Organic gardening tips
and techniques for a natural garden.

Encourage the balance of nature at all times, and imitate the laws of nature to your benefit. When gardening by the moon, all normal rules for gardening apply, especially the health of your soil! Lunar planting has been proven to be more effective in organic, non-chemically treated soil. There is no substitute for creating a wonderfully rich microclimate by continually adding organic matter to your growing beds. This creates a living system that includes microbes to break down the soil, and adds nutrients and nitrogen content. This is the backbone of healthy, disease resistant plants. Think of your garden as a complete ecosystem that includes life and decay in the soil, the needs of the plants, and insect life cycle as well. Work in harmony with nature to duplicate and replenish the essential elements at the base of the food chain.

Protect our bee population!In order to create a more disease and pest free environment, try to cultivate favorable conditions for beneficial insects, butterflies and bees. Encourage a diverse environment where they will live, reproduce and prosper to do the work of bug control for you. Avoid chemical sprays, opting for the least invasive methods of control, such as hand picking pests, or using insecticidal soap, which, although it will kill the good bugs on contact, won't leave harmful residue and lasting effects. Provide crops that offer food and homes. These include many herbs like dill and parsley, yarrow, nasturtium, angelica, evening primrose, baby blue eyes, strawflowers, daisies, cosmos, Queen Anne's lace, even weeds. Let some lettuce, parsley, cilantro or dill go to seed, then scatter the seeds around the garden. This keeps the butterflies happy, providing a continuous supply of food (for both of you!). Bees love borage, oregano and thyme and are necessary for plant pollination.

Switching to Organic Gardening If you have been chemically dependant for a long time, you need to make the changes in stages, because you have created a situation where the plants are artificially protected by those chemicals. They only get nutrients from what you feed it, and none from the natural breaking down of matter. If you take that away without compensating for it you could have problems. Too much nitrogen from chemical fertilizers can weaken plants. Even though they may look lush for a while, if they are putting too much energy into leaf growth, the resistance to disease suffers. The first step is to increase the health of the soil, so it becomes alive again. You need to add as much organic matter as you can. If you don't have snow on the ground it is not too late to do this. Pile on the shredded leaves, mulch, and manure and just let them break down over winter. Soon you will attract the worms, helpful fungi and other tiny creature that feed on the soil and break it down for you.

Healthy soil has trace minerals, which can be added through powders like kelp meal or bone meal, and gives a slow steady supply of nutrients. When the soil is improved, then you can back off the chemicals. If the soil is not compacted, the worms will even do the work of turning it in for you. I encourage you to create permanent beds that are never walked on. This concentrates the good amendments in one area. Keeping it uncompacted will pay off in the ease of turning, and the health of the root systems of plants. You don't even need to have solid sides to the bed. Just mound the soil to a width that you can reach across, and treat it as sacred ground. You need to replenish the nutrients that the plants have used every season. At least an inch of compost a year is a good rule of thumb.

You can get the upper hand on weeds by hoeing or pulling them young, and then adding mulch to smother them. For bugs, start early, before populations multiply, with the least invasive method first. Pick off and squish beetles, cabbage loopers; rinse off aphids with a strong blast of water. If you really need something for a situation that has gotten out of hand, try an insecticidal soap, or if you are desperate, Neem. Floating row covers are a great thing too. They are light weight blankets that create a protective barrier so the buggers can't get to your plants . Seal the edges well with dirt so they can't get in.

Compost is crucial It is not difficult to start a compost pile, especially if you are not in a hurry. The basic formula is to layer equal parts brown matter (straw, dried leaves) and green matter (grass clippings, plant matter, kitchen scraps, manure). Keep wet, but not too wet. The more you turn it, the faster it will work, but it will work eventually. Rot happens!