Sacred Earth
“Every part of this Earth is sacred to my people.
Every shining pine needle.
Every sandy shore.
Every mist in the dark woods.
Every humming insect.”
Chief Seattle, letter to the President of the United States – 1855
10 Steps toward going Organic in your Garden
Though the following suggestions are by no means a complete list of the most useful Organic Gardening Techniques, it can serve as a place to start. Always read and follow product cautions and directions for use of all (including organic) pesticides.
1. Use Disease Resistant Plants
True disease resistance is a product of genetic selection of those plants with disease resistant characteristics and not of cultural controls such as watering and fertilizing.
If you purchase only healthy plant stock and use disease-resistant cultivars, you will greatly improve the vigor of your garden.
2. Use Native and Bio-Region Appropriate Plants
Many native plant species are naturally resistant to disease and therefore require fewer herbicides and pesticides. They are typically more deer resistant, and drought tolerant than imported exotic plants as well. A garden designed and maintained using native plant species and those non-native species that are bio-regionally adaptive to our area, is a garden that avoids the fussy and frail plants that will discourage even the most determined gardener.
A common misconception is one that native plants are ugly. This is simply not true. Many of the native plant species of the wild Siskiyou, Umpqua, and Rogue River areas are appropriate for use in home gardens and are what make Southern Oregon such a beautiful place to live.
3. Organic Soil Amendments and Fertilizers:
Healthy soil is a dynamic environment supporting many microorganisms and diverse plant and animal life. Even in a protected urban garden setting, soil is vulnerable to human caused degradation and wind and water erosion.
Organic gardeners view healthy soil as the foundation of the garden, and improve the soil texture and fertility by adding compost as well as other forms of organic matter and beneficial biological amendments.
Fertilizers with high nitrogen content can, when tilled into the soil, create a soil microbe population explosion leading to an imbalance known as “nitrogen lag.” Careful use of organic fertilizers that release nutrients more slowly over time, avoid this, as well as other problems attributed to nutrient dense fertilizers.
Planting of winter legume cover crops such as clover and alfalfa are an old farmers trick that add nitrogen to soil more naturally by “fixing nitrogen” from the air.
Where synthetic fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides have been used on soil for some time, transitioning to organic gardening methods of soil care can take time to restore the soil ecosystem to a proper balance.
4. Safer Insecticides
Organic gardeners use a combination of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and Organic Gardening methods. IPM requires an understanding of garden pests, continual monitoring and the use of minimally invasive pest control techniques.
There is a marked contrast between the way that many non-organic insecticides work and the way that organic insecticides work. Non-Organic contact insecticides typically work by poisoning insects that are garden pests. But unfortunately, many will also kill beneficial insects such as bees at the same time.
Organic insecticides work though a variety of different ways, but typically have a narrow spectrum of activity and are more selective of the pests they control than non-organic insecticides. Commercially produced brands of organic insect controls are becoming more readily available to home gardeners than ever before. For example, one type of organic pesticide works by covering the insects breathing parts and smothering them. Another dissolves the protective waxy coating on the insects surface. One type of bio-control called Bacillus thuringiensis (BT) is a cultivated insect specific microorganism that kills caterpillars and leaves other insects unharmed. While yet another type of organic pesticide is a snail bait that will bio-degrade and enrich the soil with the essential micronutrient iron after its use.
In addition to those ready made organic insecticides, a few of the old home made variety of organic pest controls made with easily found ingredients such as tobacco or liquid soap continue to serve as effective controls of garden pests in specific cases.
5. Safer Fungicides and Bactericides
If you keep the garden clean of diseased plants, plant disease resistant cultivars, rotate crops, and keep plants vigorous with a balanced regimen of nutrients and water, then the garden will naturally be resistant to disease.
Sometimes our ideas of how a healthy garden should look, will influence our garden maintenance choices. Often, a plant disease will slightly blemish a leaf or a fruit, and cause no real lasting harm to the plant.
When cultural controls fall short, the second line of defense includes organic fungicides and bactericides. There are some fungicide sprays that contain natural ingredients that when used properly benefit the soil with the micronutrient sulfur.
Many fungicides can be made at home. One type of foliar spray made from compost is called “compost tea” and is an effective fungicide and fertilizer. Other sprays are made with common home products such as liquid soap, baking soda or garlic.
6. Barriers and Traps:
Barriers work by repelling or inhibiting pests. Smelly mothballs and spray repellant containing lion urine are a couple examples of deer repelling barriers. Diatomaceous earth, copper strips, and Tanglefoot are examples of physical barriers to pests that would inhabit your favorite garden plants.
Pest traps come in all types and sizes, from tiny fly paper traps to suitcase-sized cages designed to relocate unwelcome raccoons. Some types of traps are also bio-controls such as pheromone traps for moths.
7. Bio-Controls:
Bio-controls include fungi, viruses, nematodes, bacteria, insect pheromone traps and predator insects. Some work by promoting a healthful disease-resistant environment, while others will trap or eat the things that will eat your plants.
Even a short list of bio-controls could fill a book. But a couple examples of beneficial insects used as bio-controls are ladybugs and green lacewing larvae used to control aphids, thrips and whiteflies.
8. Sanitation Disease Removal:
Some plant diseases can be controlled though the selective sanitation removal of diseased branches of an otherwise healthy plant. In some cases, the complete removal of a diseased host plant is the most effective means to curb the spread of disease to other plants in the garden. As a precaution, soak your pruning tools in alcohol after use. Don’t add diseased plants to your compost pile. Place them instead in sealed bags in the trash.
9. Make and use your own Compost:
Homemade compost is one of the easiest things to make and one of the best amendments that you can add to your soil. When you make your own compost you are not just creating a product your garden will love, you are also diverting useful compost materials that would otherwise go into the trash and clog up the landfill. (There is also a special satisfaction that comes with shredding your junk mail and turning it into worm food).
10. Minimize Tilling and Maximize Mulching:
It would be difficult to entirely eliminate soil tilling from the garden. But, excessive soil tilling can damage soil structure (especially tilling clay soils when wet) and can create imbalances of the soil’s natural microclimate.
Another way to condition and amend soil uses the practice of sheet mulching. Sheet mulching can, in many cases, be used to condition soil in the place of excessive tilling. Sheet mulching uses thick, layered materials and combines the best of mulching with the best of composting. It fosters an environment that allows earthworms to flourish and lets those earthworms turn and condition your soil for you!
A thick layer of mulch also improves soil moisture retention and suppresses weed seed germination.