When it comes to being green, there’s no better place to start than in your own backyard. An organic garden can keep your kitchen stocked with juicy apples, crisp lettuce and sweet tomatoes, all the while cultivating a healthier and more sustainable world. By working with nature, rather than against it, organic growers are giving the term “green thumb” a whole new meaning.

In recent years, more and more Canadians have rediscovered their inner home-based horticulturist. “Gardening in general, whether organic or not, is probably the number one activity these days,” says Laura Telford, national director of Canadian Organic Growers, an education and networking organization for farmers, gardeners and consumers across the country. At the same time, the number of backyard gardeners who are moving towards organic methods is on the rise, she says. “This is pushed not only by more awareness about the environmental impact of fertilizers and pesticides, but also by the local pesticide by-laws that we’re seeing across the country. So I think that’s causing people to rethink the whole chemical use thing.”

Though there may be new motivation and new technology available today, the foundations of organic gardening are built on knowledge our great-grandparents would have possessed. “By and large the foundation for organic farming has been there for generations,” says Telford. “It’s really resurrecting some old skills.”

So what exactly makes a garden organic? The answer can be divided into two parts. First is the set of things you leave out, which includes anything synthetic — synthetic fertilizers, synthetic pesticides, even treated wood. But even more important, says Telford, is the set of things you do. Organic growers use natural methods to nurture the soil, manage pests and diseases, and increase production. It all starts, literally, from the ground up. “You have to build the soil,” she says. “The point of building the soil is to focus on building healthy plants with lots of nutrition that can have strong immune systems so they can fight off their own battles without using the pesticides.”

Bylaws aside, there are other benefits to going organic. One is personal safety. “Not having to store and use harmful chemicals is a big one for the backyard gardener,” says Telford. For many organic gardeners, it also comes down to growing for their children’s children. “When you use synthetic you’re actually decreasing the quality of the soil. You’re killing the micro-organisms that work with Mother Nature to help nourish and grow plants,” says Telford. “When you garden organically you’re actually leaving the soil better than you found it so that it can continue to produce food for future generations.”

“WHEN YOU GARDEN ORGANICALLY YOU'RE ACTUALLY LEAVING THE SOIL BETTER THAN YOU FOUND IT SO THAT IT CAN CONTINUE TO PRODUCE FOOD FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS.”

Growing organically may also have financial perks in the long run. “I think what gardeners would find is they’re going to pay a little bit more for certified organic seeds, but they’re going to pay less if they can cut out the fertilizers and pesticides,” says Telford. “So overall you probably end up paying less.”

AN ORGANIC GROWER’S TALE
On picturesque Hornby Island, Stephanie Wells keeps an organic garden just next to her house. Although she has a half-acre of land to work with, the four-by-eight metre patch of flora is, for the moment, more than enough. “My own organic garden gets a little bit neglected because of my own organic work,” Wells, senior regulatory affairs advisor for the Organic Trade Association, says with a laugh. Still, she jumps at the chance to venture into her garden during her spare time. “It’s just kind of whimsical and disorganized, and it’s lovely therapy for me to just go out there and fool around in it.”

Wells traces her interest in organic gardening back to childhood. Growing up mostly in big cities, she eagerly awaited the holidays when her family would visit friends who owned a farm. “It was beautiful, and I loved dealing with the animals in the garden,” she recalls. As she entered her adult years, she found others who had a similar mindset. “There was a whole wave of my generation who went back to the land in the ‘70s and ‘80s… I was just determined to have my little herd of goats and chickens and rabbits, and the manure from those animals would fertilize my garden,” she says. “And, we were aiming for food self-sufficiency.”

A newcomer to British Columbia, Wells finds the climate of her new home to be a welcome change. “After years of learning how to garden in a very short growing season in Quebec, I now have the luxury of growing into the winter,” she says. Hornby Island, like the other Gulf Islands, boasts mild temperatures and very little snow in a typical year. Mediterranean produce like kiwi and figs are popular among the island’s growers.

It’s a different story in the interior of the province, where snow is common and the cold climate is akin to that found in Ontario and Quebec. But in the absence of Mediterranean bounty, growers there enjoy other benefits. “The flip side is all that dramatic cold weather kills off pests,” says Wells. “And [they] don’t have the enormous floods that we have here in coastal B.C. So it’s a bit of a trade-off.”

Wherever they live, organic growers rely on certain tricks of the trade to ensure a thriving and environmentally friendly garden. Here are some practical tips for creating your own green paradise at home:

Rotate the crops. Each crop variety consumes particular nutrients in the soil, and attracts specific pests and diseases. As Wells says: “If you keep putting potatoes or any plant that’s susceptible to bugs in the same place year in and year out, they just set up housekeeping there.” The solution: crop rotation.  Moving the crops around from season to season restores the soil, prevents the build-up of pests and diseases, and even helps keep weeds under control. Some good rotations are growing corn after legumes such as beans and peas, and potatoes after corn.

Feed the soil. Compost, manure and mulch are invaluable ingredients in good gardening. When these organic materials break down in the soil, nutrients are restored, drainage is improved, and the soil is kept damp and airy. “I fertilize particularly over the wintertime by getting in some composted manure,” says Wells. She also makes her own compost from the seaweed that is readily available where she lives.  For mulch, she uses a layer of straw, hay and even lawn grass clippings “if you’re not too heavy-handed with them.”

Consider transplants. For novice gardeners, starting seedlings indoors is a great safety net as it gives them a head start on the growing season. Tomatoes, which generally take a long time to grow from the seed, are an ideal crop for transplanting. Especially important for organic gardeners, transplanting also reduces the exposure of your fledging plant to dangers such as insects and weed competition.

Do companion planting. In lieu of chemical sprays, planting certain crops together is a natural way to protect your garden. Mixed crops and strong-smelling plants such as aloe vera and garlic can ward off unwanted bugs, while the flowers of some plants such as carrot and mint can attract beneficial insects. Wells lays out her garden so that plants are next to good companions. “Either one repels pests that might invade the next row of veggies, or they’re putting nutrients into the soil that the plant in the next row needs.”

Weed wisely. Not all “weeds” are bad — some attract beneficial insects like bees and butterflies, while others, such as clover, enrich the soil with nitrogen. Then there are weeds that threaten your garden by attracting pests like aphids and taking light, food and water from your plants. When the ground is damp, you can remove these weeds by digging, pulling or cutting them off under the surface.

Use cover crops. The first kind of cover crop includes things like rye and grain that are planted and plowed down, but not harvested, says Telford. Organic gardeners plant these as a way to keep the soil covered at all times. In the spring they’re tilled back in the soil, which increases the amount of organic matter there. The second kind of cover crop is legumes, which is how organic farmers get fertilizer into the soil. “We capture nitrogen from the air through legumes and then they put it in the soil and put it in a form that is made available to plants. So that’s how we avoid using the fertilizer in the bags,” says Telford. “We get it from Mother Nature.”

Work with the weather. Organic gardening relies on working with your natural environment, and that includes climate. Hornby may be mild compared to some areas inland, but it can still work up quite a chill in the winter. Wells has a simple trick for protecting her plants. “I set these hoops in the soil and then cover it with plastic so it creates a bit of a tunnel,” she says.  In the tunnel she’ll put a few rows of crops that can’t handle hard frost, such as lettuce or spinach. “That gives me access to salad goodies for most of the winter.”

Wildlife-proof. If you’re not careful, hungry and curious critters will get to your plants before you do. Wells started her organic garden last year but considers this her first official year of growing late into the season. “The deer ate my garden last year,” she says with a laugh. This year, she’s keeping the hoofed herbivores out with the help of “a very tall fence — and making sure my dog patrols at night!” •