Seven Ticks For Organic Gardening
By Nicky Pilkington, Tue Jan 10th

Organic is the way of growing vegetables and fruitswith the use of things only found in nature.

Why would one want to indulge in organic gardening?

1. One can easily make compost from garden and kitchen waste.Though this is a bit more time-consuming than buying preparedchemical pesticides and fertilizers, it certainly helps to putgarbage to good use and so saves the environment.

2. Organic farming does not use chemicals that may have anadverse affect on your health. This is especially important whengrowing vegetables. Chemical companies tell us that thechemicals we use are safe if used according to direction, butresearch shows that even tiny amounts of poisons absorbedthrough the skin can cause such things as cancer, especially inchildren.

On the average, a child ingests four to five times morecancer-causing pesticides from foods than an adult. This canlead to various diseases later on in the child's life. Withorganic gardening, these incidents are lessened.

Remember, pesticides contain toxins that have only one purpose -to kill living things.

3. Less harm to the environment. Poisons are often washed intoour waterways, causing death to the native

fish and pollutingtheir habitat.

4. Organic farming practices help prevent the loss of topsoilthrough erosion.

The Soil Conservation Service says that an estimated 30 - 32billion tons of soil erodes from United States farmlands everyyear.

5. Cost savings. One does not need to buy costly chemicalfertilizers and pesticides with organic gardening. Many organicrecipes for the control of pest and disease come straight fromthe kitchen cupboard. Sometimes other plants can be grown ascompanions to the main crop. An example of this is the marigold,which helps to repel aphids from vegetables. Mixing 1 tablespoonof liquid dishwashing soap and 1 cup of cooking oil can make acheap garden pest spray. Put 3 tablespoons of this mixture in 1quart of water and spray on plants.

6. A simple mulch of pine needles will help to suppress thegrowth of weeds as well as keeping the moisture in.

7. Organic practices help to keep the environment safefor future generations.

About the author:Find more about gardeningand some useful gardeningtips at AboutGardening