On Fri, 31 Oct 2003 21:37:22 +0000 (UTC), Franz Heymann wrote:

Yes. I am intensely concerned with learning about the correct definitions
of things and processes, your sarcarm notwithstanding.

In that case, you are doomed to disappoint as far as defining
"organic gardening" is concerned.

Maybe it would be helpful to approach the matter from another
perspective entirely. The methods of organic garden partly arose
in reaction to the excesses of the 1950's, when the slogan
"Better living through chemistry" wasn't a sour joke. The advent
of synthetic insecticides -- DDT the most famous -- meant that it
was practical to have a garden free of insect damage. It was
common advice that the entire garden be sprayed from stem to
stern twice a week to keep the insects at bay.

Organic gardening was also a reaction to the overuse of synthetic
fertilizers. Such fertilizers -- introduced by Justus Liebig in
the mid 1800's, I believe -- meant that growers no longer had to
grow green fertilizer crops, use manure, and so on.

Both of these "chemical" or "non-organic" practices had
downsides. Insects became resistant to the insecticides (as did
fungi to the f-cides), and the chlorinated hydrocarbon
insecticides such as DDT turned out to have serious effects on
birds. Likewise, ending the use of manure and green manures led
ot an impoverishment of the microbial flora of the soil, and
changes in soil texture and characteristics. Moreover, fertilizer
applied in excess of plant needs caused algal blooms in rivers
and lakes.

I personally consider hardcore organic gardening an over-reaction
and often fuelled by ignorance of basic scientific findings. As a
lazy gardener, I can't be bothered to get out the sprayer unless
something serious goes wrong, but if some serious *does* go
wrong, I will not hesitate to use an insecticide, if that is an
appropriate solution.

In the same vein, I have no hesitation in using glyphosphate on
blackberries, couch grass, and other weeds very difficult to
control.

Likewise, if one's soil is impoverished in the major nutrients,
there's nothing like bagged fertilizer to relieve the deficit and
get things growing well again. But at the same time, I am a great
believer in mulches of leaves, compost, etc on flower beds.

So perhaps you can define organic gardening in terms of what it
isn't, rather than what it is.


--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
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