We’re Talkin’ Dirty
by Anita Rafael
Here’s the dirt on giving your vegetable garden an all-organic makeover right now.
It is easier than you think to remake your backyard vegetable garden into an organic Eden. All it takes is a little extra tilling in the spring and a big promise not to buy any more chemical pesticides or synthetic fertilizers ever again.
What is the first step to starting your garden makeover? “Get a soil test done,” advises Nicole Vitello, who tills a rocky, seven-acre tract called Manic Organic Farm at the foot of Quaker Hill in Portsmouth. “It only costs a few dollars, and then you know exactly what’s in your soil,” she says. Armed with the results each season, you can doctor the pH of the soil and adjust the nutrients which are out of balance. You will also know whether you should completely strip away the soil you have or cover it with a thick, new layer. Your plot, Vitello points out, could have a high amount of copper or lead in it if there was once a building on the site.
Few people on Aquidneck Island know dirt better than Nicole Vitello. Her certified-organic produce, sold at area farmers’ markets and through a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture is an arrangement where people buy advance shares in her harvest and take home a big bin of fresh vegetables once a week), ends up on the dining tables of more than 150 local families.
That’s a lot of mouths to feed and since 1999, Vitello has been growing her heirloom and hybrid vegetables, tender greens and herbs with absolutely no help from Dow, Bayer or anyone else in the agricultural chemical industry. She is so passionate about keeping her fields naturally fertile so they sustain her livelihood as an organic grower that she practically thinks of the microorganisms living in the soil as her pets. True, she can’t see them with the naked eye, much less cuddle with them on the couch, but it’s fairly obvious that she has cultivated a symbiotic relationship with zillions of them.
Her healthy, contented microorganisms feed her crops; her chemical-free crops feed her and her customers. “It’s all one system,” she says, making the point that eating dinner and growing food are not separate events.
You can always improve the soil in your garden by simply adding a nutrient-rich, all-natural compost which means you need to become friendly with the folks at Highland Farm on Middle Road in Portsmouth. The Escobars compost manure from their dairy cows which they sell for a few dollars a bag. Amending soil is easy – some of the other organic things you might add, for example, are peat, bone meal or rock phosphates, all derived from natural sources and all inexpensive compared to costly agro-science synthetics.
“To really mix the soil and compost correctly, rent a rototiller,” says Vitello. “It’s the only way to thoroughly reach the ‘active’ layer which is the top 10 or 12 inches. That’s where everything grows.” When you and your family are enjoying the first luscious vegetables that you grew organically, you, too, will realize that among other things, a ten-pound bag of cow manure is, well – worth its weight in sweet-tasting Sungold cherry tomatoes.
Next, pledge not to quick draw your pesticide pistol at the first sight of crawly things on the potatoes. Beetles have a place the ecosystem, too, in spite of the fact that some of them may be eating your future French fries. Instead, take time to really observe the bugs in your garden. Are there only two or three insects or a frightening infestation? Are they a food source for other welcome creatures? Birds, toads and salamanders in your yard may be doing a slow, but adequate extermination job for you.
“Try using plants to discourage bugs,” says Vitello. “I set out marigolds everywhere to deter bean beetles, squash bugs, tomato worms, and whitefly.” Chives repel aphids and spider mites, two very common garden pests. There are dozens more ordinary plants that drive bugs away. Odds are a few insects will not wipe out your whole garden, and you might opt to let them snack on rather than pitching poisons all over the food you plan to serve to your kids later.
Vitello has a simple tip for homeowners when it comes to outsmarting pests and diseases in their vegetable gardens. She says not to plant all the eggplant in one spot, and all the parsley in another. “Lay out multiple rows or patches of the same plant far apart,” she explains, “so that if the weird brown bugs or a nasty mildew get into one section of the crop, they might leave the rest of it alone.”
In the Manic Organic fields, Vitello also uses row covers to control insect damage to seedlings because according to the regulations for organic farming, she cannot apply toxic compounds. “First of all,” she says, “a healthy plant is less likely to be a target for insects and young plants grow strong beneath protection like special material or micro-mesh which lets in air, light and water but keeps the pests out.”
Finally, try to come to terms with the fact that the big, fat weeds taking over your garden are not a sign of failure! Colossal chickweeds choking out the rows of rutabagas are proof that your soil is, in fact, first-rate and fertile. Instead of zapping weeds with powerful herbicides, use mulch to suppress their growth. Mulch, mulch, mulch has always been the mantra of all gardeners, especially the lazy ones who refuse to spend backbreaking hours hoeing weeds. Not only does 2 to 4 inches of mulch preserve warmth and moisture in the garden, it’s common sense that organic materials – such as sawdust, straw, grass clippings, leaves, or shredded bark – will add even more nutrients to the soil as they decompose. “You should never leave the ground bare,” warns Vitello, who believes that dry, naked dirt is “in agony.”
This coming July, when you roll out a wheelbarrow full of juicy, organically-grown watermelons, at least you will know the secret to what made your garden so productive – it wasn’t some formula that Monsanto’s biotech engineers concocted in a laboratory, it was you, your happy microorganisms, and Mother Nature. What a team!
That’s a lot of mouths to feed and since 1999, Vitello has been growing her heirloom and hybrid vegetables, tender greens and herbs with absolutely no help from Dow, Bayer or anyone else in the agricultural chemical industry. She is so passionate about keeping her fields naturally fertile so they sustain her livelihood as an organic grower that she practically thinks of the microorganisms living in the soil as her pets. True, she can’t see them with the naked eye, much less cuddle with them on the couch, but it’s fairly obvious that she has cultivated a symbiotic relationship with zillions of them.
Her healthy, contented microorganisms feed her crops; her chemical-free crops feed her and her customers. “It’s all one system,” she says, making the point that eating dinner and growing food are not separate events.
You can always improve the soil in your garden by simply adding a nutrient-rich, all-natural compost which means you need to become friendly with the folks at Highland Farm on Middle Road in Portsmouth. The Escobars compost manure from their dairy cows which they sell for a few dollars a bag. Amending soil is easy – some of the other organic things you might add, for example, are peat, bone meal or rock phosphates, all derived from natural sources and all inexpensive compared to costly agro-science synthetics.
“To really mix the soil and compost correctly, rent a rototiller,” says Vitello. “It’s the only way to thoroughly reach the ‘active’ layer which is the top 10 or 12 inches. That’s where everything grows.” When you and your family are enjoying the first luscious vegetables that you grew organically, you, too, will realize that among other things, a ten-pound bag of cow manure is, well – worth its weight in sweet-tasting Sungold cherry tomatoes.
Next, pledge not to quick draw your pesticide pistol at the first sight of crawly things on the potatoes. Beetles have a place the ecosystem, too, in spite of the fact that some of them may be eating your future French fries. Instead, take time to really observe the bugs in your garden. Are there only two or three insects or a frightening infestation? Are they a food source for other welcome creatures? Birds, toads and salamanders in your yard may be doing a slow, but adequate extermination job for you.
“Try using plants to discourage bugs,” says Vitello. “I set out marigolds everywhere to deter bean beetles, squash bugs, tomato worms, and whitefly.” Chives repel aphids and spider mites, two very common garden pests. There are dozens more ordinary plants that drive bugs away. Odds are a few insects will not wipe out your whole garden, and you might opt to let them snack on rather than pitching poisons all over the food you plan to serve to your kids later.
Vitello has a simple tip for homeowners when it comes to outsmarting pests and diseases in their vegetable gardens. She says not to plant all the eggplant in one spot, and all the parsley in another. “Lay out multiple rows or patches of the same plant far apart,” she explains, “so that if the weird brown bugs or a nasty mildew get into one section of the crop, they might leave the rest of it alone.”
In the Manic Organic fields, Vitello also uses row covers to control insect damage to seedlings because according to the regulations for organic farming, she cannot apply toxic compounds. “First of all,” she says, “a healthy plant is less likely to be a target for insects and young plants grow strong beneath protection like special material or micro-mesh which lets in air, light and water but keeps the pests out.”
Finally, try to come to terms with the fact that the big, fat weeds taking over your garden are not a sign of failure! Colossal chickweeds choking out the rows of rutabagas are proof that your soil is, in fact, first-rate and fertile. Instead of zapping weeds with powerful herbicides, use mulch to suppress their growth. Mulch, mulch, mulch has always been the mantra of all gardeners, especially the lazy ones who refuse to spend backbreaking hours hoeing weeds. Not only does 2 to 4 inches of mulch preserve warmth and moisture in the garden, it’s common sense that organic materials – such as sawdust, straw, grass clippings, leaves, or shredded bark – will add even more nutrients to the soil as they decompose. “You should never leave the ground bare,” warns Vitello, who believes that dry, naked dirt is “in agony.”
This coming July, when you roll out a wheelbarrow full of juicy, organically-grown watermelons, at least you will know the secret to what made your garden so productive – it wasn’t some formula that Monsanto’s biotech engineers concocted in a laboratory, it was you, your happy microorganisms, and Mother Nature. What a team!
