After my recent tip on the skyrocketing costs of synthetic fertilizers, many of you contacted me to say you would switch to organic gardening if you only knew how. Many folks want to know what products to purchase to replace the toxic chemicals they've been using for much of their gardening lives.
On one hand, the answers are far from simple. Organic gardening can take years, even a lifetime, to master. Eliot Coleman from Harborside, Maine, probably the best organic gardener I know, says he still learns new things every gardening season.
On the other hand, organic gardening is simple to understand if you remember one thing: The soil is alive and your gardening practices should do everything possible to nurture that life.
Last week, I traveled to Long Island to a Soil Food Web laboratory run by soil scientist Paul Wagner. We spent an evening over a microscope looking at side-by-side samples of soil treated with pesticides and synthetic fertilizer vs. soil that has been tended organically. The differences were stunning. The natural soil was teeming with activity from healthy microorganisms of all shapes and sizes. The chemical soil looked like a dead zone, with only a few microorganisms that are known to cause damage to plants.
"When you begin to understand these differences and then you see the results you can get in your lawn and garden with organics, you wonder why we ever started using chemicals in the first place," said Wagner, who looks at soil samples day in and day out.
The next issue of People, Places & Plants will showcase some of the photography from that trip, along with information about brewing your own compost tea, which is emerging as one of the keys to a successful transition to a natural garden.
In the meantime, here are a few tenets of organic gardening to remember:
SWITCHING to organic gardening is not a product-for-product swap from chemical gardening.
ORGANIC gardening strives to obtain a balance with nature, rather than overriding nature.
USING compost is the cornerstone to any organic program.
PURCHASE compost in bulk when possible, from as local a source as possible.
REMEMBER that large numbers of weeds and pests are indicators that either the soil is poor, or that you're trying to grow the wrong plant in that soil.
ANY GARDENING should begin with a soil test, either from your state Cooperative Extension Service or a private soil lab such as the Soil Food Web laboratory run by Paul Wagner.
CHECK OUT the numerous resources for education, such as www.melna.org or www.rodaleinstitute.org. For video tips specific to organic lawn care, you can now visit www.safelawns.org.
Be sure to let us know what you think after viewing the video. Send me an email at
Paul Tukey at paul@ppplants.com.
-Paul Tukey: May 22, 2006.
