Growing Vegetables in a True Ecological Manner
Ecological gardening is becoming increasingly popular, but what does it really mean? In most cases, even so-called ecological practices will still be a source of problems for your garden. For instance, most organic gardening books praise the hoe as your best friend. Sure, it is better to use a hoe than to use herbicides, but even by using a hoe you are still trying to solve a problem (weed) rather than eliminating it.
Moreover, using a hoe will usually exacerbate the problem. First, turning the soil will excite the weed seeds which are always present, and as a result create an explosion of new weeds. You will also mix the dry, structureless top layer of the soil with the deeper structured soil. Over time, the thickness of the structureless layer will increase. This structureless layer has less water retention capacity, and also less microbiological life in it. It will need more water to keep the plants alive, as well as some kind of fertilization, because the lack of microorganisms limits the transformation of organic matter into usable elements for the plants. And… I could go on like this for long, but you catch the point.The truth is that environmental sciences, which are basically the scientific examination of natural ecosystems, teach us all we need to know to grow vegetables and food. Natural ecosystems display a wide range of diversity, and there are many complicated relationships between all their components, living and non-living. These relationships are the result of a process of natural evolution, giving birth to an equilibrium in which each component is dependent on its interaction with other components. They fuel up on one another, making the system completely self-sustainable. If one piece breaks down or is perturbed, the whole system can be affected.In such natural ecosystems, we can observe that there are many living species which co-exist in a single area. The place occupied by each component is called a niche space. Each time a component is destroyed (for instance an animal eating a plant), there remains an empty niche, which will necessarily be filled by another component. This is the way nature works, and everytime a niche becomes available, it creates an opportunity for another living form to occupy it. Some living forms can sometimes stay dormant and wait for years before starting to occupy a suddendly available niche, as is the case for instance with weed seeds. Yes, the same weeds you desperately try to get rid of!As you can see, this universal law also applies to your garden, because all traditional gardens are full of empty niche spaces, usually created by the gardener himself. It is somewhat ironic that so much effort can be put in trying to maintain empty spaces, which are actually the source of the problems. Since nature does not allow empty niches for long, weeds will try to colonize the place, because they are among the most vigorous plants. We can see here that a vegetable garden is no different from any natural ecosystem.True ecological gardening should therefore focus on making nature work with us, instead of trying to perpetually counteract its behavior. For instance, getting rid of weeds is actually easy once you understand this principle. Eliminate the cause, not the consequence. In other words, you should eliminate empty niche spaces, and instead have something desirable ready to occupy the niche, should it become available. The same principle can be applied for pest management, as well as many other “problems”, which actually disappear instead of being taken care of.If you would like to know more about the possibilites of ecological gardening, some specialized gardening books are available. You will learn that this type of gardening requires much less work and attention than traditional gardening, and produces far more. This is done just by applying what environmental sciences have teached us about natural ecosystems.
Grow your Own Garden Fruit Trees for Real Fruit
When visiting a supermarket have you never wished you had a few garden fruit trees? Have you ever noticed how purchased fruit these days is bit inconsistent in quality? Sometimes it will be fine, but mostly is tasteless, too hard or too soft. The pears are rock hard, you can push your fingers through the plums, and the peaches start growing mould before they are soft enough to eat.
Some of this has to do with forced growing and artificial fertilizers, and some on picking too early, and being left to ripen during shipping. Much of the foreign grown fruit is picked unripened, and then ripened in the ship’s hold. This leads to fruit with the taste and texture of wet cardboard. Why not grow your own? It is both cheaper and better for you, and the taste is far superior to anything grown and shipped from thousands of miles away, and fed on who knows what.
Even a small garden can be used for growing fruit trees, and there are apples, peaches, pears, cherries and plums suitable for the smallest garden. And these are just a few of what is available that be grown in shapes suitable for training along fences and walls, and up garden mesh and netting. You don’t need a massive orchard for garden fruit trees any more if you know how to train them properly, and what varieties are best for growing in your local conditions.
If your garden is susceptible to early frosts, you should purchase trees that flower later, or you will lose the flowers before they can develop into fruit. Irrespective of your conditions, you should be able to grow a selection of apples, pears, plums and so on and even apricots and peaches if you have a reasonable amount of sun. Even grapes can be grown in temperate climates.
You should buy your stock from a good supplier that knows what you need for the areas in which you live. It is always best to buy local, since if they can grow it then so can you. Many people travel to warmer climates and return with fruit trees that looked great in 35 degrees of sun, but are stunted in your chillier 25 degrees. You should choose a selection of fruits suitable for your climate, and at least two of each. There are some self-pollinating varieties of fruit around, but it is safer to have two trees
