Juli Lawrence – Rakish Gardening

July 31st, 2007

I went organic for one reason. I fell in love with the butterflies my first gardening year here (2005) and wanted more. It was hardly a nice thing to do, luring them in, then using pesticides. That’s like putting out bird feeders and then letting the cats out.

So my first year, it was a new garden, and I believe that virgin gardens don’t have big problems of bugs because the word hasn’t gotten out yet that you’ve got good eats. The only problems I had were damping off on one romaine lettuce and flea beetles on the eggplants. (Easily cured with Sevin.) Oh, I get slugs, but those are not a big deal. Easy enough, despite the creep factor.

Second year, after I’d decided to go organic, I was hit with them all. Flea beetles, yes. Terrible leafhoppers that suck the juices from the leaves. Aphids. (Aphids are easy to handle.) But the ones that killed me, the cucumber beetles. They wiped out my curcurbits, the cucumbers and melons. (Maybe the melons were lack of good pollination…I’m still not entirely sure.)

I wanted to use Sevin, but by the time the bugs came, I’d made the commitment to go organic. I did well with my standards, tomatoes, eggplants and peppers. Those guys hold up to a lot. The tomatoes looked rough because of the leafhoppers, but I got a good crop.

I held off and bit the bullet. Over winter, I studied. It was almost an obsession and I drove those around me kind of nutty with my organic talk. I kept studying and finally came up with my plan. It would be a multi-pronged attack.

First, companion planting. I would plant a variety of plants amongst my vegetables. Some would be to bring in beneficial insects such as lady beetles, lacewings, predator wasps, tachinid flies, and so on. Turns out there’s an entire army of wonderful bugs that do nothing but prey on the destructive bugs. Other plants would serve as repellents, plants that ward off certain baddies. Still other plants would be used as trap crops, being more attractive to the baddies so they’d go there and leave my other stuff alone.

Second, compost! Compost is the single most important thing for the organic gardener. I’m addicted to composting now. You work it into the soil (or spread a nice layer on top) to add organic matter and good things – nutrients, beneficial bacteria and fungi and all-around good karma. It truly is the gardener’s black gold. Then, throughout the season, you make compost tea and use that as a foliar spray and root drench. Compost not only adds all of the micronutrients and microbes and betters the soil, it can help plants resist attack from bugs and disease.

And finally, control of bugs and diseases using organic methods. There is quite an arsenal of products that are organic, homemade and commercial. Some work better than others. There are certain products that I personally don’t want to use, although they’re considered organic. Prime in these is the class known as pyrethrins. These are mostly made from mums and work quite well, but they’re very deadly to bees and other beneficials. That’s my personal choice, and others might feel differently.

I’m all for killing the bad bugs, but my top priority is not harming the beneficials, particularly the bees since they’re in short supply.

So that’s basically it: companion planting, compost and organic methods of pest/disease control. The pure joy in my heart is the best part of all.

• Summer crops
• Cool weather crops
• Crop rotation

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