Lawns Big Enough for a Garden

I have seen so many homes, and so many yards here in Tallahassee, and elsewhere. What I do not see in the yards, some big, some small, are organic gardens, or any kind of vegetable or fruit garden. What a shame, I would say, since food grown at home, using organics, is fresher, healthy, and richer, than produce bought in the supermarkets. Would it not be nice to follow Thomas Jefferson’s idea for America back in the 1800’s, which was that America would be dotted with organic farms, and most of us would be working in our organic gardens/farms? Many of us did before Big Oil came along. Much of America’s prosperity, and moral development, came as an effect of our simple, small farm, small town, entrepreneurship lifestyle before oil changed all that.

What comes to thought, when thinking about “organic” or “organics?” For me, I think about nature, naturalness, back to basics, home grown, putting the garden to work, not using synthetics, chemicals. An organic garden is a chemical-free garden, if by chemical is meant synthetic chemical, not natural chemicals freely found in nature.

An organic garden is a healthy garden. The soil is not unnaturally tampered with through the introduction of contaminents, pesticides, or chemicals that in nature do not belong there. Before the emergence of the petroleum industry along with our petroleum based agricultural system, everything grown was organic. Prior to the 30’s America was filled with organic gardens, and agricultural models based on sustainable, organic operations.

An organic garden is a location in which vegetables, fruits, flowers, trees, bushes, are grown using nature’s elements of controlling bugs, and other garden critters. It is an open, but controlled ecosystem. Substancially, Organic gardening is about controlling the bug population, so that healthy plants can emerge. In addition to this, and in support of this, organic gardening uses a system of plant rotation, so that the same bugs do not infect the same plants year after year. Compost, and mulch which can include pine needle straw, especially here in Tallahassee, Florida, but also, bark chips, small twigs, paper, and more compost, play a big part in a healthy garden, and healthy soil.  Compost is the garden’s best friend, so it does not hurt to use it in abundance, with the proper balance of nitrogen and carbon inputs. A healthy soil, thanks to nutruient rich compost, and proper working of the soil, along with water, and sunlight inputs, will reduce the unwanted bugs, and insects. Healthy plants keep many of the critters away. Mulch will control water evaporation and absorption, and protect the soil from the hot sun’s rays. Also, attracting birds by putting up bird baths, and bird feeds helps control bug population too. However, some bugs are good, and attack the ones that eat our plants. We want to attract those as well, such as the ladybugs.

I am now about to go back to work in my organic garden, as I always have a rich population of tomatos, peppers, squash, basil, and others. In fact, we have not bought any of this vegetables for over two years. Not one, except for an event we participated in in which we needed a bigger amount of produce than what we had. Overall, we are getting better at organic gardening here in Tallahassee, and hope to be 80 percent vegetable independent within the next three years. Much of that will have to do with how successful we are at composting, and controlling the bugs. Yes, that is the essential task: getting rid of the hungry pests.