Gardening organically is about working with nature. It is not a scientific process; it is just common sense – and has long been practised by thoughtful gardeners. If you are growing all your vegetables in pots in a small space, it is not easy to be completely organic since this would involve making your own compost to feed and enrich the soil. However, if you follow the famous adage ‘feed the soil not the plants’, you will be well on the way to creating healthy, sturdy, pest-resistant plants. Where possible, buy organic compost.
If you have enough space, do create a compost heap – as well as reducing the amount of organic waste going to landfill, this will give you a continuous supply of rich compost to add to the soil that you will doubtless have to buy in. Avoid pesticides since these kill beneficial insects as well as those that may be devouring your crops. In reality, greenfly are wonderful food for garden birds and for ladybird and hoverfly larvae; slugs are loved by frogs and toads; and snails are a delicacy for the songthrush – you may have been lucky enough to hear a songthrush tapping a snail shell on an ‘anvil’ stone to reveal the nutritious flesh inside. An organic gardener values and protects these creatures. Feed your crops occasionally, especially while they are producing fruit. Use a natural fertilizer such as seaweed extract or homemade comfrey liquid (see page 16).
Adding freshly cut comfrey to your compost adds a boost of useful nutrients and encourages good cropping of your vegetables.
The organic method includes companion planting: pairing vegetables with flowering plants that encourage beneficial insects and predators as well as plants with a scent that repels other potential pests (see page 29). It really is a logical system.
As well as the flowers, bees will pollinate your vegetables.
Bees love borage flowers for the rich, sweet nectar they produce. Borage is an annual and grows quickly into a sturdy plant covered in clear blue star-like flowers.
