Ecological Gardening

I would love to have lush apples trees on my property, but at 7400 feet, terrible soil, little water, and hungry bears, the chances are slim. The struggle against the environmental forces is just not worth it. On the other hand, with a little support and ingenuity, nature allows me to grow almost all of the vegetables and many of the perennials I love. The trick is knowing how to balance what I want, with what nature will agree to. It is all a matter of negotiation and cooperation -- what you might call an ecological approach to gardening.

The Ecological Approach – finding the point of balance
The ecological approach works with nature not against it. It accepts uncertainty and values questions more than answers: How do my actions impact the web of life? Am I forcing the environment to do what I will? How can I respect this ecology and help it create something of benefit to life and me? Am I giving back as much as I take? These are difficult questions without simple solutions.

There is no avoiding the reality: gardeners constantly mess with the ‘natural’ environment. It is not ‘natural’ for me to have a garden in a mountain forest. My greenhouses, mostly made of non-renewable resources, allow me to recreate an ecosystem that is more like zone 6 than zone 3.5. In return, to balance the debt, I now help build fertile, microbial soil that would take thousands of years to create ‘naturally’.

I did not always think this way. For many years, I tried to garden more or less conventionally – and failed. My vegetables were mediocre; 50% of my plants and trees died within two years. Only when I got turned on to the Bountea Compost Tea system and began to understand the importance of building a firm foundation of living soil, did my garden begin to thrive. Now the garden ecology is full and rich. Birds flock to eat the abundant insects and seeds. Bull snakes hunt the chipmunks. The compost pile writhes with immigrant red worms. There is more of everything: bigger healthier cabbages and bigger healthier cabbageworms. That is the downside of the ecological approach. As I said earlier, nature is never completely predictable or controllable. We have to get used to that.

It is an illusion that we can stay aloof from the natural world, be a puppeteer pulling the strings. A garden is not a garden without a gardener; there is no cultivation without a cultivator. We are inevitably part of the gardening web of life. Our job is to keep the whole in harmony and comparative equilibrium. If we push too hard, the scales tip to one side; if we don’t push enough, they tip to the other. It is a balancing act between making it happen and allowing it to be. My garden, like me, is always somewhat on track and somewhat beyond my control.

Steps to an Ecology of Gardening
To be an ecological gardener is more an attitude than a program. I try to look and listen to how nature does things and take that as my cue. Here are a few suggestions:

Waste nothing. Everything in nature is recycled and transformed into something useful. I put all organic material (and I mean all) through my shredder to make compost.

Work with the sun. All energy comes from the sun – and it keeps coming. Use natural light whenever possible. Get out in the sunlight. Trap it in a greenhouse and feed it to your plants.

Be generous. Nature is never stingy. It always creates more than it needs – more seeds, more weeds, more insects. I always plant too much. Then I have enough when chaos strikes, and plenty of gifts for friends.

Support diversity. Just look at the natural world -- it is rampant with diverse living organisms. I plant over thirty varieties of vegetables because I love the differences in taste and texture. Even my indoor plants have colonists and companions to keep them company.

Give more than you take. Life is a gift that can never be fully repaid. Add more life to your soil than you take from it. Nurture your plants with love, care, and natural foods.

Include yourself. Nature does not exclude you. You are a living organism and have similar needs for nurturing as your plants. Be your garden – grow yourself.

Reading:
David Wann: The Zen of Gardening.