Organic Gardens

Living in Western Colorado

Organic GARDENS

CROPS HAVE BEEN RAISED organically for ten thousand years, utilizing recycled plant and animal matter as natural fertilizers and companion plants and homemade remedies as insecticides and herbicides. The process may take longer than commercial growing, but the results produce a healthier environment and natural foods that taste better and are better for you. The choice to go organic versus inorganic is often one of quality over expedience: rapidity of growth cycle and quantity. Commercial growers, therefore, rarely choose to go with all-natural methods of growing their crops.

FERTILIZERS & INSECTICIDES

Inorganic fertilizers are made from natural gas and petroleum-based products. They release more quickly into the environment, are cheaper, faster, and tend to be more effective than their organic counterpart. On the down side, commercial pesticides and herbicides often kill more than weeds and destructive insects. Neither do they replenish the soil as organic fertilizers do. On the upside, they do make for larger, more attractive fruits and vegetables, delivered more quickly to the marketplace.

Organic fertilizers, from plant and animal by-products, take longer and require more quantity of product, but they have important attributes, namely tastier, healthier food and a farming process that is better for the environment, not tainting water and soil with chemicals.

Organic gardeners test for true pH of their soil and modify it with the most organic methods available, using things like livestock manure, blood and bone meal, and sea-grass to provide phosphates and potash. Nitrogen is added with green manure, which includes legumes like peas and alfalfa, raised and tilled into the soil. One natural pesticide, Neem oil, from the Southeast Asian Neem tree, doesn’t seem to affect the beneficial insects such as butterflies or honeybees and it deters insects with a bitter taste. It also causes the beetle exoskeleton to soften. Absorbed through the plant’s roots, Neem oil becomes a systemic insecticide.

Other natural insecticides include Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), tobacco, and pyrethrum (derived from an African daisy). Insecticidal soap is another. All are relatively harmless to humans, pets, and wildlife and are available in most garden stores.

PLANTING

Sue Maslow at The Garden Center in Delta says, “The buyer has to go with what is available. It’s how they garden with it that makes the process organic.” Many organic seeds are available, but sometimes hybrids have the best qualities for this area, considering wildlife, insects, fungus, and weather, plus the benefits of better taste and size.

Companion planting is another suggestion from the experts. Some bugs don’t care for garlic and marigolds, and these companions may keep the bugs at bay. One traditional companion practice the Native Americans use is to plant maize, squash and pole beans, the ‘Three Sisters’, together. The cornstalk serves as a trellis for the beans.”

ORGANIC GREENHOUSES

Andy Pappas’ organic greenhouse on Cedar Mesa is a ‘state-of-the-art’ operation. The large portable building is set four feet below ground level. Tomatoes vine upwards on twine hooked to a span of wire. Black vinyl bags hold the plants, including not only tomatoes, but also red lettuce, green leaf lettuce, basil, cilantro, and cucumbers. Fans circulate the air, moving moisture throughout the greenhouse to keep it cool.

During the summer, produce is grown outside and the greenhouse interior rises to 150 degrees to sterilize the soil and prepare it for the next season, much like what you see when farmers ‘burn off” their fields in the fall.

VOGA (Valley Organic Growers Association), promotes local sustainable agriculture by supporting and educating producers and consumers. In addition to growing market flowers, fruit, and vegetables, they offer workshops and have on-line references. Their web site is a community feature of Hotchkiss and Paonia (North Fork Valley). Go to www.vogaco.org

Greenhouses and garden centers in the areas surrounding Montrose and Delta counties contain the resources needed for organic gardening. Both the County Extension Office, and CSU, www.coopext.colostate.edu/TRA/PLANTS/index.html in Grand Junction have Master Gardeners to answer questions.

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