Organic or non organic?

[bluemoon]

I'm completely organic, though if I was applying for Soil Association registration I'd fail as my chickens aren't always organically fed and I use their manure. I did use a bug gun once, three years ago, as I'd nursed a plum tree back from the brink of death only for it to become covered in greenfly on the new shoots. I'd normally have just rubbed them off, but the tree was in such a delicate state the shoots might not have survived. I borrowed the bug-gun, it took three squirts and I still feel guilty about it three years (and a very healthy plum tree) later.

[stupot]

Another non-organic only when all else fails. This year onlythe odd slug pellet though thankfully Mr Mollusc has kept his head down! My organic soapy water with tea tree and cinnamon oil seems to work on the green/white/black fly a treat!

[SMS6]

yep - I need 3rd option to. I'm as organic as possible but I'm damned if I'm going to let all my hard work go completely to waste

So I will use non organic methods if really, really necessary to save a crop from total failure

[shoreham_steve]

Totally organic - why spray a poison on something your children will eat?? Defeats the object of growing your own, surely?
Although I do understand the urge to spray bind weed !!
The uneaten slugs and snails in my frog friendly garden get picked up and kept in an ice cream tub until dustman's day - then out with the rubbish. I figure that if they survive as far as the landfill site, they'll be happy as pigs in the proverbial brown stuff!

[Bren In Pots]

I nearly voted organic because I don't spray with chemicals and only use comfrey fertilizer but then realised my washing up liquid mix I use isn't organic and neither is the card board and paper I add to my dalek.
So I'd like to be organic but I'm not really.

[BarleySugar]

I'd go for as organic as possible too, as stated on another thread, if it's spray or lose the crop completely, I'll spray. At least I know what and how often.

[Alice]

I think you need a 3rd option Allotmentlady.
I'm with the majority here. I try to be as organic as possible but there has been the odd occasion when I have had to resort to a non biological solution. I wouldn't sit back and watch everything destroyed.

Shereham Steve - I see what you are saying but if the whole crop from your garden is destroyed there is nothing for the children to eat and it has to be bought from the shops - and that stuff has been sprayed 40 times over, and with what we don't know.

[Rabidbun]

I try to be as organic as possible also. Presumeably the tomato feed I use isn't organic, nor the "organic" slug pellets, or the compost itself (bound to have various fertilizers added).

Not keen on losing crops though after the Great Tomato Disaster, so if I had to, would spray as a last resort.

[Snadger]

I just wonder...........would ANYONE garden inorganically if they had the choice?
Me, I fit into the same class as most, no weedkiller, no inorganic pesticides,no inorganic fertiliser but the slug pellets let me down!

[ginger ninger]

As organic as i can be, when given the choice, i buy fair trade produce as well, i like fact that the people that grow the things i CAN'T grow, get payed properly.

[Alison]

I just wonder...........would ANYONE garden inorganically if they had the choice?

Yes, loads of people do, we all have a choice and lots of people chose to take what they see to be the easy option. I think until fairly recently the issue of the effects of chemicals on our food wasn't really discussed and there are still alot of people that haven't made the connection and just want "perfect" crops. I friend of mine knows a NT gardener and he thinks that anybody who doesn't use as many chemicals as possible is mad!

[jackie j]

I dont use any sprays and ony use slug pellets. I use chicken manure pellets to feed plants.

[FB.]

"Organic" growers are allowed to use certain chemicals. I prefer to add an even more environmentally-friendly category of grower: "untreated".

Although I buy all kinds of pesticide-filled foods (meat, veg, fruit) from the local shops, I try to ensure that everything I grow (to eat) is chemical-free.

I compost as much garden and kitchen waste as reasonably possible.
Our local council is quite "hot" on the recycling (we have four types of bin), so I sort my household rubbish into several types into bins in the kitchen; nasty waste, plastic, metal, glass, cardboard and food leftovers (which get composted). Once you get into a repetitive routine, it's actually very easy to instinctively put certain types of waste into certain bins without even thingking about it.

[Hilary B]

Our holiday place in Spain, we visit for up to 3 weeks at a time, as often as possible. Our total non-recyclable rubbish for a 3 week visit is less than a carrierbag full. We don't eat out, but most burnable rubbish ends on the fire which cooks our breakfasts. We take the recycling stuff to the collection points 'on the way' to other places (including the ferry home) and the one bag of rubbish gets dropped off the same way.

Organic gardening..... close. I VERY rarely use pesticides (used to use anti-black-spot stuff on the miniature roses), occasionally weedkiller, bordeaux mix when appropriate (not this year, no tomatoes, spuds are a 'resistant' variety) and the 'less toxic' slug pellets.

Apart from bordeaux mixture, none of that lot goes on what will be eaten, and my kids are growed up and left home, so the issue of "- why spray a poison on something your children will eat?? Defeats the object of growing your own, surely?" doesn't arise (twice).

This year al the composts and fertilisers we bought were labelled 'Organic', and so far nothing else has been needed, but I gather that to strictly comply your seed has to be organically grown too. Mine is the normal stuff!

[Bramble_killer]

I can't be totally organic, the slugs would have the crops before me. I don't buy organic compost from the shops because it's too expensive. It's a question of making do with what i've got. and I buy F1 seeds because I quite like a crop (first time grower, still find wet compost ickky)