The Garden Observer! (Organic Gardening Part Two)

Most people with an interest in organic gardening seem to prefer it for one of two basic reasons. Some prefer to garden organically as a way of ensuring their own safety and well-being as part of the food chain. Others prefer it as a way of doing their part to help save the Earth.

Often we think of organic gardening as a backyard thing, when in fact the picture can be drawn on a much larger scale. Some people draw the parallel from our own backyards to encompass all nature. Some would have us impart relationships from nature into our own gardens and ultimately our way of life.

Some of the more far-reaching concepts may seem farfetched or at least utterly unobtainable. However, earlier this month I was privileged to attend the Rodale Institute's GardenFest '97 where I attended two fascinating lectures on related topics.

The first was by Howard-Yana Shapiro of Seeds of Change, entitled "Pattern and Observation". To quote the registration materials: True wealth is a deep understanding of the world you live in! How do we begin to understand -- and use -- the connections between our appetites, our land, and the regenerative nature of growth and decay?

Well, the topic was brought home fast. "Do you garden organically?" Most raised their hands in enthusiastic affirmation. "Do you know your climatic zone and your frost dates -- not just in your state or county or neighborhood but at your house?" "Do you know your rainfall and runoff patterns at your house?" "Do you know your wind pattern at your house?" " Do you re-use your gray water?" As the questions became more detailed, fewer and fewer hands wavered upward in affirmative response.

Somehow, if you agreed with me last week when I said the key to good gardening is in the observation of the garden and the world outdoors ... then those types of questions become more meaningful and revealing. So start a garden journal. Use a min-max thermometer and a rain gauge. Feel the soil temperature!

I also enjoyed "Plant and Animal Guilds in a Permaculture Garden" by Scott Pittman. The registration material billed it as: The use of beneficial plants and animals in your garden can be accomplished by creating guilds (cooperating assemblies of plants and animals). Guilds are easy to create using your powers of observation.

Scott Pittman is a permaculture expert and the owner of Environmental Design Concepts. His talk was spellbinding in its simplicity which in retrospect only began to expose the onion-skin layers of interrelativity in the garden. More about permaculture next week!

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