I began organic gardening in the very early eighties, more or less on a dare. Since I always had some type of regular garden with a few tomatoes and peppers, and I lived virtually in the middle of the city, I got into an argument about this subject with my in-laws.
Organic gardening was not very well known or practiced back then, at least where I lived, but I had been reading about it and wondering if I could, in fact, go organic in the city. Of course, my all knowing in-laws stopped just short of calling me a fool for even considering it, because their own garden was laced with chemical fertilizers, chemical weed killers and chemical soil conditioners, and they had one heck of a beautiful garden. They flatly told me it would be too much work, it would be a pain in the tail, and I would never taste the difference anyway.
But to me, beauty was only soil deep. It’s what the chemically laced food did to your body that I was thinking about. So I decided, more out of spite than anything, to grow a garden organically and see what happened.
Among other vegetables, I planted the same type of tomatoes that they had, and when ripe, I tasted them side by side. The difference was astounding. I could actually taste how artificially enhanced their tomato was compared to mine, which had a genuine natural tomato taste. After that and to this day, I have never touched a chemically laced home-grown fruit or vegetable since. And I never ate anything from their garden again!
My first garden was about as basically organic as one can get, and through the years, my approach hasn’t changed much either.
I started with the soil. Most people can literally just dig up some of their back yards and turn it into a garden, and if you haven’t been pouring artificial fertilizers onto your grass, your soil is good to go. My soil was sandy, so I built a raised garden using raw oak planks from a lumber yard. They were inexpensive, and I nailed them together using six-inch spikes.
Organic soil can be found at most major garden centers, and many times it is available in bulk quantities if you need a lot of it. Having organic soil is half the battle right there.
The next step is choosing an organic fertilizer. Any lawn and garden waste that you mulch can be considered organic, and is a great way to fertilize your lawn. Organic bat guano is terrific, as is sea weed or kelp extracts. But remember this: organic fertilizers are not as high powered as chemical fertilizers, so they need to be applied much more frequently. If your lawn and garden center does not carry organic fertilizer, punch that into your internet search engine and a host of places will come up.
I collected water from my rain gutter using buckets, and that’s a great way to get pure and natural water onto your garden, and virtually anyone can do it. I also would take three or four five-gallon buckets with me and go to a local pond for water. Pond, lake and/or river water is an excellent way to water your organic garden. (We aren’t talking about industrial run-off ponds or rivers here either.) If you live out in the country and have natural well water, your organic watering chores are taken care of just by using a hose.
As for insect pests, there are several types of organic pesticides on the market. Both EcoSmart and Safer Soap will keep garden pests at bay so that you can enjoy a full harvest of your organic garden.
I grant you this, it is a bit more labor intensive to grow organically, but not much. Still, until you take that first bite of an organic home grown veggie, you’ll have to take my word on this. Organic fruits and vegetables taste better, period. Do a side-by-side taste test yourself, just like I did, Because Action speaks louder than words. Once you try anything organic from your own garden, you’ll never go back to chemically enhanced fruit or vegetables again.
Source: BecauseAction.com
