The Satisfaction of Organic Gardening

Much has been written about the benefits of organic gardening and there are many, many books written about the how.  What I’d like to discuss briefly is the why.

Perhaps you were never really new to gardening. You may have learned to grow vegetables at your parent’s side. In that case, you learned their way of growing things. Whether they grew organically or used store-bought fertilizers, you grew up knowing how a garden is made. What to do and what to expect.

Now imagine you never had a garden in your life. You finally have a piece of earth where you can grow a few favorite vegetables and you figure, “how hard can it be?”.

You dig the soil deep, mixing in a half-dozen bags of top soil, and rake it flat. You have packets of bush beans, cucumbers, and something called zucchini. You saw some tomato plants and thought you’d save some time with them. You spread everything out in the space you have and smile. You’re going to have a garden!

A few days go by and you spot some tender little green sprouts stretching towards the sky. Your smile disappears as you realize where they’re growing is nowhere near what you planted.

Those are weeds!

With a little, “Oh, no you don’t!” you pluck them out.

Again and again, day after day, you pluck them out until some sturdier plants sprout up right where they should.

Now, to your watering and weeding is added another, “W” …watching!

You watch your young plants carefully, amazed at how they’re developing as they grow. You pick off bugs  and slugs and a huge tomato worm that you caught eating  a precious leaf. You protect your plants with your attention as they grow and flower under your care.

And that attention is rewarded at the first sight of little cucumbers, beans, and tiny tomatoes. And is that a little squash?

Your book says you should be using fertilizers but you just don’t see the need. You didn’t like the smell of them in the garden center and the thought of putting something harsh on your little babies is a total turn-off. Things are doing just fine as they are with the compost you add now and then.

The day finally comes when those cucumbers look perfect and there are enough beans to fill a pot. You and your family enjoy the fruits of your labor until your garden, chugging along at top speed, produces more food than you can eat.

So you give it away to friends.

And one friend asks, “Are they organic?”

You pause a moment, as you realize that’s just what you did, and then say with a smile, “They certainly are.”

Yes, there are health and taste benefits to growing food without chemicals, as well as savings to your budget, but there’s a great feeling of pride and satisfaction in growing your food as nature intended.

At least, that’s how I felt when, never having planted a seed in my life, I made my first garden at 36.  And that’s how I’ve always done it since.

J.D.