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Gardening the Organic Way

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Organic gardening is a way of agriculture that works in harmony with nature and uses century old techniques to grow and maintain a healthy, pest free, crop of flowers and vegetables. Some of the key principles applied in organic agriculture are as follows:

Companion planting: There are lots of plants that produce natural substances in their flowers, roots or leaves that repel unwanted pests, attract useful insects or release essential nutrients into the soil. By planting a careful combination of these plants near to your vegetable crop or prize flowers, they can provide a beneficial service to your garden crop without the need to rely on chemicals. An example of companion planting is the herb anise, which is attractive to wasps which feed on aphids.

Compost: Recycling kitchen and garden waste into compost is a crucial and money saving process in this procedure. Organic waste, from vegetable peelings to grass clippings and shredded paper, will all decompose down to nutrient rich compost that can be added to your garden to provide healthy soil. Composting organic waste takes time and so many practitioners of organic gardening will have two or three compost heaps on the go at the same time, all at different stages of decomposition.

Manual Tools: Although the use of petrol or electricity powered tools are not prohibited in organic gardening, many organic gardeners view their reliance of fossil fuels, non-sustainable energy sources and exhaust fumes as going against the principles of a chemical free garden. Instead, there are many manual, muscle powered, garden tools available, that, although take longer to complete the job a motorized machine would, and are physically, considerably harder work, can ease the conscience of the environmentally aware garden as well as provide a cheap aerobic workout for the user.

Slug repellents: Chemical slug pellets are great for killing off unwanted slugs. However, their main downside is the harm they cause any wildlife that eats the poisoned slug. Although organic slug repellents are available, to be absolutely sure you are not harming creatures further up the food chain, consider using beer traps, sea weed or copper strips.