For the many of us who came to gardening via the conventional route, designing the organic garden requires a change of perspective and the embrace of some new ideas. Many people think that to be an organic gardener simply means you don’t use chemical pesticides and fertilizers. Of course it’s true that the organic gardener doesn’t use, want, or need chemical pesticides and fertilizers. After all, we are not at war with nature. We have chosen to work with nature. So what does this mean when it comes to selecting and placing plants? Here are some things to consider:
- Organic gardeners recognize that many of the critters in the garden will be our allies, if we let them. Soil bacteria, fungi, and other microbes make our soil fertile and our plants healthy. Beneficial insects and birds will drive away or eat the pests that want at our flowers and vegetables.
- Organic garden design is the planning of an ecosystem. All parts of the garden are related, and each part impacts and supports the other parts. Every plant and structure serves more than one purpose. That apple tree has beautiful flowers and scent, gives shade and privacy, builds soil structure and health through its roots and fallen leaves, sequesters carbon, attracts pollinators, raises a family of insect-eating birds every year, and feeds us (and the birds) tasty and nutritious apples.
- The foundation of the garden is the soil. Healthy, fertile soil will grow healthy plants. Compost is the best soil amendment. Make your own and add it to the soil every year - especially to the vegetable garden soil, because you are taking off a crop every year, thus removing soil nutrients. Locate the compost bin(s) near the vegetable garden.
- Think about shelter from the wind, cold, sun. Do you want privacy, quiet? A hedge serves these purposes well, as do strategically placed trees interspersed with shrubs and flower beds. I like a fence around the vegetable garden to keep out the wind but let the sun shine in. And a wooden fence doesn’t send out thirsty roots. I like the idea of a composting fence – two walls of chicken wire set 8-10 inches apart and the area in-between stuffed with leaves, small twigs, plant trimmings, etc. The materials compost over time and build enriched soil at the base of the fence, wherein vegetables thrive.
- Water is precious. Collect rain water in barrels from every roof and downspout. Tap water contains chlorine which, by design, is not good for green things. Don’t channel rainwater into the storm sewer or ditch. Build healthy soil which will absorb moisture, recycle water, and prevent pooling. Rather than concrete, install permeable surfaces so water can pass through. My front walk is hard-packed crusher dust which allows water to drain through. Use mulch around plants - never leave soil exposed to drying winds and sun.
- Of course, to prevent water getting into the basement, grade the soil away from the foundation.
- Practice diversity in planting the vegetable and the ornamental garden. Some plants attract beneficial insects that protect other plants from attack by pests. Learn what plants live together happily - companion planting. Good companions will have complementary nutrient, light, moisture, and space needs. Put nitrogen fixers beside heavy feeders (e.g. beans beside corn). And don’t put that small plant in the shade of a larger plant, unless it loves shade.
- Choose plants that you know will do well in your area. Proven vegetables/fruit, native plants and trees (or their relatives), those from similar climates and soil types, and those that don’t need winter protection, are best. Exotics are way too demanding of time and resources.
- Grow your salad herbs and vegetable near the house for quick and easy access. Some things do better in pots. I plant tomatoes in large pots in the sunniest place in the yard (south side of house), and keep a barrel of rainwater nearby.
- Don’t try planting flowers under the spruce tree – the spruce tree puts out a toxin that will make life impossible for the flowers. Use a mulch of leaves, cones, needles, and/or shredded bark, under spruce. And please leave the spruce tree’s skirt in place. Trimming the bottom branches from a spruce tree is bad for the tree’s health and dignity.
- Never mono-crop, even if that vast field of canola we’ve all seen is so pretty in flower. Like that field of canola, a large bed of potatoes, grown in the same place every year, is a magnet for all kinds of pests, and will rapidly deplete soil fertility so that yield and quality declines. Similarly, large beds of roses or lilies are an open invitation to insect and disease attack. A most common mono-crop is the standard Kentucky Bluegrass lawn – a glutton for water and food. I like lawns, but a mix of grasses and nitrogen-fixing white Dutch clover stays green longer, needs less water, looks great, and mows just as well. Why do conventional lawn aficionados hate broadleaves so much?
- Some good resources on design to refer to are Gaia’s Garden, by Toby Hemenway, and The Prairie Short Season Yard, by Lyndon Penner.