The Magic of Organic Gardening Nature's Way

When I began organic gardening back in the 60's I followed the composting methods I had read about in the Rodale books on organic gardening. I wanted to recreate the magic of nature's ways by growing food organically. So I built composting bins, hauled in leaves and soil, built my layers, and then came the job of turning them...regularly. Then the weeding and watering...the work involved became a daunting task. I was looking for a better way.

Then I found Ruth Stout's book, How to Have Green Thumb without an Aching Back. It was like a breath of fresh air. She advocated doing organic gardening in a more natural way not just using organic materials. Mulch, not compost! Earthworms eating kitchen scraps! No weeding! What a concept! I adopted much of what she had written.

I had just moved through some career changes that had brought me to the suburbs of Minneapolis and St. Paul. My large corner lot in Burnsville was a huge challenge. It had a thin veneer of sod laid over a sprinkling of black soil and the rest was heavy clay, sand, and rock. The property was not very flat so I constructed a timber-wall terrace and tossed the sod into the space behind the wall to rot under the sand and clay that I tossed on top. Grass clippings from my diminishing lawn space was mixed with the sod and sand and clay to keep it from compacting. Kitchen scraps were added as I prepared my garden soil for the following season. All the bags of leaves I could find in the neighborhood were collected and stacked against the brick of the exposed walls of my basement. They would provide some insulation through the cold winter until needed in spring.

I turned the soil on the high areas and sprinkled the grass clippings and leaves into the trench as I went, always adding kitchen scraps. Then I covered this with a thin layer of mulch for the winter.

In spring I began planting my garden after turning the soil again. After the seeds had sprouted and the new plants stood about 3-6" high, I began to mulch. For the next several weeks I would soak newspapers I had collected through the winter, lay them in heavy water-laden mats between the rows. This was covered with leaves and later grass clippings at least 6" deep. That summer there was no need to hoe. Occasionally a weed would pop up between the plants and while on my daily patrol of the plantings, I might find a weed and remove it. I'd toss it on the top of the mulch, of course. Nothing need go to waste and NO collecting weeds to put somewhere else to pitch and turn.

Ruth Stout was actually teaching nature's way of composting - sheet composting. The whole garden becomes a compost pile that feeds the soil while it blocks the growth of weeds and loss of moisture. She taught that we ought to let nature takes its course whenever possible. Let nature's wisdom inform our own. I liked that approach.

There was also very little need to water the garden because the mulch kept the water in the soil instead of evaporating in the hot sun. Very little soil was splashed onto the plants or fruit which kept them cleaner and reduced the infections that can develop from soil-borne mold or mildew spores or from bacteria in the soil. Because the mulch kept the soil cooler, the roots were not damaged by the heat or water deficit. No mud, either. I could go into the garden after a rain and not get mud all over my shoes.

Frequently, I'd lift a section of mulch and newspaper, dig a hole, and bury vegetable or fruit scraps and egg shells between the rows. Copious amounts of grass clippings were added all summer long and into the fall to keep the mulch thick enough to keep the bottom layers decomposing.

Earthworms began to show up in this soil that was being developed from the hard scrabble and producing nature's own compost.

Throughout the growing season I harvested enormous quantities of natural food from that small garden and that fall I turned the mulch and newspapers into the soil...any that had not already decomposed, that is. Again, I added peelings and scraps from the kitchen to the turned soil and more grass clippings and fallen leaves. Again I collected the bags of leaves left at curbside in the neighborhood and stored them for use the next spring.

The next spring there were more earthworms and they were deeper in the soil. I turned the soil once again, mixing some of the mulch with it. By the next spring, I didn't have to dig my garden any longer. Just the blunt end of the hoe handle was enough to make a trench for the seeds and the soil was so loose that I could make a planting hole with my hand to insert the seedlings into the rich garden soil. I would just lightly rake the row clear of mulch and plant. When the row was planted, more soaked newspaper might be laid over the lightly raked soil between rows and the mulch would be renewed and deepened. Eventually I would only part the mulch and plant.

Earthworms had become my tillers, little spaghetti-like critters doing the work of horses, quietly and without effort, munching their way through the rich environment I had provided for them. The worm castings that would pass through their little bodies would be the best fertilizer nature can make on its own. With all those worms and more time on my hands I could have gone fishing.

I didn't though. Should have. The lake was just down the street and around the corner.

I had other projects to tackle...like collecting food for food shelves and the people at Loaves and Fishes Too, serving the people at their evening meal at the Holy Rosary Catholic Church just across the street from the Little Earth Housing Community in South Minneapolis, providing clothing collected from rummage sales, delivering loads of clothing to the Sabathani Community Center free store on 38th Street...like that.

Plant Magic is Organic Gardening Nature's Way. Order Plant Magic®