Ecological Gardening

Lesson 2: The Human Place in Nature

Ecological Gardening Soil and Water

In The Beginning...

It all begins with food. I like this saying. It puts the emphasis on food, not the supermarket or your pay cheque but food. It all begins with the soil. I like this one, as well. It focuses on the importance of soil to a healthy garden. I think my favourite saying is: It all begins with you. This places the responsibility right where it belongs on the individual, on you, me and all our neighbours. Each day we make choices: what to eat, where to shop, how to treat others. It is the nature of the choices we make that determines the world we live in.

Now let's turn our attention back to the garden and see how our choices make a difference. How much do you know about the creatures that inhabit the soil where your garden grows? The soil food web is a complex structure where millions of life forms live and die each minute. It is their existence that creates the healthy garden. So how well you treat them directly decides how well your garden produces. Feed them only good, organic stuff and your garden thrives. Feed them synthetics and your garden struggles to produce a small amount of food.

When you begin to use synthetic chemicals, you enter into a vicious cycle.

You can avoid this cycle by adding only organic material. Think of it as feeding your garden. To get healthy food you must feed the soil. Add this thought, whatever you feed the soil, you feed to all the life forms that, when safe and sound, work together to create a thriving garden. So feed them well and they, in turn, will feed you well.

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