What is Organic Gardening?
Organic gardening is typically considered as the non-use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, which is believed to be healthier for both gardener and garden. But true organic gardening goes far beyond that. Organic gardening is really about designing the garden as a complete ecosystem, a natural environment where the gardener is a participant, not an observer.

At the root of organic gardening is companion planting, using mixed beds of many different plants rather than arrangements of identical plants in long rows. This technique is usually at its best when a combination of vegetables, flowers, and herbs are mixed together in a single bed. But it is essential that extra thought be put into choosing plants and organizing them. Companion planting has several benefits. First, it affords natural pest protection, since some plants attract pests and others attract beneficial insects that eat harmful bugs. Also, arranging one plant species in a long row makes for a “pest superhighway”; planting mixed beds makes it harder for pests to find their next meal. Second, companion planting promotes healthy soil. For example, you can plant corn, which uses nitrogen, next to beans, which give nitrogen back to the soil. Leaves of adjacent plants provide shade, inhibiting weed growth. Plants adapted to local climate and conditions are better able to grow without a lot of attention or input; on the other hand, when you try to grow a plant that is not right for your site, you will probably have to boost its natural defences to keep it healthy and productive.

When gardening organically, plants become part of a whole system within nature that starts in the soil and includes the water supply, people, wildlife and even insects. An organic garden strives to work in harmony with natural systems and to minimize and continually replenish any resources the garden consumes. Organic gardening, then, begins with attention to the soil. Organic matter is regularly added to the soil, using locally available resources wherever possible, everyone has access to the raw ingredients of organic matter, because the lawn, garden and kitchen produce it everyday. Decaying plant wastes, such as grass clippings, fallen leaves and vegetable scraps from your kitchen, are the building blocks of compost, the ideal organic matter for your garden soil.

The organic approach to gardening and farming recognises that the whole environment in which plants grow is much more than the sum of its individual parts, and that all living things are inter-related and inter-dependent.

Basically organic gardening involves:
• Treating the soil and growing environment as a resource to be husbanded for future generations, rather than mined for short term gain.

• Providing plants with a balanced food supply by feeding the many soil living creatures that live with composts, manures and other organic materials.

• Choosing renewable resources, thereby creating a sustainable future.

• Reducing pollution of the environment, by recycling in the garden, household and other wastes, rather than dumping or burning them.

• Combating pests and diseases without using pesticides that may prove harmful to human health and that of domestic and wild animals.

• Encouraging and protecting wildlife, by creating suitable habitats and by minimizing use of harmful pesticides.

• Creating a safe and pleasant environment in which to work and play.

• Moving with the times - taking new scientific discoveries and ideas into account, as well as the best traditional knowledge.

• Using good horticultural practices.

• Recognising the importance of genetic diversity and hence the preservation of threatened plant varieties.

Rowan Garden Designs ..............Bridgend ...............South Wales

Phone 07967 821788 or email Rowan Garden Designs now.