One thing that often comes up when we’re chatting to people about growing their own is that they feel growing organically is too difficult and that they wouldn’t get a good crop. We’d like to challenge this concept, as growing organically is surprisingly easy and it’s the best way to grow healthy plants and keeping the planet healthy too.
The main reason for people resorting to non-organic methods is because they want to get rid of pests. Pesticides and sprays thus creep in to the garden shed and onto the veg patch. But there are lots of other, natural ways to keep pests away from your plants. You can, firstly, use fleece and netting to protect your plants. This does no damage at all and will keep pigeons out very well, and will protect against butterflies etc from laying eggs on your plants, so you’ve immediately reduced caterpillar attacks.
You can also use companion planting quite cleverly to attract pests elsewhere in the garden, or to repel them. If you only do one thing in the world of companion planting, we’d suggest it should be planting nasturtiums (part of our Companion Plant Pack) close to your brassicas as a sacrificial plant. Cabbage whites will lay their eggs there instead.
Natural sprays are a good way of looking after your plants too – it’s quite easy to make up a garlic spray for example, which acts as a deterrent to all sorts of common pests.
Probably the biggest ‘organic’ challenge in the garden comes from the everlasting battle agains slugs and snails. But you only need to spend a little time at dusk picking them off, and setting a few slug traps and you’ll make a big difference. Much better than using non-organic slug pellets.
It’s not just about keeping pests at bay. Organic gardening comes into action when you decide what compost to use, what feeds and fertilisers to buy. Choosing organic can sometimes seem a bit pricy, but it’s easy to make your own feeds and compost. Have a look at previous posts on how to get a compost bin on the go and how to make a liquid feed from comfrey. It’s all very straightforward.
Growing organically really is the best way to grow. It’s better for you (your veg will be more nutritious and chemical free), it’s better for the local environment (your soil, the wildlife in your garden and your plants will all benefit) and it’s better for the planet (healthy soil plays a huge part in absorbing carbon) so we’d like to encourage everybody to give it a go!