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compost heap question
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 change "invalid" to "net" to respond |
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