AMENDMENTS AND PRACTICES

Composting - Composting is a natural decaying process that converts organic matter (food and garden waste) into a crumbly earthy nutrient rich product. Its natures way of recycling living things back into healthy soil.

Composting is the most widely used practice in adding nutrients to the soil and combating soil-borne pests and diseases. The time to apply compost is when plants are actively growing, not during late autumn and winter when long wet spells will wash valuable nutrients deep down into the earth.

Organic gardeners recycle "browns" (leaves, woody mulch, grass clippings, twigs) and "greens" (kitchen scraps, vegetable and fruit peels, coffee grinds, tea leaves, egg shells, torn cardbaord) into a compost heap of decaying matter. Mature compost looks and smells like good garden soil and is a phenomenal mixture high in nutrients and teeming with micro-organisms your soil needs to keep it in good condition. If you don't have one already, start your heap off this year - you won't regret it.

Compost-making is a year-round activity. The secret to success is to have a good mixture of material. If the heap is too wet, you'll end up with stinking sludge; if it is too dry, composting will be very slow. If you've got a lot of wet stuff, such as kitchen waste or green weeds, mix it with dry material, such as egg boxes and crumpled cardboard. Old envelopes are particularly good for mixing with grass clippings.

You can use a container or make a heap directly on the ground. Add to it whenever you like, remembering to avoid very thick layers of anything very wet or very dry. If you have a large quantity of any one material, such as grass clippings or woody prunings, make a separate pile. Wait until you've got the balancing stuff to go with it, then add it to the main heap.

If you're energetic you can turn the heap around, mixing it all up occasionally - but you'll get equally good compost by letting nature do the work for you.

Mulching - Mulching your soil provides a protective covering of the soil surface. It moderates summer & winter temperatures by insulating the soil from extreme heat & cold. It also prevents erosion, assists retention of soil moisture, improves soil structure, helps keep plants clean & disease free, encourages earthworm activity, and acts as a weed barrier. When mulches are made from organic materials, they will gradually add to the soil organic matter & nutrient bank as they break down. Common mulches include compost, well-rotted manure, lawn clippings, mushroom compost, leaves, bark or hay.

Plant & Crop Rotation - In an organic garden, rotation of plants is important. Rotation for a vegetable garden is essential because some vegetables take nutrients out of the soil, and some actually put nutrients into the soil. Those love being rotated. Some opportunists -- such as pests -- will set up house close to their favorite plants. Changing plant placement discourages repetitive pest cycles.

Cover Cropping - At the end of the growing season you may be ready to rest, but your garden is not. One final effort can make a big difference: cover cropping. Even small gardens will benefit from the use of cover crops, or "green manures". Tilling, weeding, harvesting and foot traffic of most home gardens tends to destroy soil structure. Planting cover crops is an easy way to revitalize the soil, and help soil tilth and subsequent plant growth. Cover crops are planted in vacant space and worked into the soil after they grow instead of being eaten. They provide a number of advantages to the otherwise wasteful use of space during your garden's off-season.

Cover crops help to retain the soil, lessen erosion, and decrease the impact of precipitation on the garden by slowing the runoff of water. They also reduce mineral leaching and compaction, and suppress perennial and winter annual weed growth. The top growth adds organic matter when it is tilled into the garden soil. The cover crop's root system also provides organic matter and opens passageways that help improve air and water movement in the soil.

Companion Planting - Some plants do better when planted near others. Some herbs, for instance, benefit certain plants and vegetables by improving the flavor. Some flowers lure insects to them and off your other plants. Some plants attract birds, butterflies and beneficial insects that will help get rid of pests.

Seed & Plant Choice - Always buy plants that suit your site and soil, and choose disease-resistant varieties whenever you can. Seed catalogues offer a huge range of plants, both ornamental and edible, that have natural resistance to all sorts of problems. There are even a couple of potato varieties - 'Cara' and 'Remarka' - that are resistant to blight.

Beneficial Insects - Beneficial insects perform valuable services like consuming pest and pollinating plants. In a natural balanced ecosystem, insects are neither good nor bad. The idea of "beneficial" only occurs when people establish a goal as in farming or gardening. Insects that are detrimental are considered pests. Insects that promote growth become beneficial.

Ladybugs are considered beneficial because they eat large quantities of aphids, mites and other insects that feed on plants. Bees are beneficial as key pollinators. Encouraging beneficial insects by providing suitable living conditions is a pest control strategy used in organic growing.