Organic Gardening 101

By Karen Bledsoe

The word "organic" has several different meanings. To a gardener, "organic" means gardening without the use of chemical herbicides, fertilizers, and pesticides. Is such a thing possible? Can we really just throw away the bottles of poisons and happily garden alongside nature? The truth is that it's never quite that simple. Yes, you can garden without toxic garden chemicals. People have done so for thousands of years. However, just throwing away your chemicals isn't enough. It takes a little understanding of garden biology to be a successful organic gardener.

Let's start with the soil, as all good gardeners should. Buried in the soil is a complex web of interacting bacteria, fungi, algae, earthworms, nematodes, insects, spiders, and more. The good news is that all those wiggly creatures are supposed to be there, and most of them are good garden helpers. A healthy soil food web feeds your plants, suppresses disease, and supports many of the beneficial insects that help control pests.

Do you have a healthy soil food web? If you've been using garden chemicals for years, chances are that you don't. Both fertilizers and pesticides are toxic to soil organisms. The best thing to do to restore your soil is add compost - lots and lots of compost! Dig compost into your vegetable patch and flower beds in the fall and again in the spring. Lawn chemicals can drift into your garden, so use compost there, too. Spread about a half-inch of compost on your lawn twice each year and keep it hand-weeded. Let the clover grow, though. It will add nitrogen to the soil. A little diversity in your lawn also prevents many lawn pests.

Once you've added compost, keep the soil healthy by throwing away your rototiller. That's right - rototilling is actually bad for the soil. The whirling blades pulverize soil particles, which encourages compaction. Frequent tilling also kills earthworms that would otherwise help the soil, and harms the soil bacteria. Instead of tilling or digging, spread a fresh layer of compost over your garden every spring, and mulch to add more organic material, conserve water, and to suppress weeds.

Some vegetable plants, such as tomatoes and peppers, are heavy feeders. While compost provides most of the minerals they need, you can give them a boost with a little organic fertilizer. Cottonseed meal, soybean meal and fish meal make good soil amendments for vegetables. They add just enough, but not too much, of the minerals that vegetable plants need, and do so without harming the soil food web.

What about pests? A healthy soil food web supports a healthy garden that will resist disease, but for added pest control, mix up your vegetable plantings. To fool both the Mexican bean beetle and the Colorado potato bug, plant bush beans among your potatoes. Mix annual flowers, especially composites, amongst your vegetables to attract pollinators and beneficial insects and to confuse pests. A large stand of broccoli or cabbage invites the cabbage butterfly, but mixing onions and flowers between the cabbages makes it harder for the butterfly to find them.

To be a successful organic gardener, you must be willing to learn. Your local library has good books on organic gardening. Also check out Organic Gardening Magazine (http://www.organicgardening.com/) for up-to-date information on organic techniques.

05/05/08  By Karen Bledsoe