Organic Growth: Organic Gardening

Resources for the Organic Gardener

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ORGANIC GARDENING:  Many gardeners are turning to organic gardening techniques as a way of growing lots of tasty edible crops without the use of man-made chemicals and fertilisers. The food is healthier, tastier and you'll have the peace of mind of knowing exactly what has gone into producing it. It's not difficult to change your style of gardening and while it might initially feel daunting, you'll reap the benefits long-term. 

Improving your soil Leaf mould, composted bark and garden compost can be dug into the soil or spread across the surface, where weather and worms will work them in. Their bulk will improve the drainage of heavy soils and allow dry soil to hold onto moisture and nutrients.

Making compost Prunings, peelings, tea bags, old flower heads and even bits of newspaper can be turned into nutrient rich compost. Fill a compost bin with a good mixture of green and brown materials, not just lots of green stuff such as grass clippings, which will produce a smelly sludge. Go for the largest compost bin you can fit in your garden. If it's tiny, try a neat and compact worm bin.

Weed control Prevent weeds by spreading a carpet of bark mulch, leaf mould or composted straw across soil. If weeds appear, pull them up or hoe before they set seed. Compost weed seedlings, but discard tough weeds with long roots in the dustbin as they could reproduce in the compost heap.  

Seeds and plant choice Strong plants are less likely to succumb to diseases or pests, so always grow a plant that suits your site and soil. Choose naturally disease resistant varieties whenever you can, such as blight-resistant tomato 'Ferline' or carrot 'Resistafly' which is resistant to carrot fly. 

Make wildlife work for you Don't reach for a chemical spray when your plants come under attack. Instead make your garden a haven for animals, birds and insects and they'll do the work for you. Hedgehogs and toads will devour slugs and snails, while lacewings and ladybirds have a voracious appetite for greenfly. Install bug boxes and habitats for creatures to hibernate.

Controlling insects If you have pest problems you can use biological controls bought from mail-order suppliers. There are many available, including tiny parasitic wasps that can be used to control whitefly in greenhouses and a microscopic worm that kills vine weevil grubs.  

Change your mindset Organic gardeners want their plants to grow well, but learn to accept a degree of imperfection

Controlling diseases Change the position of your vegetable crops each year to prevent the built up of diseases in the soil and don't let plants dry out - they'll become stressed and vulnerable to disease.

Good companions Grow strongly scented plants alongside crops so they either confuse pests or attract them away from the vegetables. For instance, plant French marigolds near tomatoes to deter whitefly.

Go on patrol Prevent major problems by regularly checking plants. A few greenfly can be squished before they become an infestation and diseased parts of plants can be pruned out before they have a chance to spread. 

ORGANIC FARMING: Organic farming can be defined as an approach to agriculture where the aim is to create integrated, humane, environmentally and economically sustainable agricultural production systems.

Maximum reliance is placed on locally or farm-derived renewable resources and the management of self-regulating ecological and biological processes and interactions in order to provide acceptable levels of crop, livestock and human nutrition, protection from pests and diseases, and an appropriate return to the human and other resources employed. Reliance on external inputs, whether chemical or organic, is reduced as far as possible. In many European countries, organic agriculture is known as ecological agriculture, reflecting this reliance on ecosystem management rather than external inputs.

The objective of sustainability lies at the heart of organic farming and is one of the major factors determining the acceptability or otherwise of specific production practices. The term 'sustainable' is used in its widest sense, to encompass not just conservation of non-renewable resources (soil, energy, minerals) but also issues of environmental, economic and social sustainability.

The term 'organic' is best thought of as referring to the concept of the farm as an organism, in which all the component parts - the soil minerals, organic matter, micro-organisms, insects, plants, animals and humans - interact to create a coherent and stable whole.The key characteristics of organic farming include:1. Protecting the long term fertility of soils by maintaining organic matter levels, encouraging soil biological activity, and careful mechanical intervention;2. Providing crop nutrients indirectly using relatively insoluble nutrient sources which are made available to the plant by the action of soil micro-organisms;3. Nitrogen self-sufficiency through the use of legumes and biological nitrogen fixation, as well as effective recycling of organic materials including crop residues and livestock manures;4. Weed, disease and pest control relying primarily on crop rotations, natural predators, diversity, organic manuring, resistant varieties and limited (preferably minimal) thermal, biological and chemical intervention;5. The extensive management of livestock, paying full regard to their evolutionary adaptations, behavioural needs and animal welfare issues with respect to nutrition, housing, health, breeding and rearing;6. Careful attention to the impact of the farming system on the wider environment and the conservation of wildlife and natural habitats.  

ORGANIC PEST CONTROL: If your vegs are covered by nasty, green, crawly things, don't panic!The Garden Advice team are here to help you with words of wisdom on bug control.The first thing you need to do, is get a handle on which are the good guys, and which are the bad guys, in your organic vegetable patch. Apart from the obvious slugs and snails, which we all know about, I can only cover a few other common ones here in detail here.

So get yourself a good bug and critter book! It would be easy once you've spotted something nasty munching the lettuces, to behave like Mr MacGregor and blast away with the chemical version of a shotgun! But consider not only do you and the kids have to eat the lettuce, but long-term you're only storing up problems for yourself in the future.

Many chemicals are non-specific, so they can kill the good guys as well as the bad ones. And by continually using chemicals, some of your nasty bugs may become immune. Just like the superbugs we've all heard about in hospitals, which defy all anti-biotics! So, what to do then? I

 reckon once we know who the bad guys are, we should try to prevent them from becoming such a problem in the first place!First, we need to look at how we "garden" our veg patch. For example, at the end of the growing season, ensure you tidy up all plant debris on your onion plot. Followed by a good dig over or a rotovate. This will ensure populations of the onion fly maggot cannot overwinter so easily because they'll either get killed off by the frost, or eaten by the birds.It's also very important to rotate your crops. Using the example of the onion again, if you plant in the same spot year after year, diseases such as white rot, as well as bugs like the horrid onion fly, will become more and more of a problem. So, even if you've only got a tiny veg plot, make a plan every season to help you plant next year.

A little extra work, with a pencil and paper, could save you heaps of trouble in the future. You should also take care not to plant members of the same family in the same place. For example, did you know the following are related: peppers, tomatoes, spuds [potatoes], as well as aubergines (nightshade family)? As are cabbage, brussel sprouts, mustard greens and cauliflowers (brassicas). And not forgetting cucumbers, melons and courgettes (cucurbits).So, you may find it helpful to plant your plant 'families' in groups or blocks.

To make your rotation planning easier. But, if you, or your neighbour, are having a particularly bad year with bugs or disease spreading through a particular crop like wildfire, you may want to break up your planting a bit. With rows, or part rows, of unrelated flowers or veg. This is called companion planting.
There are also barrier methods to consider. No, Mrs, not that kind of barrier!! What I'm talking about are floating row covers, to keep off carrot fly, and wire fencing buried three feet deep around the entire veg plot to keep out rabbits. I speak with very recent experience on this one, having had cute, fluffy bunnies eat my carrots, onions and garlic!! And now for some specific bugs and diseases:

1: Slugs And Snails
That's an easy one to start, at least we all know what they look like. With slugs, believe it or not, it's the little tiny grey ones that do the worst damage, while the great big ones mostly live on dead organic matter, such as rotting leaves. Back to the little grey numbers, there are several ways to deal with these blighters:
1. You can pick 'em off by torch light, this may sound bonkers, but they do mostly feed at night. 2. Encourage critters [animals] like toads, hedgehogs and ground beetles, who's favourite snack is a slug or snail.
 
2: White FlyAlthough this is mainly a greenhouse [and hydroponic] pest, it's certainly worth a mention because once you've got it it's a real bugger to get rid of. A whitefly attack reduces plant vitality, causes premature leaf drop, and may result in the demise of your favourite plant. Yes, that one granny gave you for your birthday last year! Not to mention a nasty black mould, which results from the 'honeydew' excreted by the little darlings. (Yuck!) Now to the control of these little blighters!Provided you don't have a major invasion, you could allow a tiny parasitic wasp, called Encarsia Formosa, to come to the rescue. These are available from some garden centres and seed companies. The little wasps lay their eggs in the white fly larvae, and that's that.

But, if you've got a major outbreak of white fly, then the Encarsia won't be able to cope, as they don't multiply fast enough. So you'll need to take more drastic action and give your conservatory or greenhouse a really good clean up. If possible, you should first move all of the plants outside and give them a thorough spray with insecticidal soap that contains natural plant oils(don't forget under the leaves). Next, give the greenhouse, or conservatory, a really good spring clean. (Even if it's July!)Scrub the glass well, and make sure you get into all those nooks and crannies.

You may, as this will hopefully be a one time major clean up, like to use something strong such as Jeyes Fluid or washing soda to get things really clean! Or, if you prefer, you can always use washing up liquid or soft soap, and scrub a bit harder! Next, if weather conditions allow, keep your plants outside another couple of weeks, spraying with soap twice a week. When you finally bring them back in, you may still see a few white fly wizzing about. Now is the time to introduce your Encarsia. These little wasps will keep things under control from now on.
 

3: Aphids
These little charmers are similar in many ways to the white fly. Except they attack a much wider range of plants, come in a variety of colours, and misbehave both in the greenhouse as well as in the veg plot! Aphids transmit plant viruses, cause stunting and deformities of leaves and stems. And similar to the white fly, they also produce 'honeydew' causing a black mould to form on the leaves. This reduces a plants ability to photo syntheses. There are many things you can do to fight aphids.
1. You can wash 'em off with a hose.
2. Spray 'em with soap, that contains natural plant oilsas with whitefly.
3. Attract the beneficials to help. Such as ladybirds, hoverflies, and lacewings, by growing flowers, such as marigolds, in the vicinity.
4. You can also encourage blue tits, and other insect eating birds, by putting up boxes for them to nest in.

4: Fleabeetles
These aren't the leaping little beggars that bite your dog or cat. They're actually a tiny little beetle that has a preference for making lace curtains [shredding] from your Brassicas!! When you touch the cabbage leaves they ping off just like the regular fleas, only these won't bite you! A good weapon in this instance is horticultural fleece placed over your brassicas, as soon as you transplant them outside; a floating row cover.
1. You can also try mixed planting, to confuse the little suckers.
2. Cultivating the soil regularly to destroy eggs and larvae in the soil.
3. Giving your plants a midday shower with the hose, as they're most active then.
4. Again Companion Planting, to attract the good guys.
5. And finally you can now buy Beneficial Nematodes, which you can water in to your soil.  

ORGANIC SKIN CARE: If you have changed to organic eating habits, you might be wondering about an organic solution for skin care. The cosmetics, perfumes and cleansers that we use contain chemicals that are easily absorbed through skin, or through our lungs when we inhale the perfume. These chemicals then rapidly enter the bloodstream. Should this be a concern?Visitors to Infertility Clinics will see, in very prominent positions, signs banning the wearing of perfume or aftershave. The chemicals that they contain are harmful to embryos. What we put on our bodies ends up in our bodies!Organic skin care is an area of the organic movement which has made real progress in recent times, and where previously there were few options available there is now a fairly wide range of grooming products out there. Another option open to consumers is to make your own cosmetics, using organic ingredients. 

ORGANIC FERTILIZER: Organic fertilizers used to be hard to find, but that's changing fast. When it comes to fertilizer, the organic gardener's mantra makes sense: feed the soil, and the soil will soil feed your plants.  Our understanding of the complex relationships among plants, soil and billions of beneficial organisms living in the soil — bacteria, fungi, insects — isn't perfect, but we know that the more nutrient organic matter you add, the more fertile and workable your soil becomes.  

Organic materials improve soil structure

There are two main sources of organic matter: the decayed remains of once living material, plant residues and animal manures, known as humus, and finely ground rock particles rich in minerals. These materials provide food for soil micro-organisms, which, convert essential nutrients bound up in organic matter into water soluble forms that plant roots can readily take up and use for healthy growth. Organic matter or compost has another great advantage for gardeners: it improves soil structure. If you have sandy soil, you can increase its water- and nutrient-holding capacities by adding organic matter. If you have heavy clay soil, adding organic matter will make it more workable.

Nutrients plants needAll plants need macronutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (the familiar NKP ratio on fertilizer packages), plus secondary nutrients such as sulfur, calcium and magnesium. Micronutrients, such as iron, manganese, zinc, chlorine, boron, copper and nickel, are essential too, but in very small quantities. Good compost can supply plant nutrients, and is easy to make from leaves, vegetable peelings, garden wastes and grass clippings. Plant nutrients are found naturally in healthy soil, but some soils may be low or lacking in one nutrient or more. (If you suspect problems, have a soil test done to find out what's missing.) By continually returning good disease-free organic matter to the soil, you should have the right amounts of nutrients available for most ornamental plants. Fast-growing, nutrient-gobbling plants such as vegetables may benefit from adding organic fertilizer.

Organic versus synthetic fertilizerWhile it's true that plant roots can't tell the difference between nitrogen from an organic source or nitrogen from a manufactured one, the nutrients in non-organic fertilizers are so concentrated that over time they create chemical imbalances in the soil that reduce the all-important microbial and earthworm activity. Organic fertilizer is naturally slow-releasing. Nutrient value isn't available to plants immediately, as the soil micro-organisms need time to break down substances into forms plants can use. For this reason, it's best to apply organic materials in advance: for example, add a mulch of compost or well-rotted manure and a sprinkling of blood meal to garden beds in spring and again in fall. Alternatively, top-dress beds with granular organic fertilizer. These are made from materials such as fish-meal, rock phosphate, greensand, gypsum and kelp meal. Follow application-rate instructions on the package. If using manure, always apply composted rather than fresh, which can burn due to excess nitrogen.  

ORGANIC LIVING:

1. Top for taste
Many people buy organic food because they believe it tastes better than non-organic. This could be because organic fruit and vegetables tend to grow more slowly and have a lower water content, which may contribute to the fuller flavour some people experience. A poll in 2005 showed that quality and taste of food are important to more people than low prices.

2. It's healthy
On average, organic food contains higher levels of vitamin C and essential minerals such as calcium, magnesium, iron and chromium as well as cancer-fighting antioxidants. Organic milk is naturally higher in Omega 3 fatty acids, Vitamin E, Vitamin A (Beta Carotene) and certain other antioxidants than non-organic milk.

3. No nasty additives
Only 32 of the 290 food additives approved for use across the EU are permitted in organic food. Amongst the additives banned by the Soil Association are hydrogenated fat, aspartame (artificial sweetener) and monosodium glutamate which have been linked to health problems.

4. Avoids pesticides
The best way of reducing your exposure to potentially harmful pesticides is to eat organically grown food, where their use is avoided. Over 440 pesticides can be routinely used in non organic farming and residues are often present in non-organic food. Over 40% of all non-organic fruit, vegetables and bread tested in 2005 contained pesticides according to the Government's Pesticide Residues Committee. The results for particular fruit and vegetables were much worse, e.g. chemicals were found in all oranges tested, 90% of bread, 72% of grapes, 95% pears.

5. GM-free
Genetically modified (GM) crops and ingredients are not allowed under organic standards. Over a million tonnes of GM crops are imported to feed non organic livestock that produce much, if not most, of the non organic pork, bacon, milk cheese and other dairy products in our supermarkets.

6. Reliance on drugs removed
Antibiotic additives routinely added to animal food to speed animal growth are linked with bacterial resistance in humans to the same or closely related antibiotics. Soil Association standards ban the routine use of antibiotics.

7. No hidden costs
Compare this with the £120m that tax payers fork out to pay for chemicals to be removed from drinking water, mainly as a result of the pesticides used in farming.

8. High standards
Organic food comes from trusted sources. All organic farms and food companies are inspected at least once a year. The standards for organic food are laid down in European law.

9. Care for animals
No system of farming has higher levels of animal welfare standards than organic farms working to Soil Association standards. Compassion in World Farming believes that the Soil Association's welfare standards are leaders in the field. (Joyce d'Silva, Director, Compassion in World Farming.)

10. Good for wildlife and the environment
Overall organic farming supports more farmland wildlife than non-organic farming. The UK government has said that it is better for wildlife, causes lower pollution from sprays, produces less carbon dioxide - the main global warming gas - and less dangerous wastes.

A catalogue for organic and environmentally friendly gardeners - organic seeds for vegetables, plants, heritage and modern varieties, herbs, flowers and green manures, organic composts and fertilisers, biological pest controls, organic gardening books and gifts.

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