ORGANIC

For such a little word, it carries LOTS of meaning for all of us!
I have seen so much about "organic" things lately, that I thought perhaps I should do a posting about it.
I went to a function called "Flavors of the Valley" up here this past week. It hosted mostly Organic Farmers in our Connecticut River Valley. I got to taste the most wonderful produce. I also managed to bring home a fair amount of information about signing up for a summers worth of wonderful Organic products. It’s a great idea.
One of the things I picked up was a booklet written by Dr. Alan Greene, that wonderful Pediatrician. He mentioned all the nasty things that could be caused by chemicals put on our produce on farms and in our gardens. It ends up in the food chain and eventually in our bodies. Our children are particularly vulnerable to these additives that show up in the form of diseases and weaknesses in later life, if not right away.
His suggestion was to buy organic produce if economically possible, rather than get produce we all KNOW is treated chemically.
The bottom line here is that in our own gardens we should grow organic products! Leave out the chemicals if at all possible. Instead of spraying, pick off the critters and plunk them in soapy water if you don’t want to squish them.
Use mulch instead of chemical fertilizers. It’s better for your soil and plants than fertilizers are anyway. It’s also cheaper, I might add!
Try interspersing your garden with plants that bugs find offensive.
Have you heard of IPM (Integrated Pest Management)? If you haven’t, get studying!
If you MUST spray, don’t do it on a windy day when it can spread to places it’s not welcome. Also, do not spray insecticide when our pollinators are out and about. Do it at, or after sunset, so you know the good guys are home asleep! Many malicious bugs do their dirty work after nightfall. Take advantage of that!
Here's a site from Washington State on the other side of the USA, but it's a good place to find out the meaning of the term Organic Gardening.