Going Organic!

So my wonderful wife and I are celebrating our two year anniversary today. One of the first things we ever bought together (I say together, I didn't really want one) was our allotment. 

Having been left empty for a good six months I was very happy to take my father’s method of clearing the area. The Dr. Sparkes technique was a yearly event when I was a child and involved several jerry cans of petrol, a lighter and a very stressed out mother. 

After the good lady wife firmly refused despite my argument that it had always worked for the old man, I had to look at other options. I purchased a good 20l of industrial strength weed killer and a load of phosphorous fertilizer and was all set to get to work. 

Allotments are an interesting social experiment in communal living. While in general patrons don't "live" there, every other social convention must be obeyed. This led to several of my neighbours staring, frowning and eventually shouting as I unloaded my chemical arsenal from the car. 

I was informed in no uncertain terms that all of the allotments were organic and while not written in the charter, use of chemicals generated the same kind of feeling the UN might have towards a Middle Eastern dictator with a similarly large stockpile. 

As you can imagine, my first visit to our newly rented plot didn’t go down to well but after some time, some hard work and plenty of advice from my now well loved neighbours, the Organic Method is the one we have adopted and the one I will be writing about over the next few weeks.

 

What is Organic Gardening? 

Organic gardening has much in common with wildlife gardening. Organic gardeners do not use chemical pesticides and fertilizers; instead they try to work with nature, not against her. They aim for a healthy, fertile soil and encourage a complex natural ecosystem where predators help keep pest species under control. The organic approach aims to minimise the impact on the wider environment, by re-cycling as much as possible and avoiding the use of materials from non-renewable resources, reducing inputs and outputs. The result is an attractive, healthy and productive garden.

Most organic gardeners claim their vegetables are tastier than those grown using chemicals!

Books and websites on organic gardening hold lots of useful advice for the wildlife gardener.

   

Ways to go Organic

Going organic can seem a little overwhelming if you are used to

conventional gardening. Even if you are not brave enough to go the whole way, if you follow some of these guidelines your garden will become healthier for you, your family, and for wildlife.

    

Improving the soil

Soil is wonderful stuff! A rich soil is a highly complex mixture of rock

particles, fragments of decaying organic material, and tiny living 

organisms. Healthy soil is full of bacteria, fungi, microscopic worms and other life forms. These all help recycle nutrients and so encourage the plants to grow. The organic materials provide food for the microrganisms, help retain water and nutrients, and give the soil structure. 

Organic gardeners believe in feeding the soil, not the plant. They aim to build up a healthy, fertile soil, full of organic material, which will in turn support strong, healthy, disease-resistant plants. The way to do this is to add plenty of bulky organic material to the soil at regular intervals.

Perhaps the best material is home-made compost – easily made by recycling your garden wastes but that takes time and patience, neither of which I have.

Other sources of organic matter are well-rotted animal manures, leaf mould, composted bark and spent mushroom compost.

These bulky materials also help the soil retain moisture, so less watering is required during dry spells. Sometimes additional nutrients are required, particularly in the vegetable plot, with the heavy demands of fast growing crops. Organic gardeners use natural fertilizers such as bone meal, dried seaweed and pelleted chicken manure. These break down slowly in the soil, making their nutrients available to plants over a much longer period than chemical fertilizers. They also fertilize the whole soil micro-organism community. 

so that was our first step, next time...how to get rid of the nasties!