Organic gardening in
California on the most basic level is the same as anywhere else. You
work with nature instead of trying to control it. When you try to
garden in an area that has not been treated with chemicals this is pretty
easy. The challenging
aspect is finding enough of nature to work with in a landscape that has
been treated with all of the modern fixes. In a landscape
where green lawns come on a truck and are kept green because of another
truck full of chemicals, shifting a landscape back to fending for itself
can be intimidating. The soil is full of salts from the
fertilizers. There are no beneficial insects in this post
apocalyptic garden, mostly just
ants. The natural soil fungi are poisoned by fungicides and even by
well intentioned gardeners putting concentrated salt fertilizers around their
plants. Thankfully nature is forgiving and when it is given just a
small respite a wealth of organisms start to grow. Even by our lapse
of attention and inaction we begin to garden organically as nature begins
the process of repair. If you
look in a thimbleful of untreated water there are a million bacteria and
10 million virus organisms, almost all of them good for us. Just by leaving things alone there is a
wealth of life that is trying to start growing.
When working in the organic garden
the highest priority is to mimic nature whenever possible. If we take a task away
from mother nature it is ours to keep. For instance, when we spray all of the bugs
with a full spectrum insecticide we lock ourselves into a situation where we
have to keep spraying indefinitely to
stave off wave after wave of herbivorous insects consuming our vegetation, because all of
the insect's predators died with the spraying along with the bad guys. Or we have to
wait an inordinate amount of time for the beneficial insects to arrive and survive the
after-effects of our chemical warfare. By working 'with nature' in our landscape
designs, we reduce the amount of work required to keep a landscape in aesthetic order.
I have always been driven to find a way to get more with less work. 'Think more, work less' is a great motto and it is very appropriate
for the organic garden. By design I attempt to attract a number of
insects as pollinators and for the beauty of the insects themselves.
Butterfly attraction is a serious diversion for many. By allowing
the insects and encouraging the birds many of problems caused by the
insects never come to pass. Attracting
wildlife to the garden is a solution to the pest problem not a cause
of it.
Show the
gardener in your life 1-800-flowers
from the best!
If there is one pat answer to most of
what ails a garden or its plants, it is add more organic
mulch. In the forest, leaves fall on the ground and they are taken into the
ground by insects or broken down by fungi and bacteria. In the garden we
often busy ourselves raking up
and removing much of what would help our plants grow. Mulching with compost or
woodchips is our way of mimicking the falling leaves in a more controlled fashion. I
hate double digging. It is too much work. There are in excess of 10,000
insects in a cubic foot of healthy soil. Each of them love to dig. Let them!
Within a few short months the tilth of the soil improves dramatically merely by
adding organic material to the top of the soil. This is the single
most important idea in gardening, whether you are gardening organically or
not.
Organic gardening does not just mean that you just
don't spray the bugs. The greatest enemy to the health of our garden is
likely salt. We
get it as residue from our water as it evaporates, from our chemical fertilizers, and it
even leaches out of the cement around our homes. Our water is laced
with chlorine to keep things from growing in it. Because table salt
is Sodium and Chlorine combined, salt is generated each time we water with
our garden hose or sprinkler system. Our fertilizers that are in
powder form are another formulation of a salt. In this case ammonia
is combined into a salt. Adding organic mulch gradually neutralizes
the effects of the excess salts by the release of humic acid as the compost breaks down.
It can be beneficial to spray humic acid to counteract salt buildup in the
soil. Truly the most beneficial thing that could happen to a
landscape is rain. The salts all dissolve in water and will be drawn
out of the reach of the plants in a wet year. Nutrients can be added
to the soil but they should not be in such concentrations that they will
damage the surrounding soil. This is most easily done with an aged
manure or ground plant material.
Choosing plants appropriate for our climate is
probably one of the ways that you can make the greatest impact in allowing
a garden to be cared for organically. More plants die due to over-watering than drought, ask any
professional gardener. When a city ordinance required that
the irrigation water be turned off during a severe drought in our area the plants that I was caring
for did not all die. In fact, I was surprised that many started to grow much better.
Happy plants don't get bug problems. For years
people have been selecting plants that are equipped to handle the vagaries of our
climate. The problem is that, as a group, we just don't know enough about the plants
in our gardens. To remedy this problem we are developing a series of lists, pictures and descriptions detailing the needs of our
plants. I spent a long time not being able to distinguish the difference between a
Privet and an Indian Hawthorn. I hope our photographs will help you figure out what
is growing in your yard. Or maybe we can inspire you in choosing new
plants that you would like to grow as you start gardening
organically.
The ecological principle that greater diversity in an
environment is a sign of its greater health holds true in the garden setting
as well. When I look around the world that surrounds me there are hundreds of
thousands of species, not to mention the many varieties of those plants. When I go to a business
park or shopping center or condominium complex there are usually no more than 20 varieties
at all three combined. A typical commercial landscape is much the same in San Diego,
Bakersfield, or San Francisco. I think we can make our world a little more interesting
than that. There are a number of parts of the world with climatic and soil
conditions that are similar to ours. They are each full of rare
and unusual plants that could
flourish here. And one shouldn't forget the wealth of California native plants that are
seen all too infrequently in our gardens. A complex web of plants and
life in the garden makes it a pleasure to garden organically.
Thoughts on space in the
garden.
Organic Lawn Care
Projects for your garden
Theme Gardens
How to choose a Timer
Cycling
organic material in the Garden
