The landscape and gardening industry was built on the back of synthetic chemicals but whether you are a vegetable gardener or a homeowner with a yard to care for there are alternatives to chemicals available to you. We have been miss-lead by advertising campaigns into thinking that chemical based products are the easiest way to have a beautiful yard and garden and we are highly influenced by our idea of what this beautiful yard and garden should look like. Truthfully, as a society, we are control freaks looking for the easy way out.

Herbicides & Pesticides - Weeds and pests are evolving resistance to the poisons!

1948 US farmers used 50 million pounds of pesticides with 7% loss of field crops
1965 they used 335 million pounds
1989 it was 806 million pounds
2000 at just short of 1 billion pounds of pesticides.

In 2000 US farmers reported a 13% loss of their field crops.

Organic agriculture allows insect predator populations to retain a healthy presence and act as a natural form of pest control. Within your landscape you can choose to minimize your lawn which is the highest consumer of chemicals, water and your time not to mention that lawn care equipment tends to be highly inefficient and polluting. Alternatives include natives grasses or large beds of trees, shrubs and perennials stocked with plants that are native to the area or highly suited to the site conditions and so, self-sustainable or low maintenance. Learn about xeriscaping and how to make the most of the water that comes your way.

Mulching everything has a multitude of benefits including feeding the soil, weed control, habitat for beneficial insects, reduction of moisture evaporation and accelerated plant growth. Mulch can be grass clippings, compost, wood chip, shredded paper and a variety of yard debris. In the fall the leaves from the trees are enormously valuable as mulch or the necessary "brown" matter component in your compost. Use them as winter mulch that can be turned into the bare soil in the spring or left to breakdown on the surface under trees and shrubs. They can be mowed into tiny bits that break down quickly and left on the lawn to feed the soil, this does not create a thatch problem which is a sign of shallow watering and an over use of chemical fertilizers.

Recognize the value in your kitchen scraps and compost them instead of putting them down the garburetors which is hard on our water treatment system or worse sending them to the landfill. From spring to fall you can put them in the blender and dig them directly into empty spots in your garden beds and into the pathways of your vegetable garden. Learn how to properly use a composter, they come in all different sizes and types or can be made out of simple materials. Worm composters are an option that can go indoors in the winter and can be a great way to teach your children about ecology. If you don't have room for a composter find ways to get community compost faculties into your neighborhood.

Invite Mother Nature into your yard with bird baths and feeders, bat houses and insect housing that can be as simple as a pile of twigs; let the food chain be your pest control. Use companion planting in your garden, look for plants that will attract predators and repel pests. Find out what is causing your pest problems and address it. In my yard I have two plants that have bugs every year, these bugs do not spread to the surrounding plants and are impossible to get rid of short of all out chemical warfare. One is a Manitoba Maple, a notorious favorite of aphids. I am not willing to part with the tree as it provides much needed shade in the summer but what I have done is hung a bird feeder in it, top dressed the soil under it with compost, mulched it and directed water from my eaves to it. I have seen a dramatic reduction in the aphid population to the point where I can live with them. The other plant is a Hops vine, contained to prevent it from taking over, that is unhappy and covered in leaf hoppers annually. I can live without the Hops but not the shade it provides so I planted th native Western White Clematis - Clematis ligusticifolia and now that it is large enough I intend to remove the Hops and with it the Leaf Hoppers. Sometimes organic gardening means learning to live with a few bugs but cultural practices can have a big impact and if we think about it these pests are food for more desirable wildlife and so a necessary part of our environment.

Most people who grow vegetables are already practicing organic gardening as few who had stopped to think about it would apply synthetic chemical fertilizers and use herbicides and pesticides on the food we are growing for ourselves. There is lots of information available regarding different approaches one can take like the pizza garden or systematic crop rotation and companion planting strategies. My mother is compost junky and has even collected the kitchen scraps from local restaurants to supplement her own; some people's trash is another's treasure. People like my mother are the best resource for information about organic gardening and if you're lucky enough to know a vegetable gardener they are usually more than happy to share what they've learned. Local garden clubs also offer a wealth of knowledge there for the asking and these days the internet is an invaluable resource full of information to get you started down the organic path.