We all desire the benefits of an organic diets, and there is good news about the gardening methods needed to produce organic food. Conventional means of gardening is more exhausting than organic gardening. Time is spent finding the perfect schedule for when to plant, feed, and weed. There is also the problem of seasonality, allowing beds to rest during the course of the cooler months and not produce anything at all. Additional instructions include the use of inorganic fertilizers to help soil balance. Dedication and a lot of patience is required to overcome the challenges of traditional vegetable gardening.
But does it really need to be that difficult? Do forests wonder if they're doing things right? Does a pH assessment get taken regularly? Are poisonous substances added regularly? Naturally not!
Conventional strategies centered around the problems aren't the answer. Have you ever observed that the indexes of popular books on gardening are really just lists of problems? As a standard gardener myself I began to see that the resolution to each problem seemed to introduce a brand new set of problems.
Let us observe a typical conventional gardening technique that has the drawback of leading to more problems than it solves. Visualize a standard backyard garden full of rows containing different crops. Empty spaces abound between each plant. Conventional gardeners just see a space between plants, but an ecologist sees a problem. Nature doesn't like empty spaces and colonizes the garden with weeds. Quite often there are too many weeds to pull individually so the traditional gardener uses a hoe to turn them into the soil.
I've read often in both organic and conventional gardening books about the use of a hoe. We hear time and again that the use of a hoe is the preferred way to solve a problem. I need to point out that using a hoe really introduces a new set of gardening problems. Firstly, turning soil excites weed seeds, creating a new explosion of weeds. Secondly, the soil turning disrupts the ecology of the soil since it often moves top level dry soil down in place of the low level, nutrient-dense soil. Eventually the soil widens and due to its lack of structure, water retention is reduced and more watering is necessary to maintain healthy vegetation.
The added downside is that nutrients can't transfer as easily to plants through structure-less soil. The garden now needs the addition of fertilizers. Many fertilizers kill the soil biology which is very important in building soil structure and plant nutrient availability. The soil will eventually turn into a dead, lifeless substance that doesn't have the correct balance of nutrients to grow developed foods. Vitamins and minerals will be missing from anything developed.
This problem has already occurred in modern-day agriculture. According to Dr. Tim Lobstein, Director of the Food Commission, "Today's agriculture does not allow the soil to enrich itself, but depends on chemical fertilizers that don't replace the wide variety of nutrients plants and humans need." In the past 60 years a major decline in the nutritional value of foods has been witnessed. Can you see how we started with a simple problem of weeds and ended up with a brand new set of issues?
Conventional gardening techniques treat the symptoms but not the cause. Nevertheless, a solution exists! We must use a technique that combines pest, plant,and soil ecologies plus crop management in a way that addresses the causes of these problems. This method cannot sacrifice economic viability for environmental friendliness and must also produce enough food. The ecologically-based method I'm recommending uses zero tillage, zero chemicals, has minimal weeds, and requires a fraction of the physical labor when compared to traditional vegetable gardening. Also, the amount of vegetables grown is greater and more frequent.
A pure and natural ecosystem is created and the garden flourishes. This natural ecosystem with succession layering of plants eliminates the need to use additional pest control treatments, rotate crops, rest beds, or plant manure crops. Soil management is addressed in a natural way and the result is soil structure and fertility that get richer year after year.
One other advantage to this technique is automatic regeneration by way of self-seeding. This takes place naturally as dormant seeds awake, filling areas with additional vegetables and not weeds.
Getting gardeners to try a new method is the greatest challenge this fabulous technique faces. Overcome reluctance to change and get started using this incredible technique and improve your gardening success today.
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