Landscape fabric - safe for organic garden?
tooticky
16 years ago
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Kimmsr
16 years agogardenlen
16 years agoRelated Discussions
Organic raised bed garden
Comments (11)Hmmmm....might want to take that link with a grain of salt :-) Being a retail purveyor of several different organic lines of garden and potting soils, I have yet to see one with packaging that reflects OMRI certification. On the other hand, there is a long list of them approved by OMRI, including two Miracle Gro products (which I assume the link was referring to, as Scotts/Miracle Gro are always considered the bad boys by the organic crowd). Most home gardeners are not concerned with formal organic certification - that is a complicated process really intended more for commercial growers. Just being able to grow their veggies without concern for manufactured chemical fertilizers and pesticides is usually sufficient for the vast majority of household organic gardeners. With that in mind, pretty much any soil can be considered to be organic as long as it has not been treated with these products recently - most will have fully dissipated/broken down over a year or a full growing season. Or as the previous poster indicated, ample applications of compost will neutralize any residual effects very rapidly. Unless you suspect your property was some sort of toxic waste dump - car repair lot, filling station, meth lab, etc. - or you live downwind from a smelter, there is not a lot of concern about the existing soil in your garden or incorporating that into your raised beds. However, that is typically not available in excess to fill raised beds and imported or bagged soil is the fallback. This is such a common occurrence and following organic practices in home gardens so prevalent, you really don't have much to worry about....See MoreRoundup got sprayed on my organic garden.. need advice
Comments (54)janice, this is an old thread, and you may well find some good info on it, but since you need help fast I'd suggest you start a brand new thread and post your photos and your text above on it. That will get people's attention and hopefully get you some help fast. For the dog I'd suggest calling your vet asap. So sorry this has happened! And I hope that you'll get some good answers soon from folks who know about these things....See MoreIts safe because it is organic
Comments (9)Kevin, thank you for your post. Gardening is such an obtuse term, meaning anything from having a potted house plant to ornamental landscaping to growing large amounts of food. Knowing the context in which one is speaking is definitely helpful. Much context had definitely been missing from this conversation, and wrong assumptions made. What we (DH mows, and then does whatever heavy-lifting tasks I can't, then says, "that looks nice, honey.") are doing is trying to provide entertainment for myself, something pleasing to look at, sustenance for butterflies, birds, and whatever other native critters might live in "our" yard, grow whatever edibles we feel like that particular year (in no particular order.) I don't feel the need or capability to control nature in many ways except to pull the plants I don't want, and install the ones I do. If pests eat plants, hopefully predators of those pests will show up and prosper on such bounty. I find it interesting, not a problem. If I put chemicals on edibles, I might as well get the ones from the grocery, where it's not necessary to get mosquito bites to get them. If pests destroy an ornamental plant this year, they probably would next year, and I don't want to spend my time or money battling such a thing. That's an instance in which I would not keep trying that plant. Applying chemicals does not sound fun to me, so I wouldn't include it in gardening, which I do for fun, and eschew most of the busy-body things people are *supposed* to do for gardening that I don't think are fun and obviously aren't necessary as my yard/plants prove. So what is growing in my yard is that which can do so within the care I consider fun. Were gardening a necessity for providing my family with food, or my wallet with income, my attitude might be quite different, and I would not have the luxury of sitting back and watching what happens. I do battle canna leaf rollers because the hummingbirds love the flowers, and if I don't keep the caterpillars off of these plants, there would be few, if any flowers for the hummingbirds, defeating the purpose of having this plant. If I put chemicals on the plants to kill the caterpillars, I would be very concerned about the effect it would have on the hummingbirds. A healthy natural ecosystem has predators and pests. If my garden is missing either, something out of whack. Often the case is that the pest is exotic, with no natural predator, in which case a product might be necessary if growing the plant in question is necessary. One of the hardest-working predators in this area is the anole. They go everywhere, on every plant and surface. Poisoning them or their food sources would be tragic. Birds eat many pests from plants, and serving them a toxic meal, or killing their food seems very short-sighted and way too small-picture to me, can't be the right thing for *me* to do. They call it a food chain because all critters are some other......See MoreOrganic, Garden safe dye for wood shaving/mulch?
Comments (10)Yes and so is the brown, and the black is either carbon powder or another form of iron oxide. Basically the colors being used are quite harmless. They're based on very durable compounds (rust can't break down, it's already rusted!). Organic dyes (I mean that in the organic chemical sense, not Organic as in 'chemical-free') such as the ones used on clothing would bleach in the sun. Mulch dyes are safer than food colorings and fabric dyes. Although I wouldn't recommend eating the mulch, like my sister did when she was a toddler. It could explain a lot about my sister. But I digress. :-]...See Morevinny_75
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