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Organic gardening tips and resources

Growing garden vegetables organically is the safest and healthiest choice for community gardeners. Practicing organic gardening methods involves a commitment to learning about and understanding the relationship between soil, plants, weather, and insects. Organic gardening centers on stewardship and managing your garden for long term results, rather than short term fixes fueled by chemical inputs. This involves working with nature by devoting time to building healthy soil, planting a diversity of crops, and carefully observing the life cycles of plants and insects. 

The community side of organic gardening

Ludlow CGIn an organic garden, community starts with the earthworms, bacteria, and fungi that inhabit the soil and support plant life. Organic gardeners help to replenish the soil community through composting, crop rotation, mulching, and cover cropping.

The plants and animals living in a garden also form a community. Bees and butterflies transfer pollen between flowers, enabling zucchini and cucumbers to produce so abundantly, while amphibians consume slugs, snails, and insects.
leopard frog
With their permeable skin, frogs and toads are easily harmed by chemical pesticides and fertilizers—yet another reason to reduce the use of synthetic chemical products in your garden.

For millennia, human beings have cultivated gardens organically to nurture and sustain communities. While chemical fertilizers can cause rapid plant growth, crops grown organically in healthy soil tend to have more flavor, a longer harvest, and higher concentrations of nutrients.


Here's what you can do to go organic:

  • Buy organically grown seeds, and learn how to save and use your own seeds the next season. An excellent source for organically grown seeds is High Mowing Seeds, a Vermont company which offers high quality vegetable, herb, and flower seeds for home gardeners and commercial growers.
  • Instead of frequent watering, build organic matter in your soil by adding compost each spring and fall, by mulching beds with hay, straw, or grass clippings, and by cover cropping fallow areas of the garden. Harvest  rainwater and use compost teas where possible in your garden, rather than chlorinated tap water.
  • Avoid using bark mulch, sawdust, or woodchips as mulch in a vegetable garden as these mulches tend to bind nitrogen from the soil. Apply grass, hay, or straw mulch in early summer after weeding your garden thoroughly and when the soil is moist following a steady rain.
  • Practice organic pest control. To prevent pests from overwintering in your garden, remove and compost dead plants as the season progresses. If plants are diseased, remove them from the garden site. Develop a schedule for annually rotating the location of crops planted within your garden

ORGANIC PEST CONTROL
Topics include:
Homemade 
remedies
Beneficial 
insects
Companion 
planting
Barriers 
& traps
Common 
insect pests
More 
information

There are many ways to control garden pests naturally, without using synthetic pesticides. From where and what you plant, to homemade sprays and beer traps, organic pest control is easy and practical.  Not only will you save money on expensive pesticides, but you can eat your produce in confidence, knowing that it is free of potentially harmful chemicals.  Keep in mind, though, that many of pesticides are not completely species specific, and if overused you could damage your plants and kill beneficial insects.

Homemade Remedies

These solutions can be made up in your kitchen out of inexpensive everyday supplies.  Try a few versions and see what you like best!  Solutions containing the following plants are popular: members of the allium family (onion, garlic, chives), hot peppers (jalapeno, cayenne), and herbs (basil, coriander, wormwood, peppermint). These sprays can successfully repel a wide range of insects.

Soapy water sprays can be effective against aphids and spider mites. When using any of these sprays, wet both sides of the leaves and repeat after a rain or as often as necessary.
Flour and salt can also be used to repel pests and as a dust to suffocate or dehydrate many kinds of caterpillars. Wood ashes sprinkled around the base of plants also discourages cutworm attack.

For additional homemade remendies for organic gardens, visit the National Gardening Association web site at
www.kidsgardening.com/growingideas/Sept_01/7organic.htm

Beneficial Insects

Beneficial insects feed on the insect pests in your garden. Beneficial insects will frequent your garden if you plant natives and other desirable plants in the garden and around the periphery. When the following plants are allowed to bloom, they attract beneficial insects with their nectar and pollen:
  • Parsley family (parsley, fennel, coriander, dill and chervil) 
  • Sunflower family (sunflowers, daisies, asters and cosmos) bumblebee
  • Sweet allysum 
  • Native buckwheat 
Beneficial insects can also be purchased and added to your garden: 
  • Beneficial Nematodes for cutworms, weevils, grubs and fungus gnat larvae 
  • Green Lacewings for aphids, mealybugs, scale, mite and thrips 
  • Thrichogramma for moths and caterpillars 
  • Ladybugs for aphids, mealybugs, Colorado Potato Beetle eggs, scale, and leaf hoppers
For more information visit http://www.beneficialinsects101.com/

Butterfly Companion Planting

Companion planting involves designing your garden so that plants with natural defenses for pests are planted adjacent to plants that are more susceptible. Interspersing flowers and vegetables can also encourage pollinators like bees and butterflies to visit your garden.

For more information visit: http://www.companionplanting.net/


Barriers and Traps

cutworm collarBarriers are simple to use, and many are easy to make yourself. Cutworm collars are an effective physical barrier to prevent cutworms from girdling transplants of tomatoes, cabbage family members, peppers, and vine crops. Simply cut out a 1-1/2" strip of newspaper and place it 2 inches from the stem, anchoring it into the soil around transplants. When the cutworms emerge at night, they will run into the collar rather than girdling the new plant.
 

Row covers can hinder flying insects (such as cabbage butterflies, leaf miners, and potato beetles) that lay eggs on your plants. Cover seedlings before the insects emerge and fasten the sides of the row cover securely. Check under the covers periodically for insects. Remove the covers, if necessary, for pollination and then replace them again. When using row covers, it helps to understand the life cycle of the pest you're trying to control. If  insects overwinter in the soil, you may actually be trapping the emerging larvae underneath the covers. In this case, cultivate the soil before planting to expose insects to birds and other predators. 

Traps can attract insects by using color, taste, and sex hormones. For example, yellow sticky traps will lure aphids, Whitefly, thrips, and leaf miners. Slugs will drown in a shallow saucer of stale beer if placed in the garden. Japanese beetle traps commonly use sex hormones and floral lures to attract the adult insects to them.

Handheld vaccuum cleaner: A handheld vacuum cleaner can also be a low tech way of removing insects from plants. Be sure to clean out the collecting bag each time and drop insects in a container of soapy water!

  Common insect pests and controls

potato beetle adultsFlea Beetles, Colorado Potato Beetles (photo left), Striped Cucumber Beetles, Squash Beetles, Mexican Bean Beetles, Japanese Beetles, Leaf Miners, and Cabbage Butterflies are common pests in gardens in Vermont. Botanical and biological pesticides are sometimes used by organic gardeners when plants are under threat of severe insect damage.

Rotenone and Pyrethrium are botanical insecticides (derived from plants) that can be effective against adult beetles and leaf miners. A ready to use spray is preferable to using the dust form of the insecticide. Pyola (pyrethrium dissolved in canola oil) acts as an ovicide for the eggs of beetles. Bio Neem (derived from a tropical plant oil) can be used to interrupt the life cycle of the Mexican Bean Beetle larvae.

Botanical insectides are toxic to humans and other animals, and they need to be handled carefully.
If you choose to use a botanical or biological pesticide in your garden, be certain to read and follow safety instructions and adhere to local and state regulations.    

Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is a naturally occurring, soil borne organism that is effective in controlling specific insects in their larva stage. The larva stage in an insect's life cycle is the stage during which most of the feeding occurs and  the insect appears worm or caterpillar-like. The Bt is applied as a spray to the underside of the plant foliage where the larvae hatch and do most of their feeding. Bt variety kurstaki (BTK) controls the imported cabbage butterfly larvae, European corn borer,  tomato hornworm, and other caterpillar-like larvae.

potato beetle larvaeThe Colorado Potato Beetle is best controlled by regular inspection and hand removal of beetles, eggs, and larvae. Hand removal is generally an effective pesticide free strategy if done several times a week. Gardeners should avoid planting larger patches of potatoes or eggplants than can be regularly cared for. At the first sign of the adult beetles, diligently remove the beetles and any orange egg clusters on the undersides of leaves. If larvae hatch, remove them immediately as the larvae can quickly multiply as they defoliate the potato plants..

More Information
Here are some other helpful web sites: 

http://www.gardeners.com/gardening/content.asp?copy_id=5288
 “How to tell the good bugs from the bad”

http://www.cdcg.org/pests.html 
Provides more homemade solutions and spray recipes. 

http://www.extremelygreen.com/pestcontrolguide.cfm
List of garden pests (along with an identification key) and beneficial insect and organic solutions.

http://eartheasy.com/grow_nat_pest_cntrl.htm

Natural garden pest prevention, beneficial insects, homemade remedies, insecticides, traps, and deer control.

Cornell Cooperative Extension fact sheet on garden pesticides
Lake Friendly Gardening Series pamphlet with advice on proper pesticide use


Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont
Provides information, resources, workshops, conferences, and links for organic gardeners and homesteaders


Guide to lake friendly lawn care
published by Friends of Burlington Gardens & the UVM Sea Grant Program


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