Starting Your Organic Program
I'm assuming that since you are here you do not need to be convinced of the value of organic gardening. Therefore, this article will not spiral into an argument for the organic landscape. Besides, there are many resources out there that would probably do it much more justice that I could. For those of you on the fence, all I can offer is my perspective which in all likelihood differs from yours and may not help to really convince you. We are all governed by our own circumstances and our level of control over them.
I have spent my life growing up around - and now working in - the environmental remediation industry. Living in New Jersey (insert your own joke) I have visited some of the worst superfund sites in the country and one thing is fairly consistent, much of the pollution comes from pesticides and herbicides - the same chemicals or related compounds that are used in conventional gardening. I have seen soil and puddles of water so many unnatural colors it is disturbing. These are certainly extreme examples and I have never seen purple soil in my garden at home but being around these situations has made me start to pay attention more to what I have been putting in the ground at home. Also, being someone who enjoys taking walks in the parks and woods near my home, I have an immense appreciation for the beauty of the natural landscape crafted by nature. There is an abundance of beautiful healthy plants and flowers and wild berries located throughout New Jersey - all of them grown without any chemicals fertilizers. So I do not necessarily have an argument for organic gardening, but for me it's always been more a question of why introduce unnatural chemicals if they are not necessary. Particularly chemicals with labeling that indicate they are poison. But I said I would not let this article spiral into an argument for organic gardening so let's leave this here.
How does one get started? Well if you've been gardening for some time now, adjusting to an organic program isn't too difficult of a task as the same basic principles apply. If you are new to gardening as well as to organics a brief lesson in soil composition, nutrients, watering, weed control and garden design are needed. Eventually I will provide further information these topics, but in the meantime I suggest a great book called Rodale's Illustrated Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening by Maria Rodale and Pauline Pears. This book is an excellent guide for both a beginner wants to create a healthy, eco-friendly garden or an experienced gardener is looking to go organic. I have read many books on the topic and found this one to be both excellent for those just starting out but also informative enough to use as a reference for years. Another book I highly recommend for starting out an organic lawn program is The Organic Lawn Care Manual by Paul Tukey. This is a great book that is actually fun to read. I actually recommend getting Paul's book first as it provides and excellent introduction to the organic landscape and will provide a strong basis for the Rodale book for gardening.
The Basics
One of the simplest things you can do to start your organic program is adding compost to your soil. The idea behind an organic program is build a healthy soil. By creating a healthy, rich soil you plants will flourish. Also, a healthy organic environment becomes a self sustaining environment cutting back on maintenance time and cost. To fully understand you organic program you must make this shift in thought from concentrating on the plants themselves initially to a concentration on the soil and just by adding compost you will be taking a huge step to improving your garden. Compost consisting of decomposed plant and vegetable matter is nature's fertilizer. Compost provides food for microorganisms, which keeps the soil in a healthy, balanced condition.The best part about compost is that it is free. Most municipal recycling centers provide compost that you can take from for free. Before we have a truck we used to go to the recycling center with garbage cans in the trunk of our car. Whatever works! Compost can also be easily made at home. This is also the best way to ensure that what goes into your compost is chemical free. You start a pile in the corner of a yard, behind a shed, pretty much where ever you have space. You can build a screen around it with plants or lattice. You can make it as creative as you like. You can build a couple of adjacent bins with 2x4s and chicken wire that will allow you to turn the compost over from one to the other or you can just pile it up and let nature do all the work. Use leaves, grass, coffee grounds (with paper filters too), non-greasy fruit and vegetable kitchen scraps, anything vegetative that used to be alive, and pile it up in a corner of the yard, preferably one that will get both sun and rain. No meat products though! Compost will not create an odor if you take care of it properly. If you maintain the right proportions of green and brown materials you will not have a problem. The pile needs a proper ratio of carbon-rich materials, or "browns," and nitrogen-rich materials, or "greens." Brown materials consist of dried leaves, straw, and wood chips. Greens are nitrogen materials like grass clippings and kitchen scraps.
Compost can be applied as both a soil additive and/or mulch. The dark black colors it produces makes for a very attractive mulch and a couple of inches of compost will make an effective weed barrier while providing improvements to soil structure and aeration and increasing water-holding capacity.
If you do nothing more for your landscape than add compost in the spring and fall you have already taken great steps to improving you soil.
Change Your Lawn Care Plan
Your lawn more than likely covers the largest area of you landscape so it's a great place to start. From spring through fall, every morning and sometimes again in the evening, I look up and down my street and see the lawn sprinklers hard at work. The sprinklers for 10 minutes wetting the top layer of soil and then shut down until tomorrow where they will do the same. The grass roots never have far to go for water and can hover along the top layer of soil. Then every weekend the mowers come out and scalp the grass down nice and short and the clippings bagged up and put out in the trash to keep lawn looking sharp and clean. Then as the lawn starts to brown with areas dying back, out come the chemicals and fertilizers to give the grass a quick boost and �green-up.�It's time to change the program. You really only need to water when your lawn tells you it really needs it. You'll know when you can see a light footprint after walking across your grass. Watering once a week deeply probably is plenty- twice a week during really dry spells. Watering deeply once a week allows roots to grow deeper in search of water, and builds a stronger lawn. How long you need to water depends on the type of irrigation method you're using, since each has different flow rates and distribution patterns. One way to gauge it is to set a few tuna or cat food cans on your lawn before you water. When they're full (or half-full, if you're watering twice a week), stop watering. Watering lightly for 10 minutes a day leads to weak shallow rooted lawn susceptible to weeds and disease.
Leave the clipping on the lawn and provide nutrients back to the soil. A healthy, microorganism rich soil will breakdown the grass clippings and provide nitrogen for the grass to feed on and down the build of thatch naturally. So leave the chemical fertilizer in the bag. Feeding the lawn twice a year with an organic fertilizer and then leaving the clippings on the lawn will provide all the nutrients you lawn needs. A feeding in the spring with corn gluten will help keep weed seeds from sprouting and then a second feeding win the fall will provide the nutrients you lawn needs to get through the winter. Organic fertilizer breaks down slowly so it will be available to the lawn longer and will not burn the plants. A thin application of compost every spring is beneficial as well.
Not All Insects and Wildlife are Pests and What Ones are on Your Side
Realize that insecticides used on your property for even things like mosquito control kill off just as many beneficial insects and the ones traditionally considered pests. Since we have stopped trying to "control" the insects we have realized that the mosquito problem now takes care of itself with natural predators that are more welcome now in my yard. Realize that spiders are your friends and birds are on your side. Wasps and bees are actually welcome in our gardens. One of the best pest controls in the garden is the introduction of other pests. One of my daughter's favorite times in the spring is the releasing of lady bugs in the garden. We purchase lady bugs every year and she releases them. Lady Bugs provide excellent pest control as they are natural predators of many garden pests such as aphids.Reduce Watering in your Garden
Overwatering you garden is just as, if not actually more, dangerous than under watering and it's so easy to do. Water your garden when the plants show signs of needing water not just because this is the time you set aside on your schedule to do it. Also, the same adage about watering deeply applies to your garden as it does to your lawn. One deep watering per week is much better than short waterings more frequentlyThere are several ways to retaining water in your gardens including mulch, increase organic matter, rainfall collection and drip irrigation. As mentioned above, one of the best organic mulches is compost which will also help to increase the organic matter in your soil.
Just Get Started
Organic Gardening is not difficult. Actually a lot of it comes from common sense and once you get started you will start to realize how simple and fun it really is. What I've given you here are the very basics. There is much more you can learn regarding improving soil structure and providing additional nutrients but with these basics though you can get started right away. One thing I would recommend is getting a soil test done. You can get these done by local county cooperative extension. The results of the tests will tell you what your soil needs to improve the texture and nutrients. It will be a great way to get started. Our Organic Gardening Calendar can help you organize your program as well.The only real way though to get started is to just, well, get started! If you have any questions along the way feel free to contact me.
Check out the full calendar, available here, for tips and tasks to perform in the garden every weekend of every month in the year.