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ORGANIC  GARDENING

Organic fruit and vegetables have now been shown to contain up to 40% more anti-oxidants, as will as higher levels of vitamins and trace minerals such as iron, copper and zinc, than non-organic fruit and vegetables. A four year study by Newcastle University, where they grew organic and Non-organic crops on the same site, has been confirmed with data from other sites in Europe. So far, the particular organic cultivation methods which produced such dramatic results, have not been reported. We always knew that organic fruit and vegetables would not be contaminated with pesticides, because we were using barrier methods or particular organisms to counter pests and diseases. It is good that the health benefits of organic food, have now been scientifically proven.

 

Fully organic gardening is easier said than done! Some things are easily done, but some are very difficult to achieve. One additional problem is that Organic organisations keep changing the criteria for Organic gardening. Some things are allowed one year and banned the next! Many plotters are mostly organic, but will use some non-organic methods where the organic ones are felt to be inadequate.

 

Some of the easier things to implement for Organic growing of vegetables are:-

 

Annual rotation of vegetable crops. It is absolutely essential for the health of your vegetables to rotate the different groups of vegetables in a three year or even better, a four year cycle. This is the way to avoid a build-up of destructive insects and soil infections. You will get less damaged or unusable vegetables, and it is the most important method of enabling you to grow organic produce.

 

Choose varieties of fruit and vegetables to grow that are known to be more resistant to pests and diseases.

 

Try and eliminate hiding places for pests, such as slugs and snails. Get rid of all those weed and grass infested areas.

 

Use fine mesh netting or fleece barriers. Fine netting will prevent cabbage butterfly and bird damage on brassicas, bird damage on peas, bird damage on fruit, while fleece or very fine mesh will  prevent carrot root fly.

 

Prevent Cabbage root fly damage on Brassicas by placing a 15 cm square of carpet underlay round the plant stem. Cut a slit in the underlay square, halfway through, to achieve this.

 

Use companion planting to confuse pests. Alliums are sometimes inter-cropped with carrots, to confuse carrot fly.

 

Encourage natural predators, such as the lady birds and their larvae, by attracting them with their favourite flowers, or providing places for them to over-winter.

 

Apply nematodes or larvae of natural predators for particular pests such as slugs, greenfly, white fly. These are still quite expensive to buy, and can only be used when the temperature has reached a level for the natural predators to become active.

 

The difficult areas for going fully organic include pesticides and fertilisers.

 

Natural organic pesticides. These are usually based on soapy liquid sprays, which clog up the pests, but also tend to clog up the pores on the leaves of plants. The manufactures of these sprays advise only spraying the plants up to three times. They seem to have limited effectiveness in keeping pests at bay and if they fail to cure the problem, you will have to decide if the only option to save your crop is to take non-organic action.

 

There are several organic fertilisers but the main one, manure, is not so readily available if you live in the city areas.

While your own compost is useful, it will not be nearly enough for your needs. For the intensive cultivation of fruit and vegetables, it will need to be supplemented with the likes of blood, fish and bone meal or hoof and horn or chicken pelleted manure. If you live by the seaside, seaweed spread on the ground makes an excellent fertiliser with many trace elements in it.

For greenhouse crops there are liquid organic fertilisers available. Some people make their own liquid fertiliser from comfrey leaves steeped in water. It smells badly and it is difficult to judge the right concentration for using it on plants. Some people use  water that has had manure steeped in, but while it is good for green growth, it is not really ideal for fruiting plants.

 

Compost heaps are an essential way of recycling annual weeds and other vegetable rubbish, and returning the nutrients that they contain to the soil. The weeds will have a lot of your best topsoil attached to their roots, and it will be returned to your ground at the end of  the composting process. On allotments, compost heaps are usually constructed of reused materials, such as timber and wire mesh. Because it can take the best part of a year to break down the vegetable matter, it is preferable to have the compost bin divided into two parts. While you are filling up one part, the other part is slowly turning into reusable and nutritious soil, and vice-versa.

Compost heaps heat up naturally during the decomposition process, and the hot temperatures helps to kill weed seeds. In wet weather, this can be helped by covering the bin to shed the rain. If the compost material is very stalky and the weather is very dry, you may need to water the compost heap. It helps to  speed up the composting process if you fork out and turn the heap once.

 

The perennial weeds like nettles, couch grass, docks, bindweed, ground elder, and marestail, are such toughies that it is essential to keep them separate from the other weeds and give them special treatment to kill them. Never put them in the compost heap. You can leave them to dry off in the sun, and then burn them. Alternatively, put the weeds into a black bin liner, tie off the top and leave to stew in the sun for several months, or even drown them in a container for several months.