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Growing Your Garden

For some of us, there's nothing more satisfying than tinkering in the garden for hours on end. But your hobby shouldn't compromise your health or the planet's, and it doesn't have to. Your garden can be perfectly lovely without the use of harsh chemicals. In fact, natural methods are generally more effective over the long run-pests can develop resistance to pesticides, for example, and if you don't overwater your plants they will develop deeper roots that will serve them well during droughts.

Your ultimate goal is to provide your plants with healthy soil to grow in, soil that's well balanced and teeming with nutrients. If you can do that, you'll see many benefits: weeds and pests will be less of an issue, and you won't need to force-feed your plants with Miracle-Gro because they'll already be healthy and strong. There are all sorts of exciting things happening on the sustainable gardening front right now, such as the movement toward using native plants, new low-watering planting plans and more.

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Avoid using synthetic pesticides. If you feel you must use chemicals, then do your homework to make sure you try the least toxic options first. The Pesticide Action Network's database, http://www.pesticideinfo.org/, is an excellent resource for learning a specific pesticide's potential health impacts and whether it is considered high risk. You can search by product ingredients or product names. If you have a specific pest in your garden, target it using a "selective" pesticide rather than a "broad-spectrum" pesticide. Read the label of any product you buy and pay attention to toxicity warnings like "Caution," "Warning," and "Danger".

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Get your soil tested so you know if you need additives to enrich it. A good soil test can tell you how much nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, and lime your soil has. Contact your local cooperative extension to get your soil tested. Every state has one and in addition to helping you test your soil, it can be a great resource for local advice. If you're worried about toxins in your soil, a concern if kids play in dirt, then you can ask your extension to test for heavy metals, pesticides, and other contaminants as well. You can find your extension by clicking on the map at www.csrees.usda.gov/Extension. You can also buy soil-testing kits at a garden supply store, but these only test for pH levels.

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Practice companion planting. Plan your garden so that you have pest-repellant plants next to susceptible plants. Planting mint, garlic, chives, or coriander near more vulnerable plants will keep aphids away, for example. You can find more information at http://www.companionplanting.net/.


Use natural fertilizers, such as compost, on your garden. Minimize your use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides.	Landscape with native plants. Native vegetation needs less water and is less likely to require as much fertilizer and herbicide.	Place naturally pest-repellant plants, such as mint, garlic, chives and coriander, next to plants that are susceptible to pests.