Organic gardening is the philosophy that we, as gardeners, should strive to be in harmony with nature.

The four cornerstones of organic gardening:

• Respect for the soil (don’t treat it like dirt; build healthy soil)
  • Disturb the soil as little as possible.  Hand till only and only when necessary.
  • Amend with natural amendments
  • Compost is the best possible amendment
• Responsible control of unwanted plants (i.e., weeds)
  • Mulch, pull, hoe
  • No need for herbicides
• With regard to wildlife:  encourage the beneficials, reasonably discourage unwanted pests.
  • Beneficials include:pollinators, predators, decomposers (mostly insects)
  • Unwanted pests include those mammals and insects that eat what we grow.
  • Learn to tell the difference between the good guys and the bad guys!
• Use water wisely
  • Water deeply and infrequently and only when necessary
  • Control runoff
  • Mulch
  • Don’t postpone harvest beyond the veggie’s peak

Encourage the beneficials by:

• Giving them a food source:  dill, yarrow, native plants
• Providing shelter and water
• Limiting spraying (even the organic sprays)

Discourage the pests by:

• Encouraging the predators (insects, birds, snakes, etc.)
• Using integrated pest management techniques (identify the problem, take action only when necessary and use the least intensive controls)
• Use sprays, oil, biological controls only as a last resort.