Okay, this is my first post, so be gentle. I know I need more photos and a few links here and there, and I'm frankly not sure if what follows is the sort of thing anyone is interested in reading. Nevertheless, here goes.
A Bed Time Story
Yesterday I spent five hours weeding one of my ornamental beds. It was hot. Winds were gusting up to 35 mph. And I was sweating in places I never knew I had sweat glands. I did manage to get a rhythm going with my scuffle hoe, thanks to the tune “Tonight the Bottle Let Me Down” that was stuck in my head.
A Little Background
The bed, one of several on my property, is roughly 2400 square feet, and includes a mixed bag of deciduous and evergreen trees and shrubs, perennials, and spring-flowering bulbs. I created it four years ago, and after clearing the land (of two collapsing barns, three ridiculously messy mulberry trees, several rotting railroad ties, and Bermuda grass), I created an undulating, raised-bed border of mortared limestone. The native soil was actually pretty good, but I wanted to fill the bed up to the level of the stone border, so I ordered a large dump truck full of top-quality topsoil. Or so I thought.
What actually arrived -- while I was out of town – can only be described as muck. Nasty, thick, black, swamp-like muck, the kind of stuff that sucks your shoes right off when you try to walk in it.
I called the contractor when I got home, and he knew right away I was pissed. He said the stuff I had actually ordered wasn’t available, and that his supplier had recommended the muck as a suitable substitute. Yeah, right. That’s like saying shoe leather is a substitute for steak.
Back to Business
Many of the weeds – such as henbit and chickweed – were relatively easy to pull. The poke, dandelions, and thistle required some real effort, as in digging deep to get every last bit of root. But the most notorious of the lot was the annual Polygonum persicaria, also known as smartweed or Ladysthumb, and there’s nothing ladylike about it. In fact, it’s a bitch. It reseeds and spreads rapidly, and it roots fairly deeply. But at last, I was finished. I stared at the bed, pleased with my efforts, and then all of a sudden I wondered to myself: Can you really blame people for reaching for one of those hugely popular glyphosate-based herbicides when faced with such a task? Had I done so, I would have been finished in about half an hour and had plenty of time to kick back on the patio with a cup of coffee and the New York Times.
Like many of you, I’ve known for decades that synthetic chemicals, be they pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, or fertilizers, have no place in the garden. They poison the soil, the planet, and all life forms that call the soil and the planet home.
Why then do so many millions of gardeners use them? Well for one thing, they work, at least up to a point. In the short term they do indeed kill pests and diseases, destroy weeds, and make plants grow. They’re also attractively and conveniently packaged and available at stores of all kinds, from nurseries to box stores to grocery stores...even pharmacies!
But the biggest reason synthetic chemicals are so popular – and this should come as no surprise -- is that they’ve been advertised so aggressively that many such products are actually household names.
So how do we get more gardeners to stop using synthetic chemicals? Good question. And frankly, I’m not sure I have the answer. But this much I do know.
The method I’ve used for 13 years on my show is simple and straightforward – don’t distinguish between synthetic and organic chemicals. (And by the way, just because they’re organic doesn’t mean they aren’t chemicals.) If someone asks how best to control aphids, don’t begin the conversation by saying, “Well, the one thing you don’t want to use is Sevin dust.” That confuses the issue. Instead, why not simply say, “Start with a strong blast of water from the hose, and if that doesn’t do the trick, try using insecticidal soap.” That solves the problem without even acknowledging that there is a synthetic alternative.
I’m not suggesting that by simply ignoring the existence of synthetic chemicals we’ll make them go away. I’m not that naïve. But in my 30 years of gardening organically, I haven’t witnessed a profound shift in thinking among gardeners regarding the use of synthetic versus organic chemicals. I’ve seen a change, to be sure, largely with respect to growing edibles rather than ornamentals, but progress has been slow.
I don’t know about you, but I gave up trying to save the world years ago. These days,I’m content to try and reach as many people as I can with my message, and hope that they will in turn reach as many people as they can, and so on. That way the message will spread – much like the Polygonum persicaria in my garden.
Last night, as I lay in bed sipping a glass of tawny port, I thought about another, much larger garden bed that needed weeding. But rather than dread the thought, I actually looked forward to it. I wondered what tune I’d have stuck in my head – something by Green Day, or maybe Pavarotti? Then I fell sound asleep with the New York Times on my chest.
Paul But rather than have my guy remove the muck, I decided to amend the soil with all the organic matter I could muster – leaves, rotten hay and straw, grass clippings, and whatever else I could get my hands on. It delayed my planting plans a year, although I did go ahead and stick some trees and shrubs in to anchor the bed. I continued adding organic matter year after year, and now the soil is ideal for just about anything that grows. However, the muck was also infested with weeds, some of which I didn’t even recognize, and controlling them over the years has been a constant struggle, even though I’ve blanketed the bed with a good four inches of mulch every year.
Chastising individuals who use synthetic chemicals serves no purpose. And those who take to the bully pulpit usually wind up preaching to the choir or come off sounding so smug that the target audience fails to hear – or simply chooses to ignore – the message. Demonizing companies that manufacture synthetic chemicals is only marginally effective, and may actually strengthen their resolve to counter the resistance by spending billions more on advertising.
Of course, progress is almost always slow. And what often makes it slow is that we make perfection the goal. We want everyone to realize the benefits of organic gardening, and we want them to do so now. But when we make perfection the goal, it has the potential to become the enemy of good. I’ve managed over the years to sway lots of folks to garden organically, but I haven’t convinced them all. Does that mean that my efforts have been in vain? Of course not!