CULTURAL PRACTICES:

As said before, (because it's important) "Chronic problems with pests or disease are symptoms of crop failure and not the cause." Crop or garden failures are usually caused by : All of these are the result of the gardener's cultural practices.

We have defined organic gardening as the "kind of gardening that employs environmentally friendly materials and environmentally friendly cultural practices." This session is about the role of the gardener and the use of those environmentally friendly cultural practices.

THE ROLE OF THE GARDENER:

"The Principles of Gardening" by Hugh Johnson says, "What, if anything, do the infinities of different traditional and individual ideas of a garden have in common? They vary so much in purpose, in size, in style and content that not even flowers, or even plants at all, can be said to be essential. In the last analysis there is only one common factor among all gardens, and that is control of nature by man. Control, that is, for aesthetic reasons. A garden is not a farm."

"The essence is control. Without constant watchful care a garden - any garden - rapidly returns to the state of the country round it. The more fertile and productive your garden is, the more precarious its position. . . .The rake, the hoe, the shears and the broom lie at the very heart of gardening"

Somewhere close to the other end of the spectrum regarding the role of the gardener is "The No-Work Garden Book" by Ruth Stout. She maintains that most of the work associated with gardening is really unnecessary except for year round mulching.

When the gardener is attempting to work with nature, is the role of the gardener mostly as helper, partner, or boss? In practice, maybe all of the above. Three of the more interesting books that address the subject are:

RUTH STOUT'S "NO-WORK GARDEN BOOK":

Ruth Stout wrote a series of articles for Organic Gardening, the magazine, starting in the early 1950's and continuing through the 1960's. Her thesis was that the garden would pretty much take care of itself if the soil was fed an abundance of organic material. She advocated spreading a thick layer of organic material as a mulch over the entire surface of the garden. The material was simply allowed to remain on the surface and was not dug into the soil. She called it her "Year-round mulch method."

She didn't use any pesticides or commercial fertilizer. She simply moved the mulch back to expose a bit of soil for planting and then moved the mulch around the young plant after it had sprouted. She said it was less work than digging in the soil but, in truth, she mostly wanted to get out of the way of Mother Nature whom she considered as the better gardener.

Mike McGrath, the former Editor of Organic Gardening, said that the three most important things in gardening are: ‘soil improvement, soil improvement, and soil improvement'. Mike McGrath agrees with a lot of Ruth Stout's approach.

HENRY MITCHELL'S "THE ESSENTIAL EARTHMAN":

Henry Mitchell has been described as one who writes about gardening "rather the way Melville wrote about whales." He says, "Now the gardener is the one who has seen everything ruined so many times that (even as his pain increases with each loss) he comprehends - truly knows - that where there was a garden once, it can be again or where there never was, there yet can be a garden so that all who see it say, ‘Well, you have favorable conditions here. Everything grows for you'. Everything grows for everybody. Everything dies for everybody, too."

"There are no green thumbs or black thumbs. There are only gardeners and non-gardeners. Gardeners are the ones who ruin after ruin get on with the high defiance of nature herself, creating, in the very face of chaos and tornado, the bower of roses and the pride of irises. It sounds very well to garden in a ‘natural way.' You may see the natural way in any desert, any swamp, any leech-filled laurel hell. Defiance, on the other hand, is what makes a gardener."

MICHAEL POLLAN'S "SECOND NATURE":

Michael Pollan's "Second Nature" links gardening with the natural order and the environment. He has some interesting and important things to say and he is definitely recommended reading. He makes the point that, "The gardener doesn't feel that by virtue of the fact that he changes nature that he is outside of it. He looks around and sees that human hopes and desires are by now part and parcel of the landscape. The ‘environment' is not, and has never been, a neutral, fixed backdrop; it is in fact alive, changing all the time in response to innumerable contingencies, one of these being the presence within it of the gardener. And that presence is neither inherently good nor bad"

snip . . . "Because of his experience, the gardener is not likely to conclude from the fact that some intervention in nature is unavoidable, therefore ‘anything goes.' This is precisely where his skill and interest lie: in determining what does and does not go in a particular place. How much is too much? What suits this land? How can we get what we want here while nature goes about getting what she wants? He has no doubt that good answers to these questions can be found."

snip. . . . "It does seem that we do best in nature when we imitate her - when we learn to think like running water, or a carrot, an aphid, a pine forest, or a compost pile."

CULTURAL PRACTICES - PREPARING THE GARDEN SITE:

ARTICULATING GOALS AND PURPOSE:

The purpose, goals and proposed use of the garden need to be thought through before making the design or layout. Issues such as the amount of available sun, water, money, time, and energy have to be addressed as well as the issues of climate and region. What is wanted out of the garden is frequently overlooked.

Ruth Stout, for example, designed and installed a garden that was more garden than she could handle. She said that she thought a large garden increased her odds for having enough fruit and vegetables. She then put in a new but smaller garden so she could give better care to fewer plants. Coming up with a better plan and correcting mistakes is very much a part of good gardening. Not thinking through goals and purpose of the garden usually leads to problems later.

CLEANING UP THE SOIL:

Picking up trash and garden litter, digging out and getting rid of too many rocks and unwanted plant material is mostly just labor. The hard part in cleaning up the soil is getting rid of weeds and weed seeds. If the site for the new garden is relatively free of weeds, then maybe hand weeding followed by a simple raking is all that is necessary. If, however, there are lots of weeds or weed seeds, there may be a real project.

Perennial weeds, that is weeds that repeat their life cycle beyond the present growth season, have the capacity to grow whole new plants from a remnant piece of root left after hand weeding. The annual weeds, that is the weeds that complete their life cycle in the present growth season, have the capacity to set and distribute weed seed throughout a wide spread in the garden. Getting rid of an abundance of root pieces and seeds can be a challenge. Do as best you can by hand weeding, rake the soil surface smooth and water generously, wait two or three weeks for the seeds or root pieces to set up new plants and hand weed again. This process may need to be repeated several times to do the job.

The use of black plastic landscape mulch is effective in cleaning up weeds and it is relatively easy. It is, however, also destructive of the soil organisms making hand weeding a better way to go.

TESTING THE SOIL FOR DRAINAGE AND CORRECTING DRAINAGE:

Dig a series of holes on 10 - 15 foot centers (.3 - .5 meters), one foot deep by two feet wide (30 x 60 cm), cover the holes with a sheet of plastic and let the soil dry out. Once the soil is dry, fill the hole with water and time how long it takes the water to drain out. The ideal time is 10 to 30 minutes. If the soil drains significantly faster than 10 minutes or significantly slower than 30 minutes, the soil should be amended with a 2- inch (5cm) layer of compost. Remember from Session Two that organic material will speed up the drainage of soils that drain too slowly as well as slow down the drainage of soils that drain too sharply.

If it takes four hours or more for the water to drain out of the holes, this may be an indication of hard pan. Check for hard pan by poking or pounding a metal rod or a length of heavy gage "rebar" straight down into the soil. If you run into definite resistance, measure the depth on the rod and poke several holes 5 feet (150 cm) or so away from the original test site to see if there is resistance at the same depth. If so, this would indicate a layer which would most likely be hardpan. If you think that you may have hard pan, try to poke or pound through it with the metal rods to increase the drainage. If you can't get through, amend the soil as deeply as you can in the troubled area with lots of organic material. The extra organic material will help to build an increased earth worm population and, in time, there is a good chance that they will do the job for you. The third alternative to hard pan is the use of raised beds.

TESTING THE SOIL FOR ORGANIC CONTENT:

The amount of organic material in soils varies widely. In those areas with little rain fall, the organic content can be as low as 1%-2% by volume. In those areas with a lots of rain, the organic content can be as high as 20% - 30%. Some of the delta lands with organic soil can have even higher levels of organic material. An organic content of about 20% -25% by volume in the top 12 inches (30 cm) would be about right for most garden soils.

A "quick and dirty" way of testing soil for organic content is to put about a handful of soil in a clear glass jar, fill the jar 2/3 full with water, shake, and allow the mix to settle overnight. The organic content can be seen as a dark band on top of the mineral particles and/or floating on the surface. Measure the thickness of the organic layer(s) relative to the thickness of all of the layers.

In most cases, the soil will be short of organic material and will need at least a 2 inch (5 cm) layer of compost or composted manure as a top dressing which should be scratched in with a rake.

CULTURAL PRACTICES - USING THE RIGHT PLANTS:

The ability to create a successful garden depends mostly on the gardener's ability to select the right plants and to use those plants in the right way. Plants are selected for a whole variety of reasons but at the top of the list, plants should be selected on the basis of their ability to really do well in the specifics of the garden. A plant growing magnificently in some distant garden does so because it is suited to the specific conditions that exist in that particular garden and beyond that to the specific conditions of the particular spot in which it is planted. It may or may not be suited to the conditions anywhere in your garden. Gardens are very individual and each has its own particular cluster of gardening environments. There are cold spots, dry spots, sunny spots, spots with sharp drainage, etc. The challenge is to select a variety of plants that will grow magnificently in all of the various spots that make up the garden. Plant vigor is often the key element in making the successful garden.

SELECTING PEST AND/OR DISEASE RESISTANT PLANTS:

For the most part, resistance to pests or disease is more relative than absolute. Usually, healthy plants growing in favorable conditions are pest and disease resistant and get into trouble when they are stressed. The commercial terms for the relative degree of pest and/or disease resistance are:

IMMUNE:

The pest or disease organisms are incapable of causing significant damage or infection.

RESISTANT:

The pest or disease organisms are capable of causing damage or infection but the plants can usually thwart the attack unless stressed. It is important to keep in mind the distinction between "immune" plants and "resistant" plants. Using pest and/or disease resistant plants gives the gardener an edge in avoiding pest or disease problems but not a free ride.

TOLERANT:

The pest or disease organisms can and do cause minor damage or a mild infection. If the growing conditions are particularly well suited for the "tolerant" plant, the plant may be able to deal with the attacking organisms to the point that it can be considered as "resistant".

SUSCEPTIBLE:

The pest or disease organisms can easily cause major damage or serious infection that is beyond the plant's defenses. Susceptible plants should usually be avoided except for use as marker plants to tell if indigenous pests or disease organisms are present.