Thinking of Going Organic?
In the last few years, more and more of our customers have been inquiring about organic gardening. There is increased awareness regarding the importance of returning to the gardening methods and principles of our great grandparents when stewardship of the land was paramount. If homesteaders didn’t take care of their land, their very survival could be at stake. Fortunately there are now many more organic options in the way of products available at the consumer level than there was 10 years ago. Products such as biodegradable landscape fabric to biological pest controls. Here are some very simple tips to grow organically.• Start from the ground up. Build a healthy soil with compost or manures. It encourages the beneficial microbes to do their job and lessens the need for additional applications of synthetic fertilizers. Products such as bone or blood meal, green sand, kelp, glacial rock dust are examples of organic sources of soil health enhancers.
• When starting your own flowers or vegetables, choose organic seeds. Seeds of Change is a seed company that has for 25 years, committed itself to harvesting and preserving seed free from being genetically modified and is grown without synthetic herbicides or pesticides. The seed is collected from only certified growers.
• Utilize Mother Nature’s own army of insect eaters by purchasing ladybugs and releasing them into your yard for a natural control of aphids.
• Plant flowers amongst your veggies to attract pollinators and insect eaters.
• Rotate your crops. Try not to plant the same crop in the same spot year after year. This will prevent depletion of various minerals from the soil and will not allow disease and or fungal spores to build up in the soil.
• Practise biodiversity. Instead of concentrating on a handful of plant varieties, include many different species to increase you garden’s biodiversity. This is easier than it sounds; merely tuck a curly parsley into your mixed annual planter that sits on your back deck or squeeze a few marigolds in with your lettuce rows. Be very brave and plant lovage in the back of flower beds and marvel at its thirst for greatness! (If you’ve ever grown lovage, you’ll know what I mean). The more variety of plants in your yard and garden, the more butterflies, ladybugs, pollinators and birds you will attract, and that my friends is a good thing!
