and not for the lawn, but for my event. I yelled at this poor guy that I have an event coming in less than a month and they killed my lawn. I immediately drove to Dege Garden center and talked by phone with the owner, George Dege for about 40 minutes. We went over all the possibilities of how to fix this problem before July 28^th. He told me that the sod would not live with the chemicals. Seed would not take and that the grass will fall out. I would have a dirt yard in a few weeks which meant dust or mud, depending on weather. The event would be a mess in the pool, the VIP area in the basement, the pool house for the silent auction, not to mention the trucks driving on it if we had any rain it would be a disaster.

At this point you should know that I’ve been using Dege Garden Center and the Fertilome products for OVER 10 YEARS. I love them, I’ve used them all of this time without a problem. I’ve consulted with them about my grass, weeds, fertilizers and the only time I ever had a serious weed or grass problem in the past was because I didn’t follow their program or instructions. I had zero reason to doubt anything they said. George Dege has been VERY cooperative and sympathetic this entire time and IMMEDIATELY pulled the Double Play product from his shelf and locked it up until he returned from his vacation two weeks later. He also said that he would replace the lawn and the next day sent someone out to scrape it, which was to open up the dirt to dissipate the chemicals.  He also sent a sod guy out to measure the lawn and take photos and to see if there was any way to fix the problem so we could have grass by July 28th. George Dege is a stand-up guy and I don’t put any blame on him or his employees regarding this issue. This problem is in the LABELING of the Fertilome Double Play. FOUR OF US didn’t know that product would kill my grass. Three of them that work at a place that has a radio show called “Mr. Lawn”.

The news was not good. We would not be able to have our event on our property by July 28^th or anytime this summer. I frantically called around looking for alternative locations and came up with nothing suitable. I looked at about 15 different places and I was not happy. Aamodt’s Apple Orchard seemed like a great place and I literally BEGGED Chris Aamodt to allow us to have it there. He declined because they were having their own Taste of Stillwater there a couple weeks before and it just wouldn’t work.

I felt defeated and frustrated. I couldn’t believe what had happened. After MUCH , reflection on what I could have done differently, I came to the ultimate conclusion that we just have to cancel the event for the year. It was a very difficult decision because I had already put in hundreds of hours, made commitments to people and vendors, scheduled the music and started inviting friends and family. It was a great loss for the foundation.  I just felt like this was going to be the GREAT weather year (which it turns out was a PERFECT day!) with lots of people and great music, food, games, auction items. I was shooting for a $50,000.00 donation to the foundation! I had already raised over $15,000.00 (IN THE BANK) from working other music fundraising projects through the year so I JUST KNOW we would have had a fabulous donation for the CFF. Very disappointing.

After much deliberation, I decided that this incident could have easily happened to just about anyone and I became angry because of the CONFUSING labeling on the Fertilome bottle. I searched online for “Weed and Grass Killer” and found about 15 different weed and grass killing products from various companies. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM said “Kills weeds and grass” or “Weed and Grass Killer” very plainly on the outside front panel. NOT buried inside the directions almost as an “Oh, by the way…”. The Double Play bottle is almost identical to the one that is just the weed killer and unless you OPEN the directions IN THE STORE, you could easily be confused and purchase the wrong product. Ok, I’m the one who applied it to the lawn, I take responsibility for that. I own it. I didn’t dig into the directions and I wasn’t skeptical of their recommendations. I had no reason to be. However, if that product said “Weed and Grass Killer” on the outside, this would not have happened. I’m certain of it. And if it did say that and I applied it EVEN WITH their advice to use it, I would be curled up in the corner crying to myself, not to the world. The message is simple: PUT ON THE OUTSIDE OF THE BOTTLE “WEED AND GRASS KILLER.”

About a week after the incident, I received a call from Boyd Huppert from KARE 11 wanting to do a story. People should know about this confusing labeling and why we had to cancel the event. As Boyd was looking at the bottles he asked me which was which. I said “you tell me.” He picked the Double Play as the weed killer and said, “You mean the one with the weed on it kills the grass and the one with the grass on it kills the weeds?” This angered him because he said he could easily see this happening to him. He said, “I’m a huge lawn guy and I could see myself picking this off of a shelf thinking it was a weed killer.”

About a week later, I received a call from Inside Edition and they came out and interviewed me. Shortly after that I received a call from Larry The Cable Guy’s producer. According to the producer that called me, Larry saw the CNN report and wanted to do part of his show “Only In America” about the grass and then play some songs at the event. Unfortunately, his schedule wouldn’t allow it.

With all of the media attention, I also received many calls and emails from companies wanting to help with the lawn. Some offering their venue for the event but I just wouldn’t have time to change the location and organize everything again. A couple of grass seed companies, lawn maintenance companies offering advice and even a couple of companies that offered to spray the lawn green for the event (that was interesting!). Most of the calls and emails came from people that were begging me not to cancel the event, to not let this stop me. I started to feel guilty; had I given up too easily?

One of the calls I received was from a place called “The Pourhouse” downtown Minneapolis. They offered their venue (1000 to 1300 capacity) for an entire day FOR FREE! We could have the run of the place for the entire time, 100% of the admission goes to the event. After considering this location, I later found that one of the owners of the Pourhouse is on the Board of Directors for the local chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation in Minnesota. When talking to him about holding the event there, he had no idea that his promotions director had offered this to us and was thrilled! I accepted the location after much discussion of all the logistics. They promised that they would make it simple for us and they would do a lot of the work. Now I must say that they are going above and beyond to help us make this event happen. Incredible.

Within a day or so of agreeing to have our event at The Pourhouse, I received a call from the Scott’s Company, a competitor to Fertilome, and they said they wanted to help. They offered to completely restore the lawn and help me maintain it next year until August so that it would be PERFECT for next year’s event. Not only that, but they agreed to financially help us secure a national headliner for the event THIS year! They want people to know that for them, this is more about the grass and helping to restore it than it is about the event itself. They have been wonderful. One of the executives from the Scott’s Minnesota office called and explained what they will be doing and told me that he’s jealous of what my lawn will look like when they’re finished. I’m sure they’ll be showing some before and after pictures at their conventions, that’s for certain!

After looking through all of the available artists in our budget, we settled on the band Foghat. When waiting for the final contract, I received a call from the CF Foundation Executive Director telling me that he just heard an ad on the radio that Foghat was coming to the Twin Cities within just a few weeks of our event. In the concert industry, this is a huge no-no. You can’t have a major act selling tickets within a certain radius and time-period. It dilutes ticket sales for both events. NOW WHAT!!?? We only had 4 weeks and we MUST SELL OUT!!

After looking through the list of artists again, there were several other recognizable names and bands but nothing that I felt would sell out our event and give us our money’s worth in ticket sales in such a short time. I kept saying names like Bret Michaels, Rick Springfield, Richard Marx (who were NOT on the list) or other artists of this caliber that could do an acoustic set, give us the big name that we need to SELL TICKETS!! Well, within a day or two, a friend of mine dropped a phone number on my desk and said to give this agency a try. It just so happens that it was Bret Michaels’ agent and they are right here in St. Paul and he was open for that date! I immediately called and asked what we could do.  I was told that Bret’s show goes for $100,000 and that a show that I’m looking for would be upwards of $40,000. No way. This would NOT WORK for our event. I begged and pleaded. I told the story of our boys and the charity. I told them how the event was cancelled and why. FINALLY I found someone’s ear that was sympathetic and they passed the story. When they called me back I heard a number that was within reach but I would have to kick in some of my own money to make it work completely. The negotiations began and what a NIGHTMARE!! For over a week it was back and forth over the smallest things!! Finally after a week of negotiating we agreed.

The “Breathe Easy Music Festival II” was born! It’s not the family event that we usually do in the summer, in fact it’s a 21yr+ event, but we’ll be able to make the donation (AND THEN SOME!!) that we worked so hard for. The needed research dollars would not be lost. THAT is what this is all about.

It’s been a crazy summer for me and I can’t deny that there’s been some sort of “divine intervention” nudging me along the way to get to this point. I will NOT take any of this for granted. I will see this entire fiasco for what it is and I will work HARD to continue the fight. Will you join us?

We would love for you to join us on Sunday August 26^th for an evening of fabulous music food and fun. We will have raffles and LIVE auction items with Vacations, Autographed Guitars, Romantic Getaways, an iPad II, Beer for a Year and many more items! Please go to our website to purchase tickets at www.cffmusicfest.com.

If you can’t make the event and are interested in helping the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation through our event or would like more information about CF, please go to www.cffmusicfest.com and you’ll find a link to the ticket page.  Or you can make a donation right there online. We are also looking for sponsors and “Angel Tickets”. These are people who donate money for tickets to allow CF Adults and their families (21+) to attend the event that can’t afford it. I have received donations for 10 of these tickets for CF Adults as of now and we’ll need about 50 more. Give me a call if you would like to make this type of donation. Remember that 100% of the proceeds of this event go DIRECTLY to the CF Foundation and that the costs are already covered!!

Lastly, we are looking for a few HARD WORKING volunteers for August 26^th to sell raffle tickets and a few other odd jobs. Please email or call me if you’re interested (21yrs+).

Thank you for in advance for anything you can do. Please feel free to call me anytime and I would be more than happy to answer your questions.