Eco-friendly gardening is a fun, gratifying and cheap methodology of gardening. Despite the many benefits of this approach few folk have thus far been able to fully appreciate the benefits, just because most lack the necessary understanding and experience. What the organic gardener does is, at its heart, a form of biomimicry, or emulating nature to unravel problems. When properly done, organic gardening can produce prime quality crops and landscapes, reinforce the garden environment, protect water quality, and conserve natural resources.

It is a vital component of going green.

In a well-preserved ecosystem,eg a natural grassland or a forest, the living plants, be they evergreens (like the trees) or annuals (like various grasses), drop litter to the soil surface as part of their annual cycle. Organic gardening is a methodical (holistic) approach that involves a genuine comptehension soil and soil management, integrated pest management, the life cycles of plants, pests, and the natural enemies of pests.

Managing The Bugs

However, the organic gardener approach is far more than getting shot of the utilization of manmade insecticides and manure. Organic gardeners struggle to work in association with nature, and view their gardens and properties as part of a system that begins with the soil and includes insects, plants, the water, animals and humans. Simply put it is to think more longterm, using natural manure to build your soil up. Healthy soil means healthy plants, and healthy plants produce better, offer premium taste, and are better able to battle illness.

Organic pest control requires an in depth appreciation of the pest life cycle, and involves the cumulative effect of many techniques, including :

• Allowing for an acceptable level of pest damage
• Inspiring carnivorous favourable insects to flourish and eat pests
• Revolving crops in different spots from year to year to break pest reproduction cycles

Each of these strategies also allows for other benefits, for example soil protection and improvement, fertilization, pollination, water conservation and season extension.

Composting At The Core

Composting is in a number of ways the heart of organic gardening. What goes into the soil comes out as attractive veggies, flowers, shrubs and trees. Composting is becoming quite a thing to do - as itis also one of the methods to prevent global warming - and special composting bins can be acquired or even made quite easily. Your compost will be the most vital source of nutrients which has to be added to the soil.

Plants grown in healthy soil are healthy and impervious to pest and diseases. Thus, what happens below the ground is as critical as what happens above. Plant the borders of the garden in native flowers or plants such as clover or alfalfa to draw inadvantageous insects such as lady beetles. Avoid planting plant crops in massive blocks. Planting trees and bushes in the middle of flower beds varies height and makes your garden more visually engaging. Just be certain to consider how tall your trees will grow in say twenty years, as well as where their roots will spread and where there shade will fall.

Organic gardener skills aren't a new idea, but does represent an increasingly popular kind of gardening. The climate changes taking place more or less dictate this is the only way to go in the future. And as it is also more healthy for you it is really a win-win suggestion. Here you can find more definitions and suggestions on organic horticulture.

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Precisely who is the government trying to protect by suing a small Kansas meatpacker in order to prevent them from testing all of their cattle for BSE aka Mad Cow Disease, rather than the pitiful sub-1% level currently required?

For some reason, I don't think it's me or my family...

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One area I'd love to lighten up on would be our family's food budget, both in the area of environmental impact as well as dollars spent if possible. After all, who wouldn't like to save a little money? Even though we live in the breadbasket of America with possibly the greatest concentration of agriculture in the world, it's a lot more difficult to eat locally than you would ever think.

Oh, sure, locally raised beef / pork / chicken is everywhere (especially the first two). But there's only so much meat you can eat before you, well, die. Try to find any local vegetables outside of onions, tomatoes, or sweet corn (bleh), and the pickings are slim indeed. Even hitting the local farmers market doesn't yield much more: red and white onions, maybe a couple varieties of tomatoes, soon enough all the god awful sweet corn you can stand; if I'm lucky, some carrots or cucumbers of maybe even a green pepper or two might make an appearance. Heck, if I'd stumble on some asparagus or broccoli or salad greens or even garlic, I'd wonder if I was in the right place. No doubt my experience is tied to the quality of my particular farmers market (because I've been to many that are excellent; just not our local one ), so all you farmers market proponents out there can relax!

I'd love to get a local CSA subscription. But the closest ones I've been able to find leaves us quite a distance outside their delivery range. And far enough away that driving to pick up weekly deliveries makes no economic sense.

I'm personally looking forward to setting up our own garden - I've got too many ideas for what I'd like to attempt - once we settle a bit more at our new home. But considering that it's almost June already(!), I'm not sure there is time this year to plant all that much. But future years will certainly see quite a bit of very local produce!

So I am a little bummed that I can't pull something off like Rebecca Blood with her Eating Organic on a Food Stamp Budget series - Nebraska just ain't California, I'm afraid. Our little family of three will just have to continue to spend a fairly ridiculous amount to eat. We go out of our way to avoid as much overprocessed food as possible, and unless I'm missing out on some cost savings that haven't occurred to me, eating healthy is expensive.

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I see via Lighter Footsteps that this week is National Vegetarian Week. When I first saw the headline I thought someone was taking a page from the Buy Nothing Day book by scheduling it during an especially meat-centric time: the opening of the grilling season AKA Memorial Day (Yes, I know that that is not the purpose of the day! Yet, many many grills will be making an appearance that day...). But I see the Vegetarian Society is UK-based, so I'll excuse them from fighting the uphill battle here in the U.S.

Nevertheless, in the spirit of the week, I am going to be bringing a few extra veggies to any get-togethers I hit this weekend.

And I don't just mean ketchup...

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I'm not a big fan of PETA (don't care much for their methodology) nor Burger King (their food is just awful for you -- some day take a look at their menu's nutritional info and be disgusted), and it is exceedingly rare that they agree on just about anything.

But over the weekend, I read that BK is planning to show preference for cage-free agriculture methods in it's purchasing decisions which, as a softie, pleases me. Large corporate farm methods may produce food that is cheap and plentiful (at least here in the US), but knowing they way my food was treated before it becomes my food sometimes has me considering going vegetarian.

So kudos BK, for at least using a bit of your marketing muscle to make what I would consider a positive impact. Nevertheless, I still won't be eating there any time soon. And the King, well, he still creeps me out...

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