Cultivating The Love Apple

So I’ve decided to try going completely organic this year. It’s not too big of a step since I’ve never used pesticides or herbicides. But I have used chemical fertilizers in the past to give my plants a boost, as my soil is 90% sand and doesn’t have much nutrients (they tend to get washed out of the soil). So I just need to replace the chemical fertilizer with organic and remember that the organic needs time to break down in the soil before the plant can use it, so I need to get it out there earlier. And, although it tends to cost 2-3 times as much, the organic fertilizers have really cool names like Blood Meal, Kelp Juice, Bat Guano, and Ground Bone Meal. And then there’s the manure.

I’ve been putting vast quantities of composted manure into my garden for the last three years. Before that I would plant things that would just not grow. At all. Then I did some reading and did a soil analysis that told me I was dealing with a 90% sand garden. Not surprising in retrospect since we live so close to Lake Michigan and there’s a lot of sand dune parks all up and down the shore. Anyway, once I started adding the manure, things started taking off. Not only does it enrich the soil with nutrients it holds onto water for the plants to use. Also it provides lots of beneficial bacteria that break down organic material into a form that the plants can use.

And that’s really the essence of organic gardening. Feed the soil and the soil will feed your plants. Work with the natural systems of breakdown and renewal instead of trying to force a plant to grow with synthetics. I’ve been almost there for the last few years with my worm compost and manure, but I’ve always waffled when the plants went into the ground and told myself that the chemical fertilizer was “insurance”. Really it’s Twinkies. It makes the plant grow like crazy, but it’s really not good for it or the soil. Or the ground water. Or anything else. Also, it’s made from crude oil. Triple hippy hex!

So this year I’m going cold turkey. I’ve already purchased my Bone Meal and Blood Meal and about 1200 pounds of manure. I’m thinking I’ll need around a ton, total. That’s a whole lot of crap. Fortunately it’s pretty cheap, around $1 for a 40 pound bag. Note: this is composted manure, which has been allowed to sit for a while and cook down. It’s not fresh or “green” manure, which can burn your crops if it’s not allowed to sit. And I get my exercise in by hauling those bags all over my yard.

Well see how this “organic” thing works out. It’s definitely more work, both in the hauling, but also because you have to plan things out more in advance and know what you’re doing. But it just makes more sense to me to have a sustainable system. I blame Vicki. She’s been feeding me all these books like The Omnivore’s Dilemma and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Suddenly I feel the need to wear tie-dye and stick it to the Man.

Mike

This entry was posted on Monday, May 5th, 2008 at 8:14 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.