Five good reasons to try organic
The birth of his first child made Mark Cullen stop using potentially harmful chemicals in his garden
When I held our first baby, my daughter Lynn, I remember thinking about the arsenal of chemicals in my garden shed — and how it starkly contrasted with the responsibility that I felt for this helpless little creature. So Mary and I welcomed our baby into the house and I gave all of my weed and bug killers to my dad, who was happy to oblige. It was the start of my organic gardening 31years ago.
It was also the start of my study of R.I. Rodale, the man behind the birth of the organic farming movement in the U.S., and founder of the Rodale Institute in Pennsylvania. Rodale, and later his son Bob, did more to popularize the concept of organic growing than anyone before or since.
Together they created Organic Gardening magazine, which at one time had the highest paid circulation of all garden magazines in the world.
There is never a bad time to consider our habits, and why we have them. Now is as good a time as any to consider going organic. This is why: 1. Better food. When you grow a tomato plant in your garden or on your condo balcony, you control what is used to protect it from insects and disease, and its source of nutrients: synthetic or natural? Fact is, you can grow great food in the absence of chemicals, so why wouldn’t you? The food we purchase from retailers does not come with assurances that it is chemical-free — unless, of course, you pay the extra for certified organic food.
2. Long-term health. An organically grown plant learns to stand on its own two feet, so to speak. Put another way, we condition the plants in our garden by our habits: if you apply chemical/synthetic fertilizers to grow them, your plants will not perform as well without those products.
Conversely, when you use compost and natural products to nurture your garden plants, their growth is sustained for longer periods and they are generally healthier than the nonorganic alternatives.
3. Plants feed themselves. Leaves and garden “debris” are valuable sources of natural nutrients and fibre to all of your garden plants. The leaves that we rake and bag for pickup contain pure, good carbon that, when broken down by natural processes in the soil, actually benefit all living plants. So why put leaves out to the curb at all? It is a silly waste of money and resources. I say, save that money and put it into municipal tree planting. 4. Fewer weeds. Take your lawn, for example: when 2,4D was available we got used to that weed being dead within a week. So what? So, in the absence of the weed, another weed grew, creating the need to reapply the 2,4D. It was an endless cycle and we were addicted to it.
Now it is common practice to leave nitrogen-rich grass clippings on the lawn to rot down into the root zone and benefit grass plants. We cut our lawn higher than we did a generation ago: six to eight centimetres.
We thicken the lawn with quality fertilizers (there are many natural ones on the market, the most popular being corn gluten) and we spread triple mix and quality lawn seed over the thin spots to compete weeds out of existence.
We have become more patient: it takes up to two years to get a weedfree lawn using the methods mentioned here, but it is a more sustainable approach than chemical weedkilling. 5. Death = Life. The never-ending cycle of growing, flowering and fruiting includes native pollinators like bees and hummingbirds and, in the end, a dead plant. The foundation of all great soil is decaying and rotting plant material. Without it we have just clay and sand. Nature is the ultimate recycler. She created the original ashes-to-ashes concept and it has worked for her since the beginning of time. Why would we not want to get in on it?
Organic equals sustainable. The use of the word “organic” can get lost in technicalities and language. The Rodale Institute (rodaleinstitute.org) provides tremendous depth of knowledge on the subject.
For most of us, it is instructive to note that the absence of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers can be very useful.
There are many natural products available to help you grow a great garden sustainably.
I can also tell you that it often pays to just relax a little and let Mother Nature take care of the garden for you. The aphids that are munching down on your Shasta daisy today will fly away tomorrow and your daisies will be none the worse for wear. Mark Cullen is an expert gardener, author, broadcaster and garden editor of Reno & Decor magazine. Get his free monthly newsletter at markcullen.com. Watch him on CTV Canada AM every Wednesday at 8:45 a.m. Email him at groundskeeper@markcullen.com. Follow him on Twitter @MarkCullen4 and Facebook.