You're a what? An Organic Gardener? Part 2

There are lots of dangerous chemical found in nature and some of them are more dangerous than BLANK (put a pesticide name in the blank).

Yes, but do you eat the naturally dangerous stuff? So apples have arsenic in their seeds - I don't eat it. I've heard a mold that grows on corn is the most toxic chemical known to humanity. I don't know if this is true, but we're not spraying it willy nilly over our grain fields. When you spray or dust your flowers with natural or synthetic chemicals, you are most likely inhaling and digesting some of the spray. When you eat vegetables sprayed with anything, you are getting some small amount of residue. You'd better make sure that residue is safe before ingesting it.

Aren't fungi, mold, bacteria, and other microorganisms bad for your garden? Don't they infest your plants? Most microorganisms found in your garden are harmless or beneficial. It's only when you try to create a sterile environment in your garden, that you create a place for harmful microorganisms to flourish. As an organic gardener who uses lots of compost, your plants should have a nice coating of harmless microorganisms on them. Plant leaves only have so much space to support fungi, mold, bacteria. If you innoculate your plants with harmless organisms from your compost, the bad ones from elsewhere can't get a foothold.

Plus, the microorganisms are breaking down plant residue and making the nutrients available to your plants. Without these microorganisms to decompose organic matter, human life would be impossible. We should be celebrating these little buggers and not trying to eliminate them.

Finally, some fungi and bacteria live with your plant roots and provide nutrients to them. We've probably all heard of inoculating peas and beans. When you do this, you're adding a bacteria to the soil that will fix nitrogen from the air. The plant can then use this nitrogen to grow.

Organic gardeners use pesticides. I've heard some talking about them. So you're no better than a synthetic gardener.

Organic gardeners use a variety of natural sprays to control insects. Some of the stuff is found in the kitchen, and you could eat it for dinner. Some of the stuff is more dangerous, like pyrethrin, rotenone, sabidilla dust, nicotine spray, and neem oil. These act like their synthetic counterparts in that they kill insects indiscriminately and upset the balance of pests and