organic gardening friends

Hi, I am Ann, and I would like to talk with other organic gardeners about their experiences in the garden. It would be of help to me and enjoyable, too. Please post or dmail, if you like.

Hi Ann,

I have been a gardener for a number of years, and even when it was not popular, I stuck to my beliefs, and did not use pesticides, or chemicals in my garden. There is no disease or pest that there is not an organic remedy for. Feed the soil, and it will feed you. Good organic gardening practices begin with in ourselves. We determine what we will do with the earth that is given to us. Just start asking questions, I'm sure if I don't have the answer, one of the other members will. First line of defense in organic gardening: creating good soil. That's my advice.

This message was edited Aug 20, 2007 10:16 PM

Hi Ann,

Welcome! I have always grown organic, first where I grew up, back in Sweden, then there was an 18 year hiatus of apartment living where my only outlet was container plants.

Now we have bought a house, and I garden every spare moment I get.

My vegetables are thriving, tomatoes have been late to ripen this year, but now they are coming on like crazy.

My biggest problem is with my summer squash plants, especially the yellow crookneck. It is afflicted with some disease, I kind of suspect that cucumber beetles are the cause, but I don't know for sure. I had problems with my squash plants last year too, both summer and winter varieties.

I garden in raised beds, using a lot of the square foot gardening method, except for the formulation of the soil, and except that I dig the beds deep (a foot down) not just place a square atop the lawn or other area. Once I have dug the area, I add back 1/3 native clay, 1/3 compost and 1/3 imported garden blend soil.

Hi All, I started gardening organically over 30 years ago when my children were small as I felt it was wrong to feed them with anything that had been sprayed with chemicals.

I grow most of my own fruit and veg and try to be able to pick something to eat all year round.

I've split most of my vegetable garden up into 4 ft strips, some raised beds and others not, so I don't have to stand on the soil. I've recently read a few articles on no dig gardening and am trying it on half the beds, just adding compost or manure as a mulch and letting the worms do the work. Apparently it improves the soil structure and doesn't kill the micro-organisms in the soil by disturbing them. You don't get compaction if you don't walk on it either. I'm comparing the results with the areas that I do dig. Anything that saves work is fine by me.

Pat

Patbarr, I till and amend my clay soil once. After that, no tilling and I topdress with generous amounts of compost with some mulch on top of that. I found that my amended soil showed increased resilience over time and in the third year I could step here and there on the soil without compaction. I don't understand the physics at all but apparently resistance to compaction is one sign of good, healthy soil

Hi Ess., Pat, PF,
I started a thread: Organic talk, if you would like to join in there.