"Organic-Like" Gardening

I am an "organic-like" gardener. What on earth is "organic-like"? It's 100% organic, but I can't prove it's "certified organic", so in deference to those who are "certified organic" , I'll be content with calling it "organic-like".

I use composted manure as my soil supplement. My redwood planters have a soy-based stain, so there is no leaching of whatever back into my garden soil, and I would NEVER use pressure-treated wood (or old railroad ties) for my planters. I strategically plant catch-crops to attract certain bugs and repel others. I have a literal worm garden in each of my planters that carried over from last year. I only use natural and organic fertilizers (bone meal, blood meal, fish emulsion). I don't use any herbicide in my planters (I do use a little Roundup on the perimeters of the compound to get rid of rhizome grasses, but most weed reduction is done mechanically). I don't use ANY pesticides in my garden area (and am not really fond of them for other uses). Someday, I hope to have an organic, thriving lawn - I'm in my first year of experimenting with a Microclover (R) mixture planted in a small area, and if my wife approves, I'll re-seed everything.

Living in the San Joaquin Valley as a kid in the 60's and 70's, there was no such thing as organic. Farmers sprayed, and sprayed, and sprayed. And it worked... sort of. The bugs went away. Weeds disappeared. Ground spraying, aerial spraying, hand spraying, you name it, they sprayed it.

When I was about 3-4 years old (circa 1965), we had bugs everywhere. Dragonflies, praying mantis, ladybugs, stink bugs (beetles). We had an irrigation canal next to our house, and canals tend to spawn all kinds of bugs. One of my favorite activities could be called "whack-a-dragonfly". Armed with a flyswatter (there were lots of flies, and my mom must have had a dozen flyswatters in the house), around dusk I would go out to the front yard. Dragonflies were buzzing around everywhere. I would chase them, flailing my flyswatter at them to knock them down and step on them. It was truly a noble sport for a 4 year-old! (It probably led me into my youthful passion for tennis a few years later).

I don't know just when the spraying began in earnest, but it wasn't long after that when I noticed the dragonflies disappeared. By the time I was 10, I don't remember any at all. And the mantis were disappearing, too. I used to see their egg-cases everywhere, and in the springtime, these TINY mantis would crawl out and start looking for gnats to eat. It was cool!

By the time I was a teenager, only the flies were left, it seemed.

One time my dad, growing weary of all of the flies around the house, came up with a unique solution to rid them.

We had a field next to our house (probably alfalfa) that was in need of crop dusting. Alfalfa attracted butterflies, which would lay eggs in the alfalfa, hatching furry caterpillars that loved to eat the alfalfa. As a young boy under 10 years old, I remember seeing those caterpillars everywhere, and they were really cool to squish because they had these greenish-yellow innards that were alien-esque. From a farmers perspective, though, they were more than a nuisance - they were lost profits. The answer? Spray, spray, spray!

Back to the flies. Whatever pesticide they used to kill the caterpillars, it wasn't selective - it killed many-a-bug. Even the good bugs, like praying mantis, ladybugs, it didn't matter. The mindset then was KILL 'EM ALL!

So my dad's reasoning probably went something like this:

1) The crop duster will be spraying the field for bugs;
2) Flies are bugs;
3) The house is next to the field;
4) The crop duster flies over the house;
5) The crop duster can release the spray over the house;
6) The flies die!

That was how it was in the 60's and 70's (well, maybe not the aerial spraying of your home - although Gov. Jerry Brown did order aerial spraying of the dreaded Medfly in the San Jose area in the early 80's). Shell Pest Strips hung on the eaves of the house (I think we even had some inside the house, too). We had metal hand pump-sprayers that held Raid with DDT for household spraying. We didn't know any better.

It's no wonder we have had such an explosion of cancer, kidney, liver and other chronic diseases in the post-WWII generations.

So, thanks to reading some of J.I. Rodale's (and others) literature about ten or so years ago on organic gardening, I decided to "go organic". Or in my case, "organic-like".