Who is growing organic/ non organic/ partial?

[Demeter]

Cam I just point out that where your canes originate from, or whether you use plastic items etc does not mean you are non-organic. Less green maybe, but not non-organic. Do not get the two confused -

Organic seems to have a meaning now that is so complicated, and so tied up with rules and regulations about what is or is not "allowed", if you claim to be or want to produce organic food you have to do X, Y and Z but it's perfectly fine if you do Q or W... Personally, rather than sign up (even notionally) to a set of rules that someone else put together, I prefer to take things one at a time, make decisions about what I personally feel comfortable with, and hope it all works out more or less OK in the end...

I aim to work in as natural and earth-friendly a way as I can, within my many limitations (not least inexperience!) and to me that is a broad thing that does include the environmental cost of everything, not just what actually goes onto the land... But as you say, while all that is (to me, anyway) important and interesting, it isn't technically a part of being organic. Maybe it should be!

But I suppose this is why I don't call myself an "organic" gardener, I use some other description for preference, or qualify what I say with "more or less" or whatever. I think I read an article recently suggesting that we should all stop saying "organic" and start saying something else, I think it was "earth friendly" that was suggested, for all these sorts of reasons. I guess that's where I'm coming from

[marigold007]

I buy as many organic products as I can: fertilizers (love the Growing Success range), compost, farm yard manure, and seed whenever I can, although I hate the fact that many I have seen are F1 varieties. I am trying companion planting too. I've used nematodes for slugs for two years in a row. I try to encourage insects, birds, and frogs in my garden by giving them homes, plants they like to eat, and water.

[pdblake]

I use slug pellets, but sparingly and in wildlife proof traps. Everything else is organic, unless grey water from the washing up bowl counts as chemical.

[kentvegplot]

I garden organically, using organic seed too when I can get it. I tried the 'allowed' slug pellets this year, with some success and didn't spray against any blighters. BUT I lost many more potatoes to slugs this year, so next year will use Nemaslug on the beds.

Also need to put in a small pond to encourage more natural predators.

All the compost is either home-made or bought in organic and the mulches are grass clippings - we get lots and lots of these!

BTW I have used seasweed spray on all the veg this year - what a fantastic product that is.

[vicky]

At home I am organic, I use organic slug pellets but that's the only thing I'd class as dodgy!

I work as a gardener too and am very non organic as I use all sorts of weedkillers, fettilizers and herbicides, unless I am requested not to! Most people I work for are more concerned about how their garden looks than what goes into it!

[mandi]

hi,
i'm organic....but i started using the safe for wildlife slugs pellets as slugs wiped out my direct sowings in spring but apart from that i don't spray or fertilise with any chemicals...i use organic compost for my patio veg and my own compost for the allotment beds. i did buy organic seed this year tamar organics (very reasonable)...but next year i'm going to use mainly heritage varieties(hopefully organic where i can find it) so i can learn about seed saving.
the motivation for all this is that we were spending a fortune on supermarket organic veg- never again!!!!! as i have a 2 year old daughter and frankly once you know about organaphosphates and the like its really hard to feed her that stuff.
the other reason being that i really want to learn about growing naturally by long term soil improvement and encouraging predators to deal with pests so in the longer run - no more slug pellets! i think its much more rewarding even though you have to reluctanly share some of your produce so its not going to look like the supermarket stuff but wow! the taste is out of this world. particularily our sweetcorn as i'd never eaten it straight off the plant before this weekend- fantastic! and it's a huge bonus that there's no hidden nasties in there for us all.

[Winged one]

I am a partial.

I don't use weedkillers (except last year when we fisrt cleared the plot) - do it by hand instead.

I DO use slug pellets as they are rampant on the plots and I want some veggies for myself. I also use organic methods such as coffee grounds etc, but they need a lot more than that.

I buy regular seeds and haven't yet started saving any (probably will next year, but trying to get food first).

I threw a couple of handfuls of miracle grow for food crops over things a month ago as they needed something adn that's all I could find. I don't have access to nice FYM, and don't have anything like enough of my own compost, so I think I will have to add fertiliser to the soil in the spring. But I will be spreading the contents of both the plot dalek and most of the home dalek on the beds that I am covering for the winter - rotted or not, they'll be pulled in and fine by spring as it will all be covered with plastic.

I would like to eventuually get to using even fewer chemicals, but I know that, realistically, while I am working fulltime and only getting to the plot occasionally, I will need some chemicals to either do or help me with jobs I can't do properly in the time I do have available. Mainly extra fertiliser and slug pellets. (Weeds I can mainly handle, although that would be much easier if all the plots around me were cultivated too and the weeds were kept down and not let run to seed all the time).

In the meantime, we are eating much nicer food, with far fewer chemicals involved in their production, and far fresher too, than those I used to buy in the supermarket (and still need to buy a fair amount too - not anywhere near self sufficient).

[Pumpkin Becki]

Our current garden and the allotment are now as organic as possible. My mother loved gardening, and my first experiences of tending my own garden saw me resorting to slug pellets and sprays for aphid/blackfly etc. I look back on those times with sadness - I had no idea what I was doing. Just because my garden looked pretty, it didn't mean it was a 'good' garden, or that I was a 'good' gardener. I stopped using slug pellets when I came across my resident garden frog looking very emaciated. I could only think that it was the slug pellets I had put down.

Now I bump off slugs and snails in the garden with a pair of scissors (Becki the Slug Slayer - oh yeah), and nemaslug at the lottie. I spray aphids etc with a solution of teatree and soap, or pinch out affected tips (and stamp on them rain-dance style). We feed the birds, have bird boxes, a bee box, an insect house, a butterfly box and a wild bit that I let the nettles grown in, we've even seen signs of a hedgehog this year!

The garden at the new house throws up a new set of problems, as I have an infestation of ground elder that I think I will have to use weedkiller on because of its proximity to the fence (I won't be able to dig it out). But I fully intend to limit this to a one off occurance and find other ways to prevent it coming back again.

[Eyren]

Another "organic as possible" here

I only use organic fertilizers (I reckon the organic ones have a wider range of trace elements and feed the soil better), and resort to sprays only when desperate - like when caterpillars were devastating my brassicas. Even then I chose a wildlife-friendly brand to reduce environmental damage, and only spray if it's a long time until harvesting (because I don't want to eat the chemicals myself). Thankfully the slugs are at manageable levels (I did water in some Nemaslug this spring, but only once), and I raise most of my plants at home to avoid the tiny seedlings being munched down before they even get going.

I've also occasionally resorted to glyphosate in my garden, but only to try and get rid of really persistent perennial weeds in the non-veg-growing areas. There's not much else you can do about a pernicious bramble that's rooted under the boundary fence!

[poozie]

i recycle and reuse everything i can, compost everything i can, use organic chicken muck, net everything and squash greenfly etc, but i do use glycosulphate weedkiller when i really have to and Dithane.

I just feel i owe it to the world to make as small an impact as i can.

[SlugLobber]

As I had to resort to slug pellets, I guess I'm not organic in pest-control, but everything else is. Even my soil improver was organic! So, I'm an 'almost there'!!

All weed control is by hand, as the garden isn't that big.

[SueA]

I don't use any sprays, poisons, weedkillers., pellets etc. but I would only say I'm partially 'organic' because I do buy some non-organic composts, the odd bottle of tomato food, some slow release feed pellets for baskets & don't buy only organic seeds.

[Alison]

I grow as organically as possible but as with many of those above don't buy organic seeds. For me it's simply a case of reducing as much as possible the impact I have and so that I can eat as naturally as possible. I also try to reduce the amount of "stuff" I need to buy each year - look after canes, reuse netting and even plant ties, save seed where I can, buy as little compost as possible and make my own deterents and fertilisers. This also saves me money and makes me sleep sounder at night.

[T-lady]

I think if you'd raised this as a poll the results would have been staggering.

Like the vast majority above I use no chemicals in the garden but don't always buy organic compost or seeds. In fact I actually bought 2 bags of peat this year to start off a new raised bed (I justify it by saying that it will now be used for years to come, bolstered by home made compost / chicken poo - at least I'm not using it to coat scrubbed new potatoes to fool the guilible buying public!)

I try hard to reuse most propagating stuff but do resort to new plastic 'disposable' module trays as they are so difficult to clean properly.

[quark1]

I try and use the least possible amount of chemical nasties - but will resort to things like slug pellets etc when absolutey necessary.

Quite frankly I am more concerned about genetically modified stuff. Not where a successful crossing between fruits and/or veg - but across life groups. I really don't want to be growing toms with pig genes and so on. I also don't want to support a certain well-known US company with the Italian sounding name beginning with M and ending O - avoid their products like the plague!