Organic Gardening: Growing Healthy Food in Your Own Backyard

A few years ago, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Ellie MacDougall, an organic farmer from Wells, Maine. She grew a variety of herbs, which she used to flavor oils and vinegars or dried for seasonings. Not long after our interview, Ellie retired and shut down Blue Sky Farm, but I was lucky enough to be the recipient of her farming/gardening wisdom before that happened.

With food prices skyrocketing, many people, including us, are turning to home vegetable gardens to try and offset a fatal case of empty pocketbook syndrome. But if you're like us, you want to make sure your produce is both abundant and organic. Although the battle against bugs, weeds and small creatures can be tough, there are steps you can take to win the overall war without dousing your precious commodities with questionable, if not outright toxic, chemicals.

According to Ellie, "The single most important thing to do to discourage predatory insects is to build good, fertile soil packed with slow release nutrients (i.e. rock powders, organic matter vs. quick fix high nitrogen "food" such as MiracleGro). Healthy soil encourages healthy, more resistant plants."
Some bugs just won't be deterred, however, and this requires other strategies. Inter-planting such as onions with cabbage, for example, can confuse the bugs about what is where. Physical barriers, such as row cover on wire supports over cabbages help bar entry to cabbage moths.

"For potatoes, we found that the potato beetles walk in, so we mulch with a wide row of straw to slow them down, and cover the plants with row cover over wire hoops," Ellie said. "We pick the big tomato hornworms by hand."

If you have problems with soil nematodes, you can discourage them with marigolds. As for weeds, try not to leave any soil open.

"In some places, we planted winter rye and hairy vetch in the fall, let it overwinter and whacked it down before the rye sets seed the following spring, then we tilled it in after a few days," Ellie said. "The rye has a chemical in it that tends to discourage seeds of other types of plants from germinating for a couple of weeks."

A quick growing, shorter-lived cover crop, such as annual ryegrass, can also be used to discourage weed growth. Mammoth red clover, white clover and other ground covers and green manures are another option. They help build the soil after they're tilled under.

"Of course, the hand hoe looms large on an organic farm," Ellie said.
On Blue Sky Farm, larger pests were discouraged by a 3' tall solar powered electric fence, which are especially effective with groundhogs.
Drought can also be a big problem for gardeners causing plants to produce an ineffective root system. Some growers find trickle irrigation, placing a hose with small holes in it alongside the base of the plants, works best.

"We went very targeted with hand watering - infrequent (once or even twice weekly during high heat and bad drought) but at least one inch each time to penetrate deeply and encourage plant roots to go deep, not shallow," Ellie said.

For more information on organic gardening and other related topics, visit the United States Department of Agriculture's homepage for an abundance of articles and ideas.