Organic Gardening – Gardening with Nature – Simple or Complicated?

Years before I had a place to start a garden I always knew I was going to be an organic gardener.

If the subject would come up — all I heard from various folks was that things were different now and you couldn’t possibly garden without chemicals in this day and age. I never believed that for a minute.

When I finally had some ground on which to start gardening — the possibility of not being successful never occurred to me.

About all I knew when I started gardening was to turn the soil and plant. All I had as a guide was Organic Gardening Magazine — which back then I read cover to cover. (After all these years – I finally dropped my subscription.)

I worked as closely as I could with nature. If something didn’t grow, I replanted. If something seemed wrong — I tried to the best of my ability to find out about it — and if I didn’t — I just put it on the back burner for sometime in the future.

Making it Complicated

This past year I came across a website by a young man giving classes on organic gardening. A reader – who was a beginning gardener — commented on one of the posts and to paraphrase he said “Gee — I’m so glad I found you because I never knew that organic gardening was so complicated.”

That was sorta sad, because organic gardening is NOT complicated. And I think in this age we live in it’s important for everyone to know that it’s easy to start gardening and be successful. We don’t have to learn anything complicated to get started. Nature can do all the complicated stuff for us.

Sometimes Folks want what’s NEW, not what’s TRUE

Three years ago, after 32 years of gardening I started TMG.

Frankly, I really didn’t think I’d have many readers because I’m far from mainstream. And as you know I’m very simplistic in my approach to gardening. I write what I have experienced and I know what I do works.

My readers who have tried out the simple methods I’ve used for 35 years, have also been successful.

Chemical Companies Control what’s Promoted

It amazes me to see comments by various folks even on organic gardening forums who sincerely don’t believe that organic — or working with nature — is capable of producing enough to feed the world.

Of course, that doubt is just what the chemical giants want to instill in everyone.  It’s good for their bottom line.  ($s)

And although they have controlled what’s promoted about agriculture, they can’t hide the truth of things if someone is determined to find it. It takes some looking — but it’s out there — and plenty of it.

More than 100 Years Ago

I was surprised to learn that the decline of our soils by artificial agricultural additives started in the mid 1800s! (I had thought it was more like the early 1900s.)

A German scientist, Justus von Liebig, erroneously thought he had discovered that plants need only nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium when actually they need dozens of minerals to maintain health.

That erroneous discovery is still being promoted as truth by chemical companies today.  You’ll recognize the NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium ) ratio on all things labeled as fertilizers. (It’s no wonder the vast majority of our soils are depleted.)

Liebig discovered his mistake 10 years afterwards.  Too late then, because the chemical companies were already making big money and a little thing like the truth was not going to stop them.

Lots of Proof

In spite of the fact that chemical company money controls what is promoted to the public, the proof of the damage done by modern agriculture is staggering. The proof that working with nature can bring back “ruined” soil is also staggering.

This year I have read numerous examples of brilliant men through out the world (over the last 100 years) that have discovered the miraculous workings of the soil. Some can actually explain the “complicated” work that I let nature perform for me in my garden.

Many of these men are soil scientists, but just as many have been farmers with large acreage who have proved without a doubt that working with nature is productive and profitable.

Over the last 100 years many of these men purposely purchased farms of 500 or more acres that had been totally ruined by modern agriculture.  These farms were thought by conventional farmers to be a total waste of money since they would grow nothing under the normal chemical agricultural methods.  By working with nature these farms were restored within a few years to productivity as great or greater than they were before their soils were depleted by chemicals.

The Drug Industry

It’s interesting to note that drugs were also added to the chemical companies inventory of products towards the end of the 1800s or early 1900s.  All of course  are promoted “as being of great benefit” to mankind— just as the chemicals are promoted as being a benefit to agriculture. For the most part, the reverse is true.

Final Thought

If one takes the time to trace the true history of drugs and chemicals, they might find that all is not what it appears to the masses. Most of the time these products have and still do benefit the chemical companies more than the public.

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Organic Garden is easy, effective, efficient and it’s a lot healthier.

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