What is Organic Gardening?The process of organic gardening is to garden flowers, plants, fruits or vegetables the natural way. But, what does that mean?Gardens grown organically are planted and maintained by a gardener who avoids using chemicals and synthetic products in the process. It is the environmentally friendly and safe way of horticulture that many gardeners have taken a hold of. Why does it matter?A long time ago, I didn’t think much about using chemicals for pest control or fertilization. I just thought it was a lot of senseless talk of the tree huggers – aka environmentalists.
That was until the affects of chemicals became known to me when it disrupted my lifestyle. Here in New Mexico, we love to go fishing. We also like to play in the water, and swimming the Pecos River used to be a favorite pastime. I remember, we were so excited about the development of Brantley Lake about 20 years ago. Our vision was that it would be the perfect place for recreation and fishing. It is still a great place; however, due to high levels of DDT (a chemical previously used for pest control) in the fish, the State Parks recommend that the fish be caught and released. In other words, you can’t eat them. If DDT affected the fish, it makes me wonder what swimming in the water could do to humans. This fear has prevented me from introducing my children to my original love for swimming in the rivers. Now, the concept of gardening organically makes total sense to me. I try to avoid using chemicals in my flower garden, on fruit trees and when raising garden vegetables; however, I have found it to be challenging to get rid of weeds without the use of chemicals. Return to Flower Garden Lover Home Page from Organic Gardening |
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