Lessons Learned in Organic Gardening

Posted by Cathy England
July 1st, 2009
Filed in Garden Pests and Diseases
Tags: organic gardening, pests, plant damage, slugs

The past couple of weeks have been both discouraging and humbling for a gardener, who cockily at times, find myself to be well versed in all of the quirks and difficulties in organic gardening.  This led me to want to share this article for pre-organic and beginning organic gardeners as well as those who have been gardening this way for years.

Admittedly, there are no two years alike in the world of gardening.  Sometimes the weather throws a wrench in the works, or I just do not have the time to spend in the garden, or there is a pest or disease causing a problem that I do not recognize.  The humbling of this gardener came about as a combination of the three.

Not spending enough time keeping track of the garden.

I have been feeling unwell for a couple of weeks, and as a result have not travelled to my garden five times a day, as I often do.  There is then the added stress of my “country garden”, which is located 20 minutes from me at a relative’s home.

Because we are trying to not only provide for our own eating needs throughout the year, but also to sell any bumper crops at our local farmer’s market, we have committed to a larger garden than we typically have.  I started seed indoors, and tended them carefully, and placed them in my gardens lovingly with all of the nutrients and conditions that they needed.

Somehow, many of my plants this year had been severely damaged.  Some were eaten to the ground, particularly in the country.  But in my very own yard, something was attacking my broccoli and cauliflower bed.

The influence of this year’s weather

We have had an incredibly wet spring.  And I have incredibly clay filled soil.  So, I was able to attribute some of the yellowing of leaves, and rotting of roots to the rainfall.  However, what did not make sense to me was how that much rainfall could erode my plants of all foliage, or fall so hard as to put holes in the leaves.

The aphids were being well controlled by the ladybug larvae in a shrub near my gardens.  I destroyed the small green worms that I found on my broccoli plants, and yet each morning, there were huge holes in my beautiful cauliflower leaves.  I was enraged, and a bit stumped.  This was not supposed to happen to me, I am an organic gardener, and should be able to fix all problems just as the books talk about.

The attack of the slugs

Finally, while pulling the grass back from my pea bed which was also being dessimated, I discovered the problem.  Slugs were everywhere.  This has never been a problem in my yard, and I had no idea what to do.  I read and researched, asked fellow gardeners and tried all of the tricks they suggested.  However, the broccoli and cauliflower were yellowing, missing leaves and not producing.

There is a great product out there called Slug Magic, that now seems to be taking care of the rest of my plants.  But in my mind, it was already too late.  I have a bit of a problem with instant gratification.  That’s why root vegetables drive me nuts.  I just want to see if they are ready yet.

Now for the lesson

This discouraged “seasoned” gardener had enough.  I made the decision that it was time to pull that whole bed and start over with something else.  Even with the slugs now controlled, it was too late, I was sure.  I got up the other morning and got all of my equipment together, my cucumber and green bean plants and set to get to work.

As I bent over to pull the first hopeless victim, I was in a downtrodden state of mind.  Then I noticed something.  Down in the very center of that cauliflower plant, was a quarter sized, beautifully white curd starting.  I felt a glimmer of hope and looked at the plant next to it.  A very similar result.  Somehow, my plants had done what plants are supposed to do given time, they overcame the adversity of the wet soil and the slug attacks.

What does this have to do with anything?

As an organic gardener, it is sometimes easy to slip back into the mindset of the conventional gardener.  There must be a quick fix, I have to solve this, this plant needs my intervention.  In fact, what my garden often needs is for me to relax, and to let the ecosystem in my yard allow things to move along at their own pace.

It was a nice reminder to me of why I do what I do.  Plants do not need to be manipulated, sprayed, and poisoned.  They have been surviving for years without human intervention, and with any luck, I will be enjoying fresh delicious cauliflower in a month or so.

If you get discouraged when your garden does not respond the way that you expect it to, do what you can, and then step back, and watch the miracles that unfold in front of you.