Organic Gardening- What is it, why do it?

In its most basic form, organic gardening is the growth of the various forms of vegetation without the use of the chemical based fertilizers you buy at the local nursery or hardware store. Most gardeners add various mixtures of chemical fertilizers to the soil to feed the plants they are attempting to grow. Organic gardeners, on the other hand, add natural forms of fertilizers (earthworm castings, manure, blood meal, bone meal, cotton seed, fish emulsion, etc.) to the soil to encourage the growth of beneficial microorganisms which, in turn, feed the plants and vegetables they wish to grow. In short, chemical fertilizers feed the plant directly with highly concentrated bursts of fertilizer (nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium) while organic fertilizers feed the organisms in the soils natural ecosystem which, in turn, produce the sustained low levels of nutrients, including trace elements, necessary for healthy plant growth. The advantages of chemical based fertilizers. Although the day may come when we run out of natural gas, the primary ingredient of ammonia based chemical fertilizers, it will remain abundant and relatively cheap for the foreseeable future; thus, chemical based fertilizers are, and will continue to be, a relatively inexpensive way for the gardeners to fertilize their plants for years to come. The primary ingredients of chemical based fertilizers (nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium) also are produced in a form that is readily available to the plant and thus provide, a quick fix, for a gardener whose plants are suffering from a deficiency of one of the three major plant nutrients. Note, however, as stated above, chemical fertilizers do nothing to replace the deficiencies of trace elements which may be hampering plant growth because the vast majority of these chemical concoctions are devoid of these important factors so necessary for healthy plant growth. Finally, large agricultural operations which produce crops like corn and wheat, are now, and will continue to be, dependent on the mass production of chemical based fertilizers because there simply is not enough environmentally safe organic fertilizer to meet their needs at the present time. Home gardeners, on the other hand, are not laboring under constraints of size and can easily produce enough cheap and safe organic fertilizer for their own gardens by following the relatively simple organic gardening techniques championed in this book. The disadvantages of chemical based fertilizers. Most chemical based fertilizers are produced either by the Haber- Bosch process, which combines natural gas and atmospheric nitrogen to form ammonium, or the Odda process which combines phosphate rock with nitric acid to produce a mixture of phosphoric acid and calcium nitrate. Controlled-release chemical fertilizers are most often produced from urea and formaldehyde- yuk! There are several significant disadvantages to the production and use of these potentially toxic products. With respect to the production of energy, in 2004, 317 billion cubic feet of natural gas was consumed in the industrial production of ammonia for the fertilizer industry. To put this in perspective, about 25.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas is consumed in the United States each year for other purposes. However, as suggested above, it is not the depletion of our natural gas resources that is the primary disadvantage to the use of chemical based fertilizers; rather, it is the damage to the environment (primarily the soil and atmosphere) that speaks in deafening tones to the disadvantages of using these toxic products to fertilize the plants we grow and eat. Water pollution is inevitable in large agriculture operations when nutrients, especially nitrates, are washed into the watercourses. High intake of nitrates from contaminated ground water has been linked to thyroid cancer, skin rashes, hair loss, birth defects and blue baby syndrome, a potentially fatal blood disorder in infants. Indications of nitrate poisoning in animals include discoloration of the mucous membranes, a sluggish staggering gate, labored breathing, rapid heart rate followed by collapse, coma and, in severe cases, death. Excess nitrates in the waters of our lakes and streams induce the growth of algae. When the algae die the microorganisms that consume them strip oxygen from the water causing the death of invertebrates, fish and shellfish. Anyone who has observed a stagnate pond has experience this process first hand. For sure, it is not a pretty sight! Contamination from impurities is an inevitable result of the fertilization of plants with chemical based fertilizers. The type and concentration of these impurities, which may include fluorides, cadmium and uranium, will vary depending on the material used to manufacture the fertilizer, but you can rest assured that the inorganic fertilizer you purchase at your local nursery is never completely free of potentially toxic impurities that will end up in the food you eat if you use it to fertilize your vegetable garden. Another significant disadvantage of chemical based fertilizers, of special concern climate change enthusiasts, results from the fact that nitrogen based fertilizers are converted by soil bacteria to nitrous oxide the green house gas responsible for acid rain. Some environmentalists also believe that nitrous oxide is a significant contributor to global warming. Finally, and possibly most importantly, the prolonged application of chemical based fertilizers to the soil invariably results in a condition called fertilizer dependency. This is so, because the continuous application of fertilizers derived from chemicals eventually kills the organisms responsible for the soil ecosystems that produce natural organic fertilizers like earthworm castings. I will have a great deal more to say about this important subject below; however, for now, realize that the death of the beneficial microorganisms and larger invertebrates in the soil renders the cultivation of plants totally dependent on the continuous use of the toxic chemical based fertilizers that caused the demise of the fragile soil ecosystem in the first place. The advantages of organic gardening. Using the gardening methodology described in this book, the organic gardener can produce an abundance of healthy toxin-free vegetables for his or her table and beautiful flowers, shrubs and trees that will be enchanting for the eye using only natural organic fertilizers produced from cheap organic household waste and readily available manures from neighboring horse stables. This book on the attributes of organic gardening differs from other tomes on the subject because I emphasize the importance of vermiculture, the composting of organic waste with earthworms, in production and maintenance of a successful organic garden. Present day organic gardening can be an expensive proposition given the high cost of organic fertilizers like blood meal, bone meal, alfalfa pellets and cottonseed meal. However, one does not have to resort to the use of these expensive organic fertilizers to be a successful organic farmer. Trust me on this one, earthworm castings are the answer to the organic farmer's dream garden oasis. This book tells you how to make earthworm castings from inexpensive organic waste and how to use them in your garden. rest assured, you are on the way to becoming a successful organic gardener and I am going to be there for you every step of the way. You can do this, I know you can!