Organic gardening involves growing plants in the most natural way possible, without the use of chemical fertilizers, growth regulators and artificial pesticides. Organic plants are grown in an organic matter-enriched soil, with animal and plant residues and natural mineral and vegetable substances.
While traditional gardening uses synthetic materials, organic gardening involves the use of purely natural materials. Organic gardeners do not use materials that have been chemically altered to fertilize or protect their gardens from pests. They use mulches, and recycled organic wastes retain the soil fertility.
Organic gardening has its pros and cons. Here are some desirable advantages and tips of organic gardening.
• Organic gardening involves the use of manure and compost which is a mixture of decaying organic that has lots of soil and plant beneficial soil microorganisms. They also make use of other natural materials for fertilizers that brings nourishment to soil organisms, and in turn slowly, steadily and effectively make minerals available to plants. The reverse is the case for many conventional gardeners who rely on concentrated chemical fertilizers that though are rapidly absorbed by plants and produce quick growth, may kill important soil organisms like earthworms and bacteria.
• Organic gardeners are more likely to rotate crops than conventional gardeners. This is a technique that replenishes soil nutrients without using artificial fertilizers. In crop rotation, it is easy to grow one type of crop in a particular season, and then another kind of crops in another season. This is because, the soil minerals is stable enough for the variety.
• Organic gardening minimizes soil erosion using cover crops. This is where some your garden’s carpet grasses and leguminous flowers play a good role. The crops protect the soil between the harvest time of one crop and the planting season of the next.
• Organic gardeners control pests, using pesticides derived from chemically unaltered plant, animal, or mineral substances. The active toxic ingredient of these pesticides rapidly breaks to become nontoxic after their application to the crop.
• In addition to natural pesticides, the use of other methods to control insects and disease-causing organism like inter-cropping, where the gardener plants different crops in alternating wide bands. With this system, the movement of disease-causing organisms through a field is interrupted, since most insects feed on just one type of crop. They also reduce the damage by insects by spraying the crops with bacteria that kill the larvae and planting crops that attract beneficial insects that prey on the unwanted insects.
• Organic gardening has health related benefits. There is just few or not pesticide residue in organic products. Organic preserves and enhances topsoil, increases the chances of growing food in the future and helps preserve aquatic life by reducing the flow of toxic pesticides into rivers, streams, and lakes.
Some disadvantages of organic gardening however, are organic gardening may be less profitable. You also will require more labor and management skills in an organic farm. Also the yield of crops from the organic garden may not be as large as that of the conventional garden.
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