organic gardening

[4pygmies]

My garden is as organic as I can make it, surrounded as I am by farmland that gets sprayed with god knows what. I never use chemicals, and try to buy as many organic seeds as I can afford, although I also save seeds every year. I don't use slug pellets since the chickens clean most of them up. I HAVE to put down poison to keep the rats down which I really HATE. I tried to control them using an airgun but it's hopeless. I've never really understood why chemicals are so easily available as most problems can be sorted out without them. Maybe if everyone had a more relaxed attitude to their gardens there wouldn't be such a huge demand for weed/insect/slug killers etc etc. I don't mean to offend anyone but as far as I'm concerned gardening is about becoming more in tune with the natural world, not trying to be in total control of it (not possible anyway thank the Lord Harry). I try really hard not to throw too big a shadow over my own garden. - that's why lots of it is wild! I'm very passionate about it but I do try not to get into a rant over it....

[sweetleaf]

I garden organically both at home and on the allotment, although if I was growing my veg for sale it would take 3 years to reach "full organic status" as the previous holder used chemicals.
The insects will not be a pest when their predators have reached full strength.
I have been given a few funny looks, especially when I cleared out the shed which I bought from the previous chap, and put many (expensive) poisons in a box to be taken to the local authority for safe disposal.
I have dug a pond, and it sits there waiting for its first slug eating tenants as I type! I have had a very good year on the allotment despite my lack of chemical deterrants.... better than some who have used them.
The thing that annoys them most is that I plant flowers which you cant eat, and they cant see why, no matter how many times its explained. ;D

[chickadeedeedee]

We use no chemicals on the lawn or in the garden at all. Of course our lawn is more weed than grass but at least it is green. The flowers and trees don't have an extraordinary insect pest population that would require chemical warfare. The veggie garden gets no chemical use either.

When planting something new, it gets a healthy dose of compost to start and we top dress the veggie garden and other planting areas with compost twice a year. We are as chemical free as the Toxic Neighbour will allow as we like our amphibian guests of tree frogs, frogs and salamanders.

If we see a huge population of aphids on the roses or blueberry bushes, we get some ladybugs (ladybird beetles) and let them loose to feed on the aphids.

Chick a DDD

[jlottie]

I really do try my best not to use any chemicals, but on occasion I have had to resort to slug pellets (organic ones if I can find them). I wish I wasn't so squeamish about dispatching them, I never used to worry about it. I read somewhere that the diluted water from boiled rhubarb leaves was good for white and black fly but haven't really been troubled enough this year to try it out.

[isabella]

Hello 4pygmies, We don't spray our vegetables in the garden or on the allotment - I use encarsia formosa and phytoselius in my greenhouse to keep the whitefly and red spider population down.
When I first put my bedding plants out I do use slug pellets just the once.
The only spray OH uses is on his Roses .
We are not completely organic but we don't go overboard with the spraying either.

[Cheerypeabrain]

I think Isabella's got it about right. Balance. I'm all for being careful and not adding nasty chemicals to the environment..
generally....until I see a slug the size of Naples chomping on one of my babies...then it's war.
On the whole I use 'safe' products...and I'm trying companion planting (marigolds in with tomatoes = SLUG HEAVEN...they eat both) without a lot of success so far...

[Deleted]

We've tried to be organic - partly on principle, and partly because we grow a lot of herbs. Generally it's worked - but it's probably made easier by the fact that the garden is tiny (15 x 30 feet - at its biggest!). Nettle slurry makes a great fertiliser - and even if you don't have them yourself, you can always find loads of nettles on waste ground. Beer traps and coffee grounds seem to keep all but the most persistant slugs away, and for really precious plants I make a 'collar', about 4 inches from the base of the plant, of sharp gravel topped with coarse salt. This year sawfly larvae attacked one plant - they were all over it, like something from a sci-fi film - but repeated applications of washing-up liquid mixed with garlic solved the problem, and the plant has since recovered. A lot of it is trial and error, and the Internet is a great source for ideas. But there's no doubt - if you're a fantastically neat gardener who can't bear to see a hole in a leaf, organic gardening's not for you. Cheers .... <about to smear more coffee grounds on the wall smiley>