Topic: IF YOU USE GROWMORE!!..YOU AINT ORGANIC!!

[jimtheworzel]

in the 1840s  our site was a racecourse..just think of all that sh*t

[tonybloke]

the racecourse in yarmouth doesn't get any horse sh*t on it, horses are there to run, not to eat and ruminate the day away! the turf at most racecourses has to be fed with 'artificials' to keep it in pristine condition!! ;)
by the way, Jim, who is the sad-looking chap you use as an avatar?

[Digeroo]

I use a combo of manure, council black soil improver, fish blood and bone, manure 'tea' as a feed over summer

I'm with you psi on this.  I add comfrey tea and mulch and stinging nettle tea to that, and some green manure with phacelia and broadleaves cress.

Soil high gravel sets like concrete with its dry so needs loads of organic matter.

But organic is a very vague term.  Soon found I was not organic when I got problems with aminopyralid. 

I used to work in an office based on an organic farm and they used herbicides on the roads and farm yard.  The tester tested the middle of the field but never tested round the edge.  And what was killing those thistles?  Always seemed  to happen just after the testing had finished, odd that.

[jimtheworzel]

by the way, Jim, who is the sad-looking chap you use as an avatar?

no need to get personell

[tonybloke]

is it you? i thought you was a much happier looking chap when i have looked at your various photo's you have posted?
sorry if i have offended, mate.

[jimtheworzel]

ignor me tonybloke im having one of them bloody nights   ;D ;D
nowt going right..never mind i have 40 lb growmore for next season
bollo*cks to organic

[david.knapper.12]

What was wrong with Fish Blood and Bone

Nothing wrong with fish, blood & bone or dried blood but if you are on a site with foxes expect the b...#@$ to dig holes everywhere.

You certainly have a way with words!

[Jeannine]

Interesting that someone resurrected this  7 year oldie. I wonder what the responses would be now..

Me, well I am  practically organic have been for many years..the reason I say practically in the strictest sense  is that I don't always buy organic certified seeds and I  do seed swaps. After that I am pretty much elle naturelle here. I use organic certified all purpose  fertilizer  ,fish fertilser,  molasses, natural mulch where I can including biodegradable paper mulch  but I do use cardboard and paper and my home made compost has that in also.  I have a worm farm, mason bees Absolutely  no pesticides or weedkillers. It is about as close as I can get I think.

I do use black plastic on my beds in the winter but I recycle the organic potting soil bags

The lawns are maintained in the same way

[galina]

Interesting that someone resurrected this  7 year oldie. I wonder what the responses would be now..

Yes it is quite surprising that chicken pellets have received much attention, but as stated above, they are not very similar to Growmore as a general fertiliser.  Blood, fish and bone fertiliser is similar.
As Jeannine hints at, there is much more to organic gardening than just swapping one fertiliser for another.  For example gardening with wildlife and responsible water use spring to mind (mulching).  Giving beneficial wildlife a home, using mulches and more.  The HDRA/Garden Organic website has much more information.

It was an eye opener for me to learn that we can cause just as many problems for our waterways with organic fertiliser run-off (which fertilises algae in rivers and lakes) as we can with an overuse of Growmore.  Organic gardening is about responsible, environmentally aware gardening as well as product choice. 

[pumkinlover]

I am pleased the "Grow Organic" chicken pellets that we sell in our allotment shop are from free range chickens.It sells better than anything else.
As Galina says growing organically is about the whole ethos of how you grow your food.

[Jeannine]

Actually I think it might even go deeper than that..the folks I know who garden like me are often "from scratch" cooks, they are careful about what they buy as produce in the stores as well as what they grow. I buy organic free range eggs and chicken and where I can I buy  grass fed meat.  I even did the 100 mile diet for a couple of years, maybe you have something similar over there. Basically it is buying food that is produced locally and in season only locally, the mile limit was 100. It got quite challenging especially for flour but I enjoyed it.

Thanks for the bump, now I have more time I think I will do that again.

[pumkinlover]

For some people it is as you say Jeannine. We only occasionally buy fresh fruit from abroad. Try to process as much of our own for winter. Can buy mutton and hogget from the hill farm where I go spinning which is becoming our staple meat. Like you say flour (and vanilla) are a problem though!
For other people who are still busy with "normal" life it is just good to get a taste of some home grown food. The more we grow and make for ourselves the better for us and the planet.

[Silverleaf]

Personally I think it's about doing what you can and not beating yourself up if you don't quite live up to the ideal (whatever that is).

I set of think of it like being on a diet - maybe you eat healthily all week but have a slice of cake and a glass of wine on Friday nights. That has to be better than stuffing yourself with cake every day of the week, right?

Perhaps you buy peat-free compost but can't find a good peat-free seed compost. Or you used Roundup on some stubborn weeds once because you were too busy to dig them out. Or you buy local organic meat but occasionally indulge in KFC, or South African apples, or vanilla, or Peruvian asparagus in December.

So many people give up because they find it too difficult to be "perfect". They are eating cake every day because they feel like they've failed after eating it on Friday night. Do what you can, and don't stop trying if you don't live up to your ideal, because surely it's better than nothing!

[Jeannine]

eat is a funny one. I was reading in the HSL stuff about the depletion of peat, yet here there seems to be no worries about it, There is peat in pretty much everything

[sparrow]

eat is a funny one. I was reading in the HSL stuff about the depletion of peat, yet here there seems to be no worries about it, There is peat in pretty much everything

I think more and more places are going peat-free over here Jeannine. It's certainly getting talked about more. I was checking through B&Qs strips of veggies yesterday (forgot to sow sprouts!) and an impressive proportion stated that they were grown peat-free.

[squeezyjohn]

Using peat is pretty much the most damaging thing a gardener can do environmentally.  Not only is it a non-renewable source and mining it destroys a very unique and rare habitat essential for some species, peat also is a massive carbon sink and when it's dug up  and used in the garden it releases a huge amount of CO2 in to the atmosphere.

I know that a lot of peat free can be hugely variable and peat-free seed compost can be hugely problematic, but I've come to the conclusion that given the damage it does, using peat is pretty much indefensible - and I'm actively seeking the best non-peat solutions I can find.

There was a commitment over here (either EU or UK - I forget which) to reduce peat in compost to 20% of the total sold a few years ago - but this seems to have disappeared with new peat heavy brands coming on the market like Jack's Magic.  I think there's much less interest in it over the Atlantic, but that's all the more reason to shout about it.  The big companies who make the compost bags are pretty much unregulated regarding peat ... and only by us, the customers, buying more peat free will we ever get them to ditch the peat and spend the money on developing better peat free alternatives.