Organic Gardening Isn't Just About Ditching Chemicals

More and more people are interested in growing food without chemicals. But true organic growing is much more than just avoiding chemicals - something that seems strange and new to many home gardeners (and even to many farmers).

Commercially Grown Organic

The organic produce you find in grocery stores - and from some farmer's markets - is more like conventionally grown food than truly organic food. As I've written before, certified organic produce may be sprayed with synthetic sprays; the USDA rules allow this under certain circumstances, and some organic farmers do it on the sly, while others are seemingly unaware that their plants were sprayed per-field.

More often, though, commercial organic fields are sprayed with natural ingredient sprays. Automatically. Whether the plants need them or not. And now it's coming to light that these sprays mostly haven't been tested for human safety. Some that have, it turns out, are harmful to humans. (Here's an example. Remember, natural doesn't mean safe. There are plenty of things that are natural that can make you sick or even kill you.) In addition, much of this organic produce is grown in other ways similar to convention produce, with little thought about the most important aspects of organic gardening.

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"More than anything else, organic gardening is about building up the soil so it grows healthy plants strong enough to ward off insects and disease."
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The True Organic Garden

The true organic garden, however, is much different. More than anything else, organic gardening is about building up the soil so it grows healthy plants strong enough to ward off insects and disease. How is this achieved? By loading the soil with organic matter.

Some organic gardeners dig into the soil, turning it over or tilling it in preparation for planting. These gardeners also dig in aged manure and/or compost to feed the soil and replenish it from previous plantings. Once the plants are several inches high, good organic gardeners add more organic matter to the top of the soil. They might sprinkle aged manure around, or lay down an organic mulch, like straw, that will hold in moisture, keep down weeds, and slowly decompose, further feeding the soil



For those who choose a "no dig" method - meaning they don't dig into the soil, except to make a hole for a plant - the key is to layer organic matter on top of the existing soil. Lasagna gardening (also called sheet mulching) is a great example of this. Layers of anything that's organic and that will decompose and feed the soil - like straw, bits of vegetables and fruits from the kitchen, grass clippings, and shredded black and white newspaper - are piled onto the soil. This creates a rich bed for planting.

With either method - the dig or the no-dig - the soil is constantly receiving nutrients in the form of decaying matter. (Just like in nature, where tree leaves and other organic matter are always falling to the soil and decomposing there.) This not only enriches the soil and encourages beneficial microbes and worms, but it, in turn, fertilizes or feeds the plants growing in that soil.


What About Disease and Pests?

Some argue that if you rotate crops and use the organic methods mentioned above, you'll never have pest or disease problems. This simply isn't true - although organic practices will decrease the likelihood of pest and disease in the garden.

The best organic gardeners take a daily stroll through their garden so they can catch pest and disease problems early - when they are easiest to control. Many pests can be hand picked off plants. Home gardeners can also use things like milk and other natural, completely harmless ingredients, for warding off disease, as well as simple pesticides like ordinary soap.


Is Fertilizer Necessary?

Because the focus of organic gardening is to feed to soil, fertilizer often isn't necessary. However, if your soil hasn't had much chance to build up good nutrients, or if you're growing heavy feeders like tomatoes, spinach, or celery, you will probably want to use fertilizer. But you don't need to go out and buy commercially prepared "organic" fertilizer. Instead, try to use certain types of animal manure, compost tea, comfrey, and other ingredients I discuss here.


Organic Home Grown is Better

I think you can now see why home grown organic food is so far superior to anything you can buy in a grocery store. When you buy supermarket produce, you simply don't know what you're getting. And once you've tasted fresh from the garden vegetables and fruits, it's tough to go back to store bought.

Happily, organic gardening isn't difficult, but it is a different mind-set from conventional vegetable and fruit gardening - one that is much closer to nature.




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