I can often be found battling a never-ending tug-of-war against mutant tomato horn worms and aphids anyway I can naturally in my organic garden.
My interest in organic gardening began after a visit to the family farm, whose land had lain fallow for twenty years. I planted (out of reverence to what I remembered) peas and beans and melons (fruits of the harvest that sustained my family as a child)—not expecting much of a return. To my surprise, the fields were kind—producing bountiful crops with very little work—and no pesticides. That convinced me, having faithfully followed Robert Rodale’s Organic Gardening methods, his was a viable plan, and I set about to ensure his practices would continue.
My current organic garden is a small raised bed located on the north side of the house, nestled at the end of a row of shrubs. It seemed the best spot, where it would get essential sun all day without being hindered by the shade of trees in the back yard.
I decided to do Lasagna Gardening, adapting my own methods of layering. The first step was to custom build a platform according to the size of the plat. Next came the layering with all the goodies. I started the first layer with whatever I had on hand. Shipping boxes, old magazines, brown packaging paper.
I threw in some banana peels, leaf mulch and compost in the second layer, then topped it off with compost manure and garden soil. (A word of advice: Don’t use fresh grass clippings). I did, and got these unsightly white sprigs that looked like aliens sprout up after a few weeks.
The end result is a beautiful harvest, with absolutely no pesticides, so little weeding it is hardly worth mentioning. Nothing genetically engineered about these babies, folks….just plain good eats.
Related articles
- Garden Friday: Lasagna Gardening (ourmotherskeeper.com)
- Fall / Winter Garden Clean-Up – Don’t Forget To Compost It! (survivalfarm.wordpress.com)
- Letter Re: Experiences of a Novice Gardener (survivalblog.com)
JUDE GARRISON 