pippi, while there isn't much online there, "offline" you are in one of the most knowledgeable apple growing regions in the world so if you could find someone good to talk to you should get some great advice right there. All three of the choices you mention are workable and all have pluses and minuses. I personally prefer organic mulch because it is a good organic source of fertilizer. I think planting nitrogen-fixing plants is also a very good idea but it is not very common practice and I have not yet tried it. I just annually put down more mulch. I started with grass but its a pain to cut up to the trunk and lacks the nutrient and water holding advantage of mulch. For large trees though grass works well. I don't have slug problems here but slugs are a problem in the western US so maybe someone using organic methods there has a goood idea for control. Scott

CCKW - What you talk about is a major part of the problem. The thing is, they are people mind set and world view. Its how they are taught is ok, or what is normal. We want the change now, but we have to teach the younger generations how to change, rather then passing on our bad habits and continuing the cycle. RE: those apples I am wondering if there would be a colour change due to growing conditions, specifically if organically grown fruit has had the level of difference as I showed in the pic above. Bamboo Rabbit - Its up in the air it seems. There are too many variables to think of to get proper controlled experiments. I dont think its safe to say it is or isnt more nutritious yet. I personally assume organic should be more, if a little, but thats my thoughts, not something that i read in a paper :P Drew - I think many advocates of organic dont understand that there are differences between some agro chemicals. There is a difference between the sulfer we use to acidify the soil and petroleum based fertilizers and sprays. The differences (As far as I know, and please correct me if im wrong) between the sulfer and the petroleum products are the source. I believe the sulfer we use is naturally occuring, where as the nitrogen fertilizer we use is usually based on oil byproducts. The oil industry has its own stigmas, problems and bias which translates to the agro chemicals made from them. I definitely prefer soluble fertilizer for all of my indoor potted plants. The soil leeches nutrients too fast, and if you dont supplement with something then you have to repot or top dress the plant quite often. I use seaweed fert mixed to 1 tsp per gallon, and add 1/4 dose 20-20-20.

Of all the pest problems, weeds are the most difficult to control organically as far as I can tell. In my experience there are really only 2 options. 1) Systemic herbicides (and there are no organic systemic herbicides). 2) Determination and persistence. What I have done, and my garden is small so I can afford to use time-consuming methods, is mostly to scrape off the top two inches of lawn/ soil and pile that up elsewhere in a spot where those sorts of weeds don't matter, and then sheet mulch over the remaining dirt. This does not lead to a weed-free area, but it really knocks down the population. The other thing that helps is to plant taller and denser vergetables such as broad beans, tomatoes or potatoes. If you get them growing densely enough for long periods, they will further reduce the population of weeds by shading them. If you can get old wool carpet, that is more effective in sheet mulch than newspaper or cardboard. For the weeds I have, the method I have used is ok. I still get couch grass/ twitch coming up. I mostly just pull it where it comes up. If I find there is quite a bit in one place, I might pull up the mulch and dig out as much of the roots as I can. I don't have kikuyu but know it from when I lived in a warmer climate. I think that it mostly resprouts from creeping stems above the ground, so scraping off the top might work for that. Bindweed is like couch grass - long, buried rhizomes. It will definitely keep coming up even if you scrape the top, but it will be reduced. Crabgrass - if we are both talking about the same plant - should be like kikuyu, mostly sprouting from above-ground parts. I've used sheet mulching in a number of different gardens and regions of NZ, and I've found that success depends on a) what weeds you have and b) how thick and difficult-to-grow-through you can make it. The method I used isn't from the permaculture manuals, but it is what i have come to after years of trial and error (with plenty of emphasis on the error). I don't regret removing the weeds from my vegetable garden first, it has made life a lot easier. I've used the dug out soil and weeds elsewhere, and although I took some of the fertility out of the garden when I took the weeds away, I replaced it with lots of manure, compost and other random organic matter. I just lay this on the dirt and covered with newspaper etc, and the worms very kindly dug it all in for me. I ended up using much less in terms of off-site inputs to my garden than if I had used a thicker layer of sheet mulch, so I think the method I used was fairly sustainable, except that it was hard and I would have not been able to handle a larger area. I've attached a link to my blog - it does cover some of what I've mentioned in this post. Hope this is useful - I know I'm in a completely different climate etc but you might find something helpful in my experience. Here is a link that might be useful: Belladonna Bess garden blog

For those of you using detterents which advertise "natural oil's" in them such as eucalypt, pine and ti tree please be aware that constant use of these products cause the soil to 'repel' water. I.e. water running off and not being absorbed. I love cats, I love dogs. I have neither, I get miffed when my neighbors dog digs up my seedlings, marks my roses and leaves squishy messages behind. If I catch the dog it will be delivered to that neighbor (along with it's brown messages) with a stern warning and an invoice for the damaged plants and time taken to clean up after the dog. I don't expect it to be paid, but it does make it seem 'official' like you have been very patient and thourough with your investigations. I've found that some animals dislike certain herbs and some prefer certain herbs. Certainly try and plant your own garden with Catnip and Catmint to try and deter your cat from wandering into other peoples gardens. With dogs, I've found that a few soft drink bottles filled with holographic pieces of paper and water in their favourite spots stop them from digging. Along with a thick layer of tan bark. My lawn is a different story. Perhaps I won't buy 'people, cat and dog friendly' snail pellets any more? However I doubt it. I couldn't kill any animal, nuisance or not.