Barry's World

What is organic gardening?

Organic gardening brings the principles of organic agriculture to your garden. This involves matters such as how soil is built, how soil is conserved, and how pests are managed. From a big picture point of view, organic gardening involves working in cooperation with nature.  It involves viewing your garden as part of nature as a whole.

Quite simply, in practical terms, organic gardening means that you would not use synthetic products or chemicals, including pesticides or fertilizers. You would use sensible methods to replenish the soil like feeding the soil with composted plants, or rotating the plants that are planted in a given area to allow the soil to get enriched.

Creating and maintaining an organic garden can be fun and satisfying .

Why is the soil so important?

The soil needs to be fed and nourish, so that it can nourish our plants in turn. This simple, common sense idea is a core principle in organic gardening.

You can encounter types of soil in a garden.   Clay soil is rich in nutrients and holds water better, but the soil can sometimes hold the water too well and not let enough air in. Sandy soil, on the other hand drains water well, but is usually low in nutrients. In either case, the solution is to add some organic matter to improve the soil’s texture and improve the nutrient content in the soil.

How can you eliminate pests without chemicals?

One of the common fears that a gardener has about “going organic” is the image of having to share their garden with insects and pests and worse, leaving the plants to die of disease.  After all, how can one eliminate pests or treat diseases without chemicals?

Firstly, the gardener needs to remain diligent in watching over the plants in his garden, and keeping an eye on their health before matters are real bad. Secondly, the gardener has to adopt the mindset of cooperating with nature. Thirdly, the gardener has to recognize that old methods of gardening won’t necessarily be consistent with the desire to be an organic gardener, and so they have to commit to become more knowledgeable about the specific issues faced by their plants and then look for natural options to solve them. 

Sometimes, with pest control, if you know the exact nature of your pest problem, you may not need to do anything at all because the invader’s time in your garden may be strictly temporary, and they’ll be gone at the end of the season forever. It is not necessary to be trigger-ready to kill the pests all the time, with this approach.

Another example, with pest control, is the use of friendly insects that would, in turn prey on the insects afflicting your plants.  This is an example of using a method consistent with nature itself, where there is a natural food chain of insects that feed off other insects. Ladybugs love to eat aphids. Birds will eat grubs.

Yet another example is to use physical barriers like sticky traps to catch flying insects.  Simple, yet safe and effective methods like this abound.

Here are some commonly used techniques to keep your garden thriving, organically:

• Let there be some pest damage – there is no need to strive for a 100% pest free garden always
• Select plants carefully. Choose varieties that are disease resistant.
• Use smart planting of companion crops that can discourage pests naturally
• Move crops around the garden and rotate crops from year to year to disrupt the cycles of pest reproduction
• Use row covers to protect plants during pest migrations

Becoming aware of methods like these will empower the gardener make wise choices in dealing with pests in the garden.

How can you enrich the soil without fertilizers?

There are many ways to have nutrient-rich soil , without resorting to chemical fertilizers.

You can use “green manure”. Green manure is a type of crop that is grown for a specific period, with the sole purpose of adding nutrients and organic matter to the soil. Leguminous green manures like clover and vetch fix the atmospheric nitrogen in the soil in a manner that plants can use. Other green manure crops can help increase the biomass in the soil. Some cover crops behave as natural suppressants of weeds while preventing soil erosion and compaction at the same time. Oat, Rye, Fava Beans, Clover, Mustard, Fenugreek etc. are all popular green manures.

You can use “compost”. Compost is a decomposed combination of plants, animal and other organic materials that is rich, black soil. As an additive to the soil, compost provides a rich growing medium and nutrients for plants. You can make compost yourself by using vegetable, food and other organic waste materials from your home. Compose is natural fertilizer for plants, and there are many methods and materials available for preparing compost.

You can use “mulching”. Much is a special kind of ground cover placed over the soil to help it retain its moisture, and suppress weed growth . Organic mulches also provide nutrients to the soil as the cover decays.

Summary

As an organic gardener, you work in synch with nature, and adopting nature-friendly ways to prepare your soil, nourish your soil and keep it safe and healthy. All this without ever having to resort to polluting, dangerous and toxic chemicals!

There are plenty of resources available online that you can avail by using this guide to the best Web resources on organic gardening.

For other gardening resources , please consult this gardening guide.

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