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Green Journal #7: Organic Gardening
June 11, 2007

Until I became a homeowner, I had never grown anything except for alfalfas in my second grade science class. Until recently, I never gave thought to what was going into my garden. After all, if it’s green and living, what’s to worry about. When my husband and I first bought our house, we spent weeks clearing out the weeds, looking through nurseries, choosing plants and working them into our front yard. After all the sweat, we of course wanted to protect the fruits of our labor so we applied all the products that guaranteed quick growing results, kills pests on contact and basically built an invisible chemical barrier around our yard. Now that our daughter is old enough to spend lots of time in the yard, I began to worry about exposing her to garden chemicals. Now, as we begin the process of re-landscaping our backyard, I’m learning that there’s green and then there’s “green”. Let me try to explain myself a bit here.

We all want our yards to be green and lush but how we get there (and keep them there) is the fundamental difference between conventional and natural (or organic) gardening. Most of the products sold at home improvement stores are conventional products that contain chemical additives or pesticides. Even something as innocuous as fertilizer may contain hidden surprises. Fertilizers can be made from compost, organic materials or waste (including sewage sludge). Most fertilizers contain three main plant nutrients: potassium, nitrogen and phosphorus. Other micro-nutrients like zinc and other metals can also be included. Sometimes, these micro-nutrients are derived from industrial waste. The EPA actually encourages the reuse and recycling of industrial waste, including hazardous waste, as substitutes for natural materials as long it is safe and effective. The steel industry is a major contributor of fertilizer waste materials as its waste is rich in zinc but may also include lead, arsenic, cadmium, chromium and dioxin Although studies have shown that only a small portion of chemical fertilizers and soil amendments use industrial or hazardous waste, I, a common backyard gardener, have no way of telling due to lack of labeling requirements. Many consumer advocate and environmental groups have been lobbying for stricter labeling standards but no action has yet been taken by the government.

So what’s a backyard gardener to do? For our backyard project, we decided to follow the basic principles of organic gardening: healthy and natural soil enrichment, sound planting decisions and an integrated pest control solution. For this week, my green journal action was focused on natural soil enrichment because that’s all we had time for this weekend.

One of the most important steps to healthy gardens and natural pest control is good soil preparation. Regular soil nutrient replenishment is necessary for good soil health and growing healthy plants. If you are not sure of your soil condition, a soil test from your local nursery can help you decide what your soil is lacking. From our prior planting experience, we knew our heavy clay soil with poor drainage and lack of nutrients is a challenge. Rather than relying on chemical fertilizers, we consulted the local organic nursery and used a few simple and organic soil enrichments to prep our yard. I have not yet ventured into backyard composting (though it is on my summer gardening list) so I bought some of the E.B. Stone Organic products.

We worked in a couple inches of compost into the top layer of the soil (after quite a soil turning workout). Compost not only adds nutrients to soil but the compost pieces also loosen up the clay soil allowing drainage and air to eventually get to the roots. In addition, we took some fresh lawn clippings from the front yard, spread it in the backyard and worked it into the soil along with compost; the clippings will eventually turn into compost and help enrichment and aeration. “Grass-cycling” was a great tip from our local recycling center and best of all, it’s free! In the really poor areas of the yard, we also added a bit of organic potting soil on top. We were originally going to put down some chicken manure as well but our curious dog could not leave the bag alone so I think we are just going to use it as selective fertilizer rather than soil enrichment.

Time consumed to implement this action: The soil preparation itself took several days between getting enrichments and actually working the soil. However, I don’t really think the “organic” method took any longer than the chemical method as both ways required us to work enrichments into the soil.
Extra Upfront Cost: The organic compost and top soil was only a bit more expensive than the conventional products. Overall, I think we spent about $20 more for the whole area.
Amount of resources spared: Admittedly, I’m not sure how to measure this except knowing that I didn’t put any unsafe chemicals into my soil and of course, reusing my lawn clippings for free.

Now that the hard prep work is done, I can’t wait to do my plantings.

CindyC