"Organic Gardening - What It Is and What Happened In My Organic Garden"
Having been so long interested in Nutrition, it was natural for me to be interested in Organic Gardening.
First, to introduce the subject, let's start with what is "organic gardening."
According to encyclopedia searches, the basic concept is that organic gardening is a way of growing plants (such as fruits, vegetables and flowers), which uses natural methods in a sustainable and holistic way. Attention is paid to good, healthy soil conditions, not only as a way of minimizing pests, but in order to produce the best quality plants for the consumer-even if that consumer is you or me, planting our own gardens, in order to have produce we can be proud of!
The idea of gardening organically proceeds "from the understanding that all organisms in nature are interdependent, and in order to have healthy plants we must foster the health of their entire ecosystem. These practices go beyond integrated pest management, beyond the use of so-called organic fertilizers and pesticides. They acknowledge the concept of intrinsic health, and seek to create environments that cater to the well-being of all their inhabitants." (Wikipedia)
OK, that having been said, ways and systems abound for how to garden organically. There will be several articles I will write in this series. These articles will be geared to two publics:
1) beginners who want a great way to start out gardening organically, that is both simple and inexpensive, yet very effective.
2) and to non-beginners (meaning everyone else) who also want a great way to garden organically, that is both simple and inexpensive, yet very effective!
For the first article in this series, I will give a little story about how I got introduced to organic gardening. It was in Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada where (you may have guessed this) IT RAINS. And it rains and then again, it rains some more. There I was, a new wife trying to provide good quality foods for my husband. The only resource I knew of was a huge volume of over 1000 pages called "An Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening," by J.I. Rodale, who was probably the grand-daddy of books published on this subject. So I chose the organic gardening mulching method to protect the young plants from pests. The only problem was the persistent and pervasive moisture in Vancouver. I might as well have issued written invitations to all the slugs in the neighborhood, since in fact they promptly descended upon my garden and ate up all the young plants-right at the stem line.
How we handled the slug smorgasbord is a story in its own right: we thought of trying chopped up glass (harking back to the J.I. Rodale Encyclopedia) but we thought, who wants glass in our garden? The thought of kitty litter to deter the slugs produced similar concerns. So we finally opted for dishes of beer to dehydrate the slugs. (Our neighbor said we should call it "cocktail hour for the slugs"). Well that worked! But since buying beer was so expensive, we started to brew our own in the basement. And the slugs weren't the only beneficiaries of that plan!
First, to introduce the subject, let's start with what is "organic gardening."
According to encyclopedia searches, the basic concept is that organic gardening is a way of growing plants (such as fruits, vegetables and flowers), which uses natural methods in a sustainable and holistic way. Attention is paid to good, healthy soil conditions, not only as a way of minimizing pests, but in order to produce the best quality plants for the consumer-even if that consumer is you or me, planting our own gardens, in order to have produce we can be proud of!
The idea of gardening organically proceeds "from the understanding that all organisms in nature are interdependent, and in order to have healthy plants we must foster the health of their entire ecosystem. These practices go beyond integrated pest management, beyond the use of so-called organic fertilizers and pesticides. They acknowledge the concept of intrinsic health, and seek to create environments that cater to the well-being of all their inhabitants." (Wikipedia)
OK, that having been said, ways and systems abound for how to garden organically. There will be several articles I will write in this series. These articles will be geared to two publics:
1) beginners who want a great way to start out gardening organically, that is both simple and inexpensive, yet very effective.
2) and to non-beginners (meaning everyone else) who also want a great way to garden organically, that is both simple and inexpensive, yet very effective!
For the first article in this series, I will give a little story about how I got introduced to organic gardening. It was in Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada where (you may have guessed this) IT RAINS. And it rains and then again, it rains some more. There I was, a new wife trying to provide good quality foods for my husband. The only resource I knew of was a huge volume of over 1000 pages called "An Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening," by J.I. Rodale, who was probably the grand-daddy of books published on this subject. So I chose the organic gardening mulching method to protect the young plants from pests. The only problem was the persistent and pervasive moisture in Vancouver. I might as well have issued written invitations to all the slugs in the neighborhood, since in fact they promptly descended upon my garden and ate up all the young plants-right at the stem line.
How we handled the slug smorgasbord is a story in its own right: we thought of trying chopped up glass (harking back to the J.I. Rodale Encyclopedia) but we thought, who wants glass in our garden? The thought of kitty litter to deter the slugs produced similar concerns. So we finally opted for dishes of beer to dehydrate the slugs. (Our neighbor said we should call it "cocktail hour for the slugs"). Well that worked! But since buying beer was so expensive, we started to brew our own in the basement. And the slugs weren't the only beneficiaries of that plan!
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