Organic Land Care

The danger with gaining an understanding about organic land care is that once you learn just how toxic conventional products are, and that organics work in concert with the way nature intended life to work, you feel compelled to warn everyone you meet. A parallel can be made that our culture needs to recognize how we need to choose to stop poisoning our environment home by home, with the growth in awareness over the past 3 decades about how deadly smoking is to life.

Nationally, almost 80% of homeowners broadcast toxic chemicals wave after wave each season just for a more aesthetic lawn. One consequence is that we create toxic environments for our developing children to play. Many of us originally became smokers at the urging of huge multi-billion dollar companies with huge advertising budgets. Today large chemical companies convince homeowners of the need to use chemicals on the environment.

People wonder what exactly organic gardening means. The simple answer is that organic gardeners don't use synthetic fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides in their landscape. These products wreak havoc on the soil, our pets and wildlife, pollute ground water, as well as watershed systems. And they cause developmental damage to children.

Gardening Organically is much more than what you don't do. When you garden organically, you think of your plants as part of a whole system within Nature that starts in the soil and includes the water supply, people, wildlife and even insects.

An organic gardener strives to work in harmony with natural systems and to minimize and continually replenish any resources the garden consumes.

Sustainable Organic Gardening begins with attention to the soil. You regularly add organic matter to the soil, using locally available resources wherever possible. And everyone has access to the raw ingredients of organic matter, because your lawn, garden and kitchen produce them every day. Decaying plant wastes, such as grass clippings, fall leaves and vegetable scraps from your kitchen, are the building blocks of compost, the ideal organic matter for your garden soil. If you add compost to your soil, you're already well on your way to raising a beautiful, healthy garden organically. Organic soil amendments and conditioners pay for themselves with increased plant productivity. Healthy plants grow more vigorously and better resist insect attacks. They have greater resistance to the cold, heat, drought, and disease. Successful soil building best addresses the soil’s long-term needs by remedying deficiencies organically.

When plants are deprived of basic organic soil building, ingredients they suffer. Pesticides and chemical fertilizers result in infertile soil, stressed plants, and insect attacks.

Life in the soil - We live in a world teeming with life, yet few people know about the creatures that inhabit the soil beneath our feet. Every acre of soil is home to two or more tons of living things. This is a huge amount considering the fact that most of these organisms are smaller than we can see with the naked eye. It is estimated that in ¼ teaspoon of fertile soil there are:

  • 200 nematodes
  • 200,000 algae
  • 250,000 amoebae
  • 400,000 fungi
  • 8,920,000 actinomycetes
  • Between one million and one billion bacteria

There are more organisms in one handful of soil than there are humans on the planet. Soils that use chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides are, for the most part sterile. The natural balance is eliminated and the plants become depend on their next chemical fix.

Feed the Soil and the Soil will Feed the Plants - This is the soil food web. An extremely simplified version works like this: Plants produce exudates—sugars and proteins that drip from their roots. Those substances attract bacteria and fungi to the area immediately around the roots. The bacteria and fungi are in turn eaten by other soil organisms, called nematodes and protozoa. Those organisms then excrete excess nitrogen, sulfur, and other elements that were in the bacteria and fungi in plant-usable form into the root zone, where they are taken up by the plant. To benefit from the soil food web, you need to have beneficial organisms in the soil.

Right Plant, Right Place – The other key to growing organically is to choose plants suited to the site. Plants adapted to your climate and conditions are better able to grow without a lot of attention or input. We look for varieties that are well-adapted to the Southern New England as well as pest- and disease-resistant, and then place them in optimum locations for their needs.

In summary, Organic Land Care

  • Adapts the principles and methods of organic farming to the care of lawns and landscapes
  • Does not use synthetic pesticides or fertilizers
  • Focuses on building healthy soil, filled with a diversity of living things
  • Costs less money in the long run because healthy soils reduce the need for watering and produce healthier plants
  • Reduces the risk to children and pets from pesticides
  • Uses fertilizers that are less likely to pollute water because they release nutrients slowly