"Stephen Howard" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 31 Oct 2003 08:01:29 +0000 (UTC), "Franz Heymann"
wrote:

As far as I'm concerned, organic gardening is about using common sense
- and the basic rule of thumb is to stick with naturally occurring
materials.

I try to use common sense in my approach to gardening. I use any substance
which I understand to have one or more beneficial effects on the environment
and I avoid substances which have been proven by scientific experiments to
have deleterious effect on balance. I doubt if that makes me an organic
gardener.

I am certainlt not a bandwaggoner.


I'm sure you can find a better and more concise explanation out there
- but this one suffices for me...I prefer gardening to politics.

I have been searching for long for precise definitions, but every time I
come across only wishy-washy ones like that porposed by you higher up in
this thread.

Considering that Phurnacite is coal which is decomposed and compressed
plant material, why is the use of its ash taboo, whilst that of wood is
kosher? I know the answer, of course, but it has nothing to do with
"organic" or "not organic".

I could be wrong, but as far as I'm aware processed coals like this
contain additives in order to regulate their burn. I know for sure
that there's a substantial difference in the quality of the ash from
plain old coal.
I wouldn't recommend coal ash on the garden anyway.

I would have thought that if anything was organic, coal was. Now do you
understand my problem?

I wrote to His Bobness, Duke of Flowerdew for some clarification on
the use of coal ash - his reply said that the residual sulphur in the
ash made it unsuitable for general garden use, though it's apparently
fine for cold frame drainage and chicken dust-baths.


Or consider the following: Wood ash is OK. What is the situation
vis-a-vis wood which has first been converted into coke by heat and
subsequently burnt as coke? Is this ash "organic" or "not organic"?

It would be considered organic.
If you chucked a plastic bottle into the converter you'd render the
coke inorganic.

In spite of the fact that the plastic yields only gases in its combustion
product, and therfore leaves no residue in the solid ash?

By the way, I used the wrong word when I said "coke". I obviously meant
"charcoal".

Franz