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 crisp lettuce, flavourful beans 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.”

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
For David Townson and Margaret Touround-Townson, organic gardening is a matter of taste — literally. “The tomatoes, you can taste the sunshine in them. They just smile at you,” says Touround-Townson, one half of the husband-and-wife team of organic growing enthusiasts. For Townson, it’s a pleasant throwback. “The food tastes so much like it used to taste. We find the garlic and the onion seem to be much stronger in flavour.”

The couple are helping to spread the gospel of organic growing as co-ordinators of the COG Ottawa Chapter’s organic gardening courses each spring. And of course, they have their own organic garden. Townson, the “official” gardener of the pair, started off with two plots on a bank behind their house. Two years ago, he installed five 4 x 8 ft. raised beds and filled them with organic soil. “The problem with our [native] soil is it’s heavy clay, so these raised beds overcome this problem,” he says. Tomatoes, garlic, zucchini, Swiss chard, bush beans and pole beans are just some of the plants he grows, along with a small herb garden and a bed of fruit trees. The couple have shared their harvest with friends from church, as well as the local food bank.

More than food, they’re also sharing knowledge. Initially the courses offered by Townson and Touround-Townson were for beginners, but they have since included more advanced courses. In addition, they offer introductory courses tailored for people who live in apartment buildings. Topics range from choice of soil and balcony gardening, to studying light and considering water needs due to sun or lack of sun. “The direction that your apartment is facing is very important, whereas in a house you have a choice of windows,” says Touround-Townson. Downtown dwellers can also look into joining a local community garden or even gardening on the roof of their apartment building if permitted, Townson adds.

Besides the delicious returns, there are other reasons to love organic gardening. For Townson, who is a cancer survivor and lives with diabetes, his health is one of them. “You get a lot of exercise, particularly in the spring and the fall,” he says. Townson has also found growing his own food to be a great budget-saver. “We have a freezer where we freeze a lot of stuff, the beans [and] the little tomatoes, so we have food all year round,” says Townson. The couple also created a root cellar in their garage from an old unplugged freezer and a small heater set at 5 C. “Last year we kept potatoes, squash… carrot until the end of March, and that’s quite a feat in Canada,” says Touround-Townson.

Whatever their incentive, 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 kind of crop uses up particular nutrients in the soil, and attracts specific pests and diseases. 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 when it comes to the dreaded “W” word. “[It’s] one of the key strategies that we use to manage weeds, which are a devil if you don’t have chemicals,” says Telford. 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. “If you focus on putting nutrients into the soil and getting good soil you’re going to get good plants,” says Townson. “If you’ve got healthy plants there’s a good chance they will resist of a lot of things.” He has three composters that he uses to enrich his soil each year.

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. Do some research into which plants make good neighbours. “Different crops take different things from the soil, and different crops contribute to the soil — beans actually put nitrogen into the soil,” says Townson. So good companion plants for beans would be cucumbers, strawberries and celery, which all benefit from extra nitrogen.

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. Ontario is ideal for producing a variety of crops, though plants like beans, snow peas and onions do better in a cool year, and tomatoes and squash do better in a warm year. The time of year also makes a difference. Townson is able to start growing small plants in April and early May thanks to his mini-greenhouse, which he describes as “sort of a metal bookcase with a plastic cover.” The greenhouse exposes his plants to the warm temperatures during the day and protects them from the cold temperatures at night. “Most plants you don’t plant out until about the 24th, 26th of May but if you’ve been growing them in the greenhouse, they’re all ready to go.”

Wildlife-proof. Townson sprays his apples with Ivory soap and water, which helps keep out some bugs — but never all of them. “We probably only get about 40% of the apple to use, but last year I think we produced 120 apples, so that’s pretty good,” says Townson. Rabbits can also pose a problem. Townson protect his plots with chicken wire up to three feet tall, low enough so he can still lean in and tend to his crops. However, he encourages birds to come to the garden with a bird feeder and bird baths. “The adult birds will eat the bird food and in turn, they feed their young from the nasty bugs in the garden — a good trade off!”