10 Ways to go Organic
Image licensed from moria
The idea of organic gardening has been with us for years, but most of us still use the occasional dab of chemicals here, or slug pellets there. You don't need to. "Organic" is simply a method of working with, rather than against, Nature. Over the summer, I want to show you how easy it really is, once you've got going.
I'm surprised by how painfully slowly the mainstream has taken to organic gardening. It isn't helped by the horticultural industry's leaden-footed efforts to embrace the cause. However, increasing concern for the environment has thrust organics into the spotlight - not least as a result of Prince Charles's book on how he has turned all his gardens over to organic methods.
There is nowhere left to hide. I can't apologise for being evangelical: we all know now that artificial fertilisers, pesticides, herbicides and fungicides are no longer the gardener's friends, but the planet's worst enemies.
I have gardened organically since childhood because it occurred to me, even then, that Nature knows best. Loyalty to the cause has left me exasperated at times; I risked failing my National Diploma in Commercial Horticulture 20 years ago by refusing to answer my final exams by any other method than organic. I practically bullied my friend and mentor Philip McMillan Browse into allowing me to run the productive gardens at the Lost Gardens of Heligan almost entirely organically in the 1990s.
Latterly, as a commercial grower of certified organic salad crops, I began to see the difference organic food and cultivation methods were making to people's lives. Today I garden by the sea in Cornwall, where I grow garden plants just like anybody else - some ornamental, some edible and some that don't like the salt at all. There is no magic to organics, it is common-sense gardening. And it is deeply rewarding.
What's the first step? Trust in Nature is key. The answer lies in the magic word bio-diversity. What this really means is balance.
Nature herself is balanced and if we interfere with her cycles we upset that equilibrium. Nature is more than capable of looking after herself. A diverse garden filled with plants of all shapes and sizes will maintain that balance. A system will evolve where every plant, animal, bird, insect and wiggling invertebrate down to the invisible bacteria in the soil will work for the good of one another.
If we reach for the slug pellets we immediately create an imbalance in the system.
Over the next three months, I'd like to show how to go completely organic and troubleshoot problems as they arise, whatever the size or content of the garden.
Meanwhile, if you have any questions or concerns, contact me. I'd like to hear from you.
- The Soil Association (0117 314 5000, www.soilassociation.org) is our leading organic certification body, and Garden Organic (024 7630 3517, www.gardenorganic.org.uk), the national charity for organic growing.
- A Slice of Organic Life, edited by Sheherazade Goldsmith (Dorling Kindersley) costs £14.99 plus £1.25 p&p from Telegraph Books (0870 428 4112).
- Tom Petherick's Sufficient is published by Anova Books in Oct.
- The chemicals have to go, because the mindset has to change. Sorry to be bossy, but you cannot be half organic and hang on to your Miracle-Gro or slug pellets for special occasions.
- The place to start is with the soil. Plants are entirely reliant upon soil to grow and therefore it must be looked after, managed and fed properly. Not for nothing is the country's premier organic certification body called the Soil Association.
- Make compost. As many nutrients must be recycled around the garden as possible so that we become less reliant on external input. All green waste should be composted and returned to the garden.
- Use mulches on borders, beds, around trees and shrubs and in containers. A mulch of compost will prevent moisture loss, feed the soil (and, ultimately, the plant) and protect the soil from erosion. Too much bare soil is undesirable.
- Try to avoid the use of machinery wherever possible. Rotavators are the worst offender: a greater curse was never laid upon the land than the rotavator. The churning blades cause more damage to soil life than is possible to believe. And using a mechanical digger risks spreading perennial weeds.
- Leave at least some part of the garden to go wild. Habitats for all kinds of wildlife are vital. It can be "managed wild" but the intent should be for a specified area to be allowed to grow and develop untouched for at least most of the year.
- Bring plants to the garden that are known to encourage wildlife, in particular beneficial insects such as ladybirds. If you do this, you will notice in a very short time how the population of birds and bees increases.
- Keep watering to an absolute minimum. This is not just to do with water conservation. If you encourage a plant to go down for moisture it will strengthen and bring up nutrients from the deeper levels of the soil that will ultimately be recycled into the garden via the compost heap.
- Try to save as much of your own seed as possible.
- Finally, if you are not doing so already, pay close attention to detail. Watch what is going on in the garden, see what performs well and make a connection with whatever it is you are growing.
10 ways to go organic
This article originally appeared in the Telegraph on 09/06/2007. link