ecobites.com

Making your life greener - one bite at a time.

Soil is the base of the complex pattern of life here on Planet Earth. Yet we exploit it and allow its fertility to be eroded. We pollute the air we breathe, the water we drink and the soil which produces our daily food with our man-made poisons. Farmers have a responsibility to the earth and to the generations which will follow.

They are its caretakers. Organic farmers seek to live in harmony with the ecology, farming not just in imitation of nature, but in harmony with it.

We have lost touch with the dirt and mud our ancestors felt beneath their bare feet when first they walked the forests and plains. We have grown away from the earth.

Soil is alive. It's animal, mineral and vegetable. The decay of organic matter provides the food which gives life to the teeming bacteria in the soil. Good soil also has abundant minerals in the form of rock particles.

The principle behind organic farming is that healthy plants can come only from healthy soil and that healthy animals are those raised on lush pastures grown on fertile soil. Healthy plants are said to resist insects and disease.

During the last 50 years there has been an explosion in the number and variety of chemicals available, and promoted, for use on food crops. These include, artificial fertilisers claimed to supply all a growing plants requirements, pesticides claimed to deal with any insect problems, and herbicides to control weeds.  Much commercially available seed is now hybrid or genetically modified to produce plants but no viable seed forcing growers to re-purchase seed each year.

Growing numbers of people have become concerned about the environmental damage caused by the massive use of agricultural chemicals and about the content and quality of the produce that is generally available – what chemicals might it contain and what might be the health effects of long term consumption of this unknown chemical cocktail.

This concern has led to the re-discovery of organic growing methods and a renewed awareness of the consequences of the loss of bio-diversity that has occurred during the last several decades.

People looking for alternatives, began to seek organic produce. During the eighties groups such as the National Association of Sustainable Agriculture Australia (NASAA) were formed by organic growers to certify farms as organic, and the government, recognising the export value of organic produce, set up the Organic Produce Advisory Committee (OPAC). This committee developed a National Standard for Organic and Biodynamic Produce which must be met by the various certifying agencies. Organic growing has now become 'respectable'.

HOW DO WE GROW ORGANICALLY

So, if you want to grow organically, how do you do it?

SOIL

The most important factor in producing healthy, tasty crops is to build up the fertility of your soil. Where chemical growers use a range of manufactured chemicals to feed the plants, organic growers feed the soil, not with chemicals but with organic matter -manure, compost and organic mulches.

This organic matter feeds the myriad of soil micro-organisms, encourages earthworms and in time produces a rich vibrant soil. Only healthy soil will produce healthy and prolific crops.

The value of worms can't be emphasised enough. Worms live on the organic matter in or on your soil. They process it for you by eating it and then providing worm casts which contain a wide variety of nutrients in a form easily available to plants. At the same time they aerate and break up the soil as they tunnel around looking for food.

COMPOST

Compost is the most wonderful material and if you have good compost you need no other fertiliser. It is, after all, what nature uses and if you look at the forests around the world, or what's left of them, you can see how successful nature is.

Any organic matter, material which was once living, will break down eventually in the composting process and the nutrients it contained will become available for re-use by your plants.

Composting is simply the recycling of organic matter. Compost gives you a never-ending circular supply of all the nourishment your soil will need to grow strong and healthy vegetables – and its free!

Compost will be only as good as the materials which go into it. You need a variety of materials to give you a balance of nutrients: grass clippings; kitchen waste; leaves; weeds; manure; hair, mouldy bread; meat scraps; egg shells; sawdust (from untreated timber); tissues; vacuum cleaner dust; feathers, twigs. The list goes on and on.

As the materials become available, put them either into a covered compost bin or make a pile in the open air. Whichever method is used, it is essential that the bottom of the bin or heap is open so that soil micro-organisms and worms can enter the compost. Water the heap from time to time to provide sufficient moisture for correct composting. If you're using an open-air heap, try to turn it over regularly to hasten the decomposition process.

As the material starts to decompose you'll find it becomes quite hot. This is a sign that it's curing well. As it cools down, the worms will come to finish off the recycling for you. When the heap is cold and the material completely broken down, apply it to your soil and start planting.

MULCHING

This is a technique which many organic growers use and which they find particularly effective. Mulching reduces evaporation, stops wind erosion and keeps the soil surface moist and friable.

Mulch is any organic matter which covers the soil. In a natural forest for instance nature covers the bare earth with leaves, twigs and bark and they lie undisturbed, left to decay and in turn nourish the soil. These form a natural mulch. Organic growers, realising the benefits of such a process, endeavour to reproduce these conditions in their own vegetable gardens. To do this they use a variety of organic matter.

Hay: This is one of the best mulches to use, particularly if you can obtain second or third-cut lucerne. Lucerne is rich in nutrients as its deep roots take up minerals and other nutrients not available to more shallow-rooted plants. When the lucerne is cut and placed on your garden, these minerals are then transferred to your soil as the hay slowly decomposes. Second or third-cut is better than first-cut which often has a large percentage of meadow grasses.

Leaves: These make very good mulch. They are akin to the natural mulch found on the forest floor, they have got many nutrients and if you can gather a few trailer-loads in autumn it will save you buying hay in the summer.

How to Mulch

Now that you have your bales of hay or other material, your next step is to place it on your vegetable garden. First ensure that your soil is well-watered. Divide the bale of hay into pads and place these directly on the soil so that all the bare earth is completely covered – the thickness of the mulch will depend on how much material you have and how big your plants are.

Leave a little space around the stems of the plants to reduce the possibility of fungal problems. When planting seedlings, simply move aside the mulch to leave a couple of centimetres free of hay around each plant.

Advantages of Mulching

Weed Control: Mulch inhibits the growth of unwanted plants which find it difficult to make their way up to the sunlight through the mulch. You will find that those which do achieve this are spindly and shallow-rooted and are easily pulled out. Place these unwanted plants on top of the mulch so they in turn will add to it.

Water Conservation: A good layer of mulch will greatly reduce the amount of soil moisture lost to evaporation. Watering of a mulched garden is best done by drip irrigation so that water penetrates more readily to the soil rather than being sprinkled on the surface of the mulch.

Temperature Control: If you lift up the hay on a hot day you will find that the earth underneath has remained cool. Similarly, on a cold morning the temperature of the soil under the hay is well above the air temperature. This ensures that your plants are subject to a more constant root temperature which, in turn, aids their growth.

Worms: Worms love mulch because it creates the conditions under which they thrive – damp, dark, even temperatured. Pick up any pad of mulch and you will find the worms doing much of your work for you -- aerating and nourishing the soil. This makes digging your garden superfluous.

Nutrients: As the mulch slowly decomposes it provides valuable nutrients and organic matter to your soil.

The maintenance of the fertility of the soil is the first condition of any permanent system of agriculture. In the ordinary processes of crop production fertility is steadily lost: its continuous restoration by means of manuring and soil management is therefore imperative. Sir Albert Howard, An Agricultural Testament (1940).