If the next footprint in your horticulture risky venture is to produce organically , then your end are within reach .
Jerome Lange , a vegetable farmer in Casey County , Ky. , has been gardening for more than 30 years , and in the past decennium or so has been honing his constitutional technique . Through a test - and - error method in his 2½-acre garden in Mennonite country , he set about to garden in a means that feed in the solid ground that nutrify our food .
“ My uncle once say , ‘ We remembered the Zea mays , but we forgot the fish , ’ ” Lange recalls . Alluding to the saw “ Teach a valet to fish and he will eat for a lifespan , ” he means that the agricultural method acting that have become stock in the U.S. have literally destroy the farm and garden , strip the ground of its nutrient and hook crops of flavor and nourishment .
Everything he learns , he think to pass on on to other gardeners . In his book think the Fish : The Seven Keys – An Organic Approach to Gardening in Kentucky Lange details what he has labeled as the “ seven key ” to organic fertilizer . The key fruit serve as a checklist on his own farm . If something pass away awry — carrot lose smack or kale smell stunted — he walk through each step , starting from the top , to enter out what he pass on out .
1 . Observation“It starts with going out and looking at plants — just reckon at them , ” Lange sound out . If your tomatoes have a blemished color or your celery is spiny , then something in your organic gardening technique is n’t work . Once you realize what your problem are , pop talking to fellow gardeners who have get it correct . Never stop asking questions .
2 . LimeAdding lime sweetens and undo the soil and helps debilitate weewee . While 3 scads of calcium hydroxide per Akka of nation is a gardening standard , Lange recommends an initial “ heavy liming ” of 12 to 15 tons per acre and 1 ton per acre each class after . The end result will be a harvest that taste better and lasts longer .
3 . CultivationWhile it ’s common knowledge that plant leaves take in carbon paper dioxide and sacking oxygen , few citizenry eff that plant roots do the opposite . “ If soil loads up with carbon dioxide and there ’s no oxygen , that plant life will be stunted , ” Lange says .
By cultivating — or aerating — the soil , plant roots will get the necessary O to grow and hold back wet . The method of refinement is not important — be it hoe , composting , sanding , et cetera .
4 . CompostAlthough Lange admits composting will not puzzle out all your constitutive gardening job , the plant / manure / dirt mixed bag of compost makes a nice industrial plant food for thought . Chemicals used in schematic gardening are like coffee , he says — they make plants rise but strip them of nutrients . Compost contains food that will bung the dirt and your crop .
If you ’re aweary of compost because of the olfactory modality , he say , do n’t be . An ammonia feel means the megabucks has too much atomic number 7 , so add straw , dirt or other “ John Brown ” to the mix .
5 . Raised BedsEspecially in areas similar to Kentucky with heavy seasonal rain , raised beds help to keep plants from inundate and allow for drainage . This mean you could cultivate presently because of drier dirt . He urge organic nurseryman levy beds 1 to 1½ feet high .
6 . Row CoversFor constituent nurseryman assay a profit ( especially those in cold climates ) , wait until May for warm weather seems financially unreasonable . To work with the cold , Lange secures two layers of tobacco fabric over a hoop to cover his crops set about in former February or early March . He removes one of the layers in mid - April when thing heat up but plants still take shelter .
7 . SandLange plow the soil around each plant with at least 1/2 in of sand . This facilitates aeration to relax dirt and holds in wet like mulch .
