Gardening Blog

Allotment Diary

Feb 27, 2008: why I went organic

Terry Walton

After decades of growing vegetables, Terry Walton knows his onions, which is why he prefers to grow them organically

The frosty weather has left us again and it is a return to the mild, damp conditions.

Oh, what a difference those two weeks of night time frosts made to the soil that had been turned over. The large clods have become crumbly and as the gentle rain falls they are breaking down into fine particles.

This is the advantage to be gained by tilling the soil and exposing large areas of it, a good fine soil structure will be left to aid seed sowing in the not-too-distant future.

The areas of turned in green manure also benefited from the frosty conditions by killing off those few shoots of grass that reappeared after turning it in. This will continue to rot down over the next few weeks and will leave the ground in good shape ready to plant this season’s crop and give them a flying start in their quest to become perfect, tasty vegetables.

On our allotment we have a store shed that caters for all the members' needs. As some of us become ‘organic’ and rely heavily on manure and compost to increase the fertility of the soil, there still remain those that use chemical fertilisers to achieve their goal. This is the joy of allotment gardening, you do not try to impose your way of growing on others.

The store sells in addition to the blood/fish/bone, which is the (excuse the pun) the backbone of the organic growers’ fertiliser, Sulphate of Ammonia, super phosphate, sulphate of potash and the general fertiliser Growmore.

It is the work of the scientific gardener to use these to supply the feeding needs of the various types of crops.

We older gardeners of all probably at some time in our gardening career used a combination of these various fertilisers to achieve our growing goal.

There is no doubt in my mind that chemical fertiliser gives spectacular results on the growth pattern of various vegetables and they in most cases certainly look good.

A feed of nitrogen rich will give a spurt of growth to onions and brassicas and they will certainly look dark green and healthy. Sulphate of potash will help fruiting crops to give successful fruit and super phosphate used on the bean family helps the growth cycle.

For the non-scientific, non-organic gardener simply throwing these fertilisers around the plot gives all crops an instant feed.

But for me that is where it ends! We all like our crops to look appealing but for me the secret lies in the taste on the plate.

Chemically-grown crops grow so rapidly they do not capture the flavour brought about by slowly absorbing natural nutrients from soil. These flavours are not present in chemical fertiliser but are there in soil which has built up a mass of micro organisms feeding on the natural materials added to the soil over a prolonged period. This fertility will remain whereas excessive rain will leech the chemicals from the soil and the expensive cycle has to start all over again.

It takes time and effort to grow crops organically but the rewards are more than compensation for this effort.

It has been this move back to basic organic growing that has brought people back to the allotment way of life, knowing that what they grow is safe but also has that flavour that cannot be created by using artificial means for extensive, quick growing.

What you grow and how you grow it is your choice but having lived by both methods I know what I prefer. Yes, I am a total ‘organic’ nut!

More from Terry
 
The Hillside Allotment by Terry Walton

Terry Walton is a regular contributor to The Jeremy Vine Show on BBC Radio 2 and has written a book called, My Life on a Hillside Allotment, published by Bantam Press at £12.99. The book is available from Amazon.

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Reader comments

Hi Terry I was just reading your page about organic gardening - I am basically organic as I like to protect most of the insects - especially butterflies in my garden. So I would appreciate your advice. One of the plants I grow a lot of - for caterpillars to eat - is milkweed. Asclepias family. You do have it in England, but it's not too common as you don't have the butterflies (Monarch butterflies) over there. A friend has recommended that I grow it using a dressing of sulphate of ammonia - but I don't think there is any organic alternative, is there. He says it forces green growth. I think (unless you have another suggestion) that I will just use my organic soil which has plenty of my home-made compost and seaweed from the beach in it. But would appreciate your comments and thoughts! Thanks. Jacqui

Posted by: Jacqui Knight | 16/03/2008 09:14:59

 

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