Allotment Growing

Vegetable, Fruit & Herb Gardening

Organic or Chemical Growing

Science has brought us wonderful benefits in our daily life and produced a revolution in farming and food production.

Weak, malnourished crops were decimated by pests and diseases until science discovered fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides. NPK balanced fertilisers cured the deficiencies producing healthy strong plants, herbicides destroyed weeds competing for resources and pesticides destroyed the pests. The soil was just a medium to hold the nutrients and support the plants.

Well, that was the theory..

The results could be somewhat different. Overdoses in nitrogen fertiliser resulted in run off to watercourses and massive problems in the rivers. Deficiencies developed in the plants due to lack of micro-nutrients, the ‘vitamins’ of the plant world. Pesticides killed friend as well as foe – eventually resulting in more fast breeding foes and problems as they infiltrated the food chain.

Nowadays we can be more sophisticated. We realise that we are part of an eco-system and alterations to that eco-system can have unexpected consequences. The soil is a complex system of itself and natural methods nurture nature rather than attempting to replace it with a simplistic control.

Working with nature

The organic approach of working with nature means you have a massive army of helpers on your side. Bacteria in the soil converting chemicals to useful forms for your plants, earthworms breaking soil and aerating it, predators eating your pests.

Safety

This most compelling reason I have for organic gardening is safety. Now before some massive chemical company sues me for suggesting their products are not safe, let me explain my reasoning. Before a product is released to the market it is tested and a ‘safe level’ is determined. So we know mice or rats can eat X mg of a product without harm – BUT – what if the plant we eat has X mg of product A and Y mg of product B?

There is no way that all the pesticides can be tested in combination, if any maths expert would like to send me a proof of this, I would appreciate it, and so we can not be sure of safety. Neither can we test the effect of eating these combination chemical cocktails over many years. Why take the risk?

How Organic?

Being ‘organic’ is not, in my opinion, an either or choice. I avoid the use of artificial fertilisers but do use fish, blood and bone. I do not use any pesticides, but will use herbicides in exceptional circumstances such as my Marestail problem. There I use Amicide whose effects are fairly clear-cut and documented.

The worst problem is…. The Slug. These little creatures can happily destroy a row of seedlings in a night. Luckily there are now ‘organic’ slug pellets as well as other organic solutions. Expensive but much safer than conventional solutions.

Related Sites:

Garden Organic

The UK's premier organic gardening charity, formerly called the HDRA

Soil Association

UK's leading environmental charity promoting sustainable, organic farming and championing human health.