Fall is a great time of year to start your conversion to organic gardening, if you don't practice natural methods already. The heat lessens, we get a bit more rain, and plants make a final surge before heading into dormancy. Now is the time to start gathering (or updating) your organic arsenal!Ideally, gardening organically allows nature to take its course without the use of outside sources. However, in organic gardening, there are a few helpers you'll need before getting started. I'm not talking about a sturdy trowel or a big strong teenage nephew (although each can be darned handy in the garden). What I'm referring to are some basic products that will help keep your organic garden strong and healthy.
These products fall into four categories: fertilizers, herbicides, fungicides and insecticides. Let's take them one at a time:
Fertilizers
Put simply, fertilizers enhance the growth of a plant. In organic gardening, fertilizers are used to maintain the proper balance of nutrients in the soil that can be depleted over time due to natural soil erosion, planting and watering.In organic gardening, the primary fertilizer you need to use is compost. A handful tossed under a plant every few weeks and watered in provides a great nutritious snack for all of your plants, indoors and out.
Click here to read my previous article on Suite 101 titled Let's Talk Dirty - The Basics of Beginning Composting to learn more about the importance of compost and how to make your own.
Compost tea, a liquid made from compost, is also a wonderful additive, either used as a drench or a foliar spray. I've linked to the methods of making your own at the bottom, but there is a much easier source: Lee Valley Tools sells pre-made compost tea bags, called Barnyard Tea and they are wonderful. (Please Note: Lee Valley has ceased selling the tea bags due to USDA regulations prohibiting the exportation of certain Canadian fertilizers, such as this one, into the USA.)
Other fertilizers that can be helpful when dealing with certain plants requiring lots of trace minerals include fish emulsion, seaweed, Epsom salts, molasses, earthworm castings, wood ashes, bone or blood meal, and soft rock phosphates.
Organic gardening books are extremely helpful when trying to determine what plants like which minerals.
Herbicides
Inundated with dandelions? Crabby because of crab grass?Among organic gardeners, chemical herbicides are routinely reviled for both their propensity for wiping everything out and frequent false claims of being safe for the soil. So what's an organic gardener supposed to use on pesky weeds and invasive grasses?
