In a Time Before Plastics

There was a time when people had no choice but to be earth-friendly in the way they went about their daily business.  A time before plastics.  Plastic started out as a plant derivitave.  During the late 19th century, scientists used cellulose (a component of plant walls), nitric acid and alcohol to develop the first hard plastic.  Rayon fibers were originally synthesized from plant materials.  However, digesting plant fibers in harsh chemicals does not exactly preserve their “earth friendly, natural” state.  Natural rubbers from plants were discovered and used widelyprior to synthetic rubber.  Then came the “breakthrough.”

Bakelite, the first plastic to become widely available commercially, during the 1920s, and PVC, which came into use after World War I, opened the door to massive use of plastics.  Because it was relatively inexpensive to manufacture, using petroleum products, plastic started to replace many natural containers/substances.  Instead of cotton fabrics, people wore rayon or polyester.  Instead of silk stockings, they wore nylon.  Instead of cloth bags, they used plastic.  Instead of glass jars, they used plastic.  You get the point.  Remember that “Sugar in the morning, sugar in the evening” commercial?  Substitute plastic, and you understand where we are now.

How Convenient is Plastic if it is so Destructive?

I think something we’re trying to get back is the “long view.”  It is a pretty abrupt about-face from scientific progress, and developments for hundreds of years.  It is easy to see how we got here, really.  When your life depends entirely on getting food for your family, working a farm and staying alive, any new development to make life easier is positive.  As economies grew, prices rose, and industrialization pushed people off the farm and into the cities.  At that point, folks were dependent on others to grow or raise food, and get it to them in an edible format.  So, anything that made transport easier and less expensive was celebrated.  The grind continued.  Cheaper, easier, cheaper, easier, cheaper, easier.

STOP:  Why are the ice caps melting?!?

Backpedaling as Fast as we Can

So, turns out that plastics may be convenient in the here and now, but there might not be more heres and nows if something isn’t done to curb their over-use that results in clogged land fills, pollution from factories and melting ice-caps, which will potentially further reduce arable land mass.  How do we make sure people are interested in “going back to the land” and “being kind to the earth?”  Make it FUN!  Make it TRENDY!  Show celebrities doing it!  Cue the guilt trip! Cue the re-usable bags at Wal-Mart!  (Made of plastic, but since it won’t go away, might as well recycle it!)  Show the adorable Master Card commercial with the little guy helping his dad be more earth-friendly.

Less Fuss is Actually Fine

It is actually ok to be good to the earth, good to yourself, and good to your friends and family without getting so wound up about it.  I would argue that one way to accomplish this is for everyone to be a little more tolerant of people that are already doing this.  We’re not freak shows, we promise!  We may not be famous, we may not be rich, and we may not be vegan, but we’re doing what we can, and we’re happy doing it.  If we promise not to proselytize about what we’re doing, do you promise to let us do it in peace?  How about if we promise not to tease you if you decide that what we’re doing would work well for you?  Sounds good to me!

Boron

Boron is part of flowering, fruit and seed formation, metabolism (breaking down stored sugars), and water movement.  If your plant is deficient in Boron, it will grow slowly, and the terminal bud at the top of the plant or end of a branch could die.  Add organic matter like compost or a natural fertilizer to add Boron to the soil.

Copper

Copper is present in every part of the plant and is a catalyst for activity with enzymes.  If your soil is deficient in copper, the tips of plants will die back.  Muck soils are most likely to exhibit copper deficiencies. You can add copper sulfate to add copper.  You need to be EXTREMELY careful if you add copper to your soil.  It is better to add organic matter or a natural fertilizer.

Manganese

Plants need manganese for photosynthesis, enzyme catalyst, iron intake and vitamin uptake.  If the soil has a dearth of Manganese, the leaves of the plants will look mottled in between the veins.  Eventually, the leaves will turn white and fall off.  The more acid the soil, the more available the manganese is to plants.

Zinc

Zinc plays a part in protein and starch synthesis, as well as seed development.  It is a mobile nutrient, so lower leaves of the plant will show the effects first.  An excess of phosphorous will cause zinc to become unavailable.

Iron

Iron is sometimes unavailable to plants in soils that are alkaline (have a high pH).  Some plants can literally remove all of the iron from the soil.  Blueberries are heavy iron consumers.  Adding compost to the soil is one way to ensure that iron is available to all plants.  Adding seaweed fertilizer to the compost pile or to the soil will also make iron more available to plants.

If your plants look unhealthy, try adding a natural fertilizer with macro and micro nutrients to the soil, or work in organic matter.  Your plants will thank you!

Calcium

If your plants don’t get enough calcium, you will see it in the stems and roots of growing plants.  Blossom end rot in tomatoes and peppers is a symptom of calcium deficiency.  You can increase calcium in the soil by adding lime.

Enter the Lobbyists

I read this article this morning.  I almost threw up a little in my mouth.  I found it from some of my twitter followers.  (You can learn so much on twitter.  If you’re not already on it, I suggest joining.  It is also a huge time suck-but don’t say I didn’t warn you.)  Apparently, the chemical companies are lobbying Michelle Obama to use more chemicals in her garden.  Because, what she wants to feed her two little girls, to teach them to love home-grown produce, is a poison covered cherry tomato picked straight off the vine.

There are a lot of young women between the ages of 25 and 35 years old who are having infertility problems.  Let’s just say that I am, in no way, a doctor.  I do, however, have a master’s in horticulture, and have spent countless hours reading about the effects of pesticides on DNA replication.  Has anyone looked into why these young women are experiencing such problems reproducing?  Does anyone think part of it might have something do do with eating pesticide laden food for years on end?  Food covered with poison that kills insects chiefly by disrupting the activity of their nervous systems?  Maybe I sound alarmist and part of a hippie, granola-eating fringe, but I’m really not.  And, I’m part of that age group having problems.  I haven’t tried to have a child yet, but I hope I’m more successful than some of my friends.  One thing’s for certain:  I won’t be spraying a bunch of chemicals in my garden while I’m trying.

The Tradgedy of the Short Term View

One of the worst things about Big Agriculture is that its synthetically produced fertilizers are NOT sustainable.  They use incredible amounts of petrolium to produce, they are short-acting, and they wash away into rivers, lakes and the ocean, wrecking havoc on marine life.  However, Big Ag loves these chemicals, because they do not make the soil better, they make plants grow fast.  Because farmers have to buy these chemicals year after year, they keep Big Ag in business.  And that is all Big Ag cares about.  Don’t be fooled by any touchy-feely advertisements.  They are doing everything they can to make sure that we are dependent upon them to eat, forever.  However, the joke will be on them if something catastrophic happens and then they can’t feed themselves. Unfortunately, that’s not going to do us any good.

• Start with the soil.  You will have many times more healthy vegetables-in terms of quantity and quality-if you start by building up the soil.  There are a number of ways to do this.  You can order a load of compost from a local soil company.  For instance, in Wilmington, NC, you can order compost, or compost/topsoil blend from a place called Seaside Mulch.  You can also fertilize with a natural fertilizer like proto-gro, which is full of trace elements and nutrients that many soils lack.  Your vegetables are only as nutritious as the soil in which they grow, so make your soil healthy!
• Plant your vegetables in full sun.  Some vegetables will grow in a bit of shade, in the hot south.  Most vegetables need at least ten hours of full sun a day, and you will be disappointed with the results if they don’t get it.
• To feed your family sustainably, grow open-pollinated vegetable varieties.  This is especially important these days, because many of the seeds you can get at the store are hybrids that will not produce reliable seeds from year to year.  Look for seeds that are NOT labeled as F1 hybrids in your local garden center.
• Plant flowers and vegetables together.  Flowers attract the bees that pollinate the vegetable plants so that you’ll have vegetables.
• Provide plenty of water.  If you live in an area that is prone to drought, set up rain barrels under the gutters to catch the runoff from your roof, and use that to water.
• Invest in a good vegetable gardening book.  One of the best books out there is the  A-Z Guide to Growing Organic Food by Storey Press.  It tells you when to plant seeds, when to transplant, which plants grow together well, what to do about pests, and good varieties to grow.
• When planting fine seeds like lettuce or dill, cover with a thin layer of lightweight potting mix instead of regular garden soil.  This will hold water well and be easier for young plants to push up through.
• Don’t be tempted to bite off more than you can chew.  Start with a few vegetable beds and gradually expand.  For people with little time or space, the book Square Foot Gardening or the All New Square Foot Gardening are excellent books about gardening in small spaces, on a couple of hours a week.

There is almost nothing as fun as watching your own veggies sprout from seed and grow into delicious ingredients for meals.  The most important part about getting started with vegetable gardening is, well, getting started.  Scratch a bit of soil, plant some seeds, water and watch them grow!

There is an almost overwhelming, indecipherable amount of advertising, promotion, and product-hawking of so-called “green” products.  On Sunday, June 15, 2008, The New York Times ran an article, still available online here about all of the environmental/green “noise” blanketing planet earth.  They do not describe the greenness as a fog, but that is how it appears to me. 

The Paradox of Choice

If you read about taste tests and grocery store sample programs, most notably in the book The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz, you will find that more information and more choices do not necessarily make us happier, but in fact, make it harder for us to make decisions.  The availability of too much information does not make it easier to decide, but rather paralyzes us with indecision, and give us feelings of helplessness.

“Green” Information Overload

The article in The New York Times describes such a phenomena happening with “Green” products, information, warnings, etc.  Sometime, a couple of years ago, “Green” became less of a way to identify something good for the environment and was stolen by marketing executives, advertising companies, and focus group facilitators.  Suddenly, everything is “Green,”  everything is somehow “natural” and healthy.  (Even if it isn’t.  That’s called “Spin.”) As a result, two things are happening:

1) Consumers are on overload, and are tuning out

2) Products and practices that are better for the environment are getting lost in the debate

Finding the Golden, er, “Green” Mean

The Golden Mean is the ideal center, the place where all is in balance.  With such a wealth of information available, selecting the right, environmentally friendly choice that you can live with is more important than ever.  There is a lot of misrepresentation about the good and the bad, in regards to environmentally friendly products.  In order to make the best choice, find the most reputable sources possible, and the experts in the field.  Read contextual information about the products you might choose, and then decide.  When possible, go with the natural, recyclable and less-damaging item, as far as you can understand.  Not throwing away is always better than throwing away.

How Natural Fertilizer Fits In

Well, this is, after all, a blog about natural fertilizer and natural gardening.  On our main page Natural Fertilizer Reviews we provide reviews for natural fertilizer and seaweed fertilizer products.  We also provide researched and cited articles and book reviews about the latest in natural and organic gardening.  We provide products, but we also provide information to help you make the choice that is best for you.  Check it out!  Let us help you navigate through the “Green Fog.”  At lease in the area of lawn and garden fertilizer.

For everyday watering, I prefer a passive breaker, such as the one pictured, rather than an attachment with different settings. To reach plants far back in flower beds, you need a watering wand to attach between the breaker and the hose. 

The newest trend in watering wands is a “touch and flow wand,” however, I like the plain old metal pipe with a breaker attached, pictured.  Anything that requires me to squeeze a handle while watering for an hour or two at a time is not something that works long-term for me. The want allows me to reach the roots of the plant without bending over or sending a harsh, damaging spray.  Sometimes the most simple tool is the best.

So, why a wand and hose instead of a sprinkler? 

For diverse plantings with mulch in between, a wand makes sense.  You put the water exactly where it needs to go—near the plant—instead of watering yards of mulch.  You use less water when you hand water.  You also spend less time watering because you can water deeply, stimulating roots to grow deeper and lessen the frequency of waterings. 

Bacteria is Everywhere

Every time you eat a fresh fruit or vegetable—or any food that has not been cooked at very high temperatures—you take a risk that you could consume something harmful.  Washing helps remove pesticides, dirt and some harmful surface-dwelling residues on food, but it cannot kill bacteria.  A small amount of bacteria might cause an upset stomach, while a potent or large amount of bacteria can cause serious illness.  However, if you eat raw food, you will always risk eating something that could make you ill.

There is no possible way to rid every surface of everything of harmful bacteria.  With the advent of anti-bacterial everything—soap, shampoo, counter wipes, makeup brushes and more, we run the risk of creating super-bacteria that are resistant to anything and everything we use to stop them.  Living among bacteria helps our immune systems grow strong and build antibodies to fight off bacterial infections.  Being exposed to too little bacteria can potentially be as harmful as too much.

We’re Surprised That Outbreaks of Food-Related Illness Do Not Happen More Often

Commercially produced food including plant materials and animal products is awash in chemicals, fecal matter, dust, insects and more.  If you really think about what you are eating, you will never want to eat.  (Upton Sinclair, anyone?)  Non-organically grown meat products are filled with hormones and raised by feeding animals dubious food products—sometimes food products made from other animals.  Cereals and other processed grain products have insect parts in every box.  It is impossible not to.  (Extra protein!).  Organically grown crops could be fertilized with manure that has not been thoroughly composted to kill e.coli and other harmful bacteria.  There are many links in the food supply chain where food can be exposed to potentially harmful conditions.

Grow Your Own for Peace of Mind

The only way to truly know what is in or on what you put in your mouth is to grow your own.  You can be fairly certain that your lettuce is safe and your tomatoes can be eaten off the vine if you are the one controlling what inputs are used to grow the produce.  It is impractical to grow everything you eat—and impossible if you enjoy foods that do not grow where you live.  However, it can make a difference in the overall quality of your food, and can give you peace of mind.  To avoid bacteria related food-borne illnesses when growing your own vegetables, try natural fertilizer products to give your plant a boost, without introduction of toxic chemicals and harmful bacteria.

Staking Individual Plants

Some plants grow best when staked individually. Tomatoes fall into this category. Tomatoes are susceptible to a variety of pest and disease problems, many of which may be prevented by providing good air flow. There are several techniques for successfully staking individual plants, all of which can be put into place now, before the plant gets too large.

1) Cages–Wire cages are best for vegetable plants because they are not the most beautiful thing to look at on a daily basis. If your plant is going to grow particularly huge, a cage might not be strong enough to hold the plant. Cages can also make pruning difficult. They do contain plants with a more vine-like growth habit.

2) Metal spiral stake–These stakes offer the best opportunity for air flow around the plant. This type of stake is great for producing fewer, larger fruits. For this stake to work well, you need to prune your plant so that it has a single stem.

3) Bamboo garden stakes–bamboo is a highly renewable resource, so it makes a great choice of staking materials for natural gardeners. These stakes come in a variety of thicknesses and lengths, so there is likely to be a stake to meet the needs of any size of plant. For smaller, slender plants such as delphinium, bamboo stakes work well. You can trim your stake with pruners if it is too tall. Bamboo stakes will last for four or five years without replacement.

4) Grids–A round grid attached to three legs works well for multi-stemmed perennials with heavy flowers. Peonies are a good example of this, although it is too late for peonies this year. False indigo and chrysanthemums also benefit from this method. You should purchase the grid size that you need and put it in place before the plant starts growing. The plant grows up through the grid, and is well-supported by the time flowers develop.

5) Bamboo and individual twin ties– Large perennials with attractive, sprawling habits like joe pye weed or meadow rue look best when one or two stakes are inserted near the center of the plant, and individual ties are used to support each stem. This way, you can still keep the “natural” look, and also support the plant.

Staking Groups of PlantsThere is only one method that is attractive and works well. This method is best for plants that grow in large clumps, or have numerous stems without large flowers. Plants such as cosmos, tickseed, wildflower mixes, and other similar plants can be attractively staked without taking away from the beauty of the planting.

Best Method–Bamboo stake and twine combination–make a zigzag pattern through the clump (or eventual clump) with stakes. String the twine from one stake to the other, creating a Z pattern between stakes. The plants will grow up through the twine. This staking method can be put in place either before or after plants start growing.

Either Way You Stake It

Regardless of the method you choose for staking, you want to be certain to stake in a manner that will support flowers and fruit, and also allow good air circulation around the plant. The methods described above accomplish this dual task.

Above all, avoid tying a string around your plants and cinching it tight. That does not help the plant, and it is ugly!

As a natural gardener, you will need to wrap your
brain around one thing: you have to get used to
a little bit of insect damage. The only
alternative is to live awash in highly toxic
pesticides­both organic and natural. The only
way to completely eliminate insects is to
constantly apply pesticides. One or two
applications do not do the trick because the
surviving insects will breed, and never
leave. There are so many things a gardener needs
to know about insects in their gardens­, some of which may come as a surprise.

Pesticides aren’t always the best solution.

Beneficial Insects

Not all insects are considered “pests.” Some
insects are highly beneficial. The drawback to
applying pesticides, both organic and synthetic,
is that broad-spectrum pesticides kill every
insect in reach, including beneficial
insects. This wide-scale destruction destroys
the balance of insects, good and bad, within the
garden, usually resulting in more insect damage,
and the need to continually apply pesticides.

The most commonly known beneficial insect is the
ladybird beetle, or “ladybug.” Ladybugs are
carnivores! These cute critters love to eat
aphids and other soft-bodied insects. Another
beneficial insect is the lacewing. The adults
are lovely with sheer green wings. The larvae
look like little dinosaurs and are chewing
machines. They also eat mites and aphids with abandon.

Insect Damage Threshold

Backyard gardeners and commercial growers each
must establish what is called a tolerance
threshold for insect damage. As a home gardener,
you have the luxury of setting your threshold
much higher because your tomatoes don’t have to
look perfect for your own use on salads and juicy
burgers. All plants will sustain some insect
damage, that’s a given. In order to reduce your
need for pesticide use, sometimes you just need to lower your expectations.

Applying Pesticides Does not Make Pests Go Away

Each yard, each city, county and state are made
up of delicately balanced ecosystems. The
healthiest ecosystems are generally those
untouched by human hands because they are
composed of naturally occurring and diverse
species. If an insect pest is introduced to a
well-balanced ecosystem, it may damage some of
the plants, but certainly will not damage all of
them. The reason that large farms require so
much in the way of insect control is that most
large scale farms are composed of fields of
thousands of the same type of plant. If an
insect that likes that plant comes in, the farmer is out of luck.

Home gardeners have the luxury of growing
flowers, shrubs, trees and vegetables in their
own diverse, if not naturally occurring,
blends. Doing so helps avoid some insect
problems. The other way to avoid insect problems
is to avoid using insecticides. Damaging insect
populations naturally cycle. Insect numbers grow
and grow until their population is so large that
it cannot sustain itself with the available food
sources (your garden). Then, the population
crashes and you have few, if any, problems with
that pest for several years. This is called
“overshoot,” and is illustrated in the diagram below.

Applying pesticides disrupts this natural
cycle. Applying pesticides actually helps
sustain a fairly steady insect population. So,
instead of having a lot of insects one year and
no insects the next, you have some insects all of the time.

Additionally, insects have rapid life cycles, and
can quickly develop resistance to pesticides, as
illustrated by the diagram, below.

Diagram from Manitoba Agriculture, Food, and Rural Initiatives Program. 

Insects in the garden are frustrating, yet
beautiful and necessary. The most important
general tip for dealing with insects over time is
to think before you act. This will allow you to
make the decision that is best for the effective caretaking of your garden.

While the calendar says that summer begins on June 20 (at least in the Northern Hemisphere),many areas of the country are already in thethrongs of summer heat and humidity. Dependingupon where you live, plants that you have plantedare settled in, have good root systems established and are ready to grow!

Understand Your Plants

As gardeners, we can interfere with our plants as much as we help them. The key to being helpful rather than harmful is understanding your plants.  I don’t mean that you need to understand yourplants in a new-age psychology way. You need tounderstand the way your plants growtake up water, nutrients, convert sunlight to sugar. That way, you can assist your plants in the specific ways that will help them, and identify problems when they occur.

 Dinner Time!

Well-established plants will, at this point, need food. The amount of food your plants need will depend entirely on the quality of your soil. If you did not get a soil test at the beginning of the growing season, now is as good a time as any.  Go to your local extension office and pick up a box and a form. Follow the instructions and send in your sample. If possible, ask for a profile of the micro-nutrients in the soil as well as the standard Potassium and Phosphorous levels.  (Nitrogen is so mobile within soil, that soil tests cannot give you an accurate reading at any given time.)  It could take a couple of weeks for you to receive the results, so in the meantime, you need to select a general fertilizer that will help your plants grow lustrous, leafy foliate that will support the flowers and fruits once they begin forming. The most important nutrients for the beginning stages of plant growth are nitrogen and phosphorous. Nitrogen promotes overall plant growth, and phosphorous is integral to root growth. In order to yield good harvests, you need to start the plant with an adequate supply of each. NEVER feed your plant at the time of planting, as that could burn the plant. Give them a couple of weeks.

Good General Fertilizers

Natural fertilizers that work well and have good nutrient ratio to promote strong root growth are available from our fertilizer reviews page. The N-P-K ratio you should look for is 2-4-1, which means that there is twice as much Phosphorous than Nitrogen, which will promote healthy root growth. These fish-derived seaweed fertilizers are completely natural and provide nutrients to plants in immediately available forms.