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Making your life greener - one bite at a time.

"Everything that has lived can live again in another plant" + "Only a plant really knows what another plant wants" the two principles set by Dr W.E. Shewell-Cooper of the Good Gardeners' Association. Organic method of cultivation where you mulch heavily, using a four-to-eight inch covering of hay over all exposed soil, you could use newspaper and leaves, grass clippings, or whatever else is available. No need to dig, before renewing hay throw on whatever manure is available if the area is to be used for any plants or crops other than herbs.

Toss in vegetable matter or anything else that has once lived! The increasing worm population in undisturbed soil can turn over earth much more efficiently than a gardener with a fork. The advantages are no digging, no weeding, much less watering and within a few months, very friable, healthy soil. Obviously healthy soil produces healthy plants, and healthy plants are less susceptible to diseases and insect attack.

A test for the organic method is to leave a bag or newspaper on a patch of soil for a week. When the bag is lifted the area will be moist, earthworms active and weeds gone. This principle is, of course, copied from nature and can be observed in nature, particularly in rain forests and underneath deciduous trees.

For seed planting: pull the hay aside, scratch the surface, give a ration of compost, and plant the seed - pulling back as the young plants emerge.

Seedlings: poke a hole through the mulch and plant into the soil.

Potatoes are thrown on to the mulch and covered with extra hay. Pull the hay aside and harvest clean potatoes - no digging needed!