I recently read a magazine article by a well-known TV gardener which advised that after giving something a good prune, it might be a good idea to follow that up with a feed. Reasonable enough advice, but it was the specific nature of that feed that made me think. The exact advice was ‘a rich organic mulch, or a handful of organic fertiliser, helps to kick-start growth’, which made me wonder, not for the first time, about the meaning of that pesky word organic.
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What does organic mean?
Anything that is, or was, alive
The problem, in a gardening context, is that organic has a whole bunch of different meanings, and two of them often collide, sometimes even in the same sentence. The older and more general meaning of organic, according to my Shorter Oxford Dictionary, is: ‘Of, pertaining to, or derived from a living organism’. Basically anything that is, or was, alive is organic. So the lovely stuff that emerges from your compost heap is organic matter and, applied as a mulch, is (I assume) what the above advice was referring to. Similarly, since all its ingredients used to be alive, blood, fish and bone is an organic fertiliser, as opposed to an inorganic fertiliser like ammonium nitrate.
Gardening and farming that avoids artificial fertilisers and pesticides
So far so simple. But there is another meaning of organic, which is a bit more complicated. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) states that organic farming (and therefore gardening) includes ‘avoiding artificial fertilisers and pesticides’. It includes other things too, but let’s keep it simple.
Before we go any further, and to avoid further confusion, let’s use plain organic for the first meaning, and ‘organic’ for the second one.
You may not know whether your manure is ‘organic’ or not, and it may not be easy to find out
These two definitions seem reasonably distinct, but gardeners are accustomed to sliding imperceptibly from one to the other, usually without really thinking about it. For example, in its advice on ‘organic’ gardening, the RHS advises ‘maintaining a fertile soil the organic way’ by feeding the soil with ‘garden compost and other organic manures’. Here the first use of the word is definitely ‘organic’, but I’m not sure about the second one; at least, they don’t stipulate, or even imply, that the brown stuff concerned must itself be ‘organic’(and in fact, nearly all the time, it will work just as well whether it is or not). The confusion potentially caused by the word organic is something that other languages sensibly avoid by using two different words. In French, for example, organic is organique, but ‘organic’ is biologique.
How easy is it to garden organically?
As far as your compost heap is concerned, the raw ingredients are under your control. So if you garden organically, and buy only ‘organic’ fruit and veg, then your compost heap is ‘organic’ too. On the other hand, if you get a bag of manure from a local farmer or stable, you’re on much shakier ground. You may not know whether your manure is ‘organic’ or not, and it may not be easy to find out.
Fertiliser is more difficult still, and I genuinely don’t know exactly which sense of organic our TV gardener intended. I suspect that, if interrogated, he may not have known either. For example, many brands of blood, fish and bone are described by their producers as 100 per cent organic. And since blood, fish and bone were all once alive, then they must be, but are they also 100 per cent ‘organic’? Maybe, but maybe not. If you want a guaranteed ‘organic’ fertiliser, I reckon your best bet is seaweed, since seaweed can probably be relied on (most of the time anyway) to be free of anything artificial. In the raw state, seaweed also makes a good – if somewhat salty – ‘organic’ mulch. Mind you, the RHS don’t help when they say ‘seaweed is a common additive to fertilisers, both organic and non-organic’.
Vegetarians and vegans might quite naturally object to a compost that depends on farming sheep
But fertiliser is simple compared to the minefield that is potting compost. One of the ingredients of many peat-free composts, especially the cheaper kinds, is green waste. And here we’re back to an even worse version of the manure problem, because who is likely to be able to source reliably ‘organic’ green waste? No-one, I suspect.
For a proper, 100 per cent ‘organic’, free-range, sustainable, Soil Association-certified compost I think it’s hard to beat Dalefoot’s range, made from bracken and wool. But here you might find that your environmental priorities start to conflict, because vegetarians and vegans might quite naturally object to a compost that depends on farming sheep. In fact I think Dalefoot are on slightly shaky ground when they describe their compost ingredients as ‘100 per cent natural’. Are the products of a non-native farm animal 100 per cent natural? Depends what you mean by ‘natural’, but let’s not go there.
Of course, there’s nothing more organic (in every sense) and vegan than peat, but you would (I hope) not consider using peat-based compost. It’s not easy being ethical, is it?
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