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[GWL]: New Rant Expanded

One of the problems in this discussion, in my modest view, is overlooking
what I feel is one key in understanding why there is disagreement on some of
these alleged myths.
When you look at the history of gardening in the past 100 years, many of the
gardening and yard care techniques espoused by garden writers today, are
techniques and practices developed for commercial agriculture and
horticulture and simply scaled down for the home gardener.  In many
instances, that translation was not appropriate.  Let me give you just a few
of many examples I have collected.
1. IPM - Integrated Pest Management as taught in Master Gardener courses and
hailed by hundreds of articles in gardening magazines and newspaper columns
is completely inappropriate as a pest control system for the home landscape.
IPM is for a monoculture (500 acres of corn) and the home landscape is an
incredibly diverse culture. Monitoring is key to the success of IPM and
monitoring is a completely unreasonable expectation for the average gardener
much less the average yardener. Using beneficial insects works in the
commercial setting but in the home landscape it is a waste of money.  Ants,
spiders, and ground beetles, not found in the fields, are available in all
yards to handle the pest insect problem better than any release of lady
bugs.  The IPM principle of using least toxic materials is appropriate, but
that is about all.
2. Roto tilling the vegetable garden year after year after year - perhaps
the most destructive act one could perpetrate upon decent soil.  That comes
to us because farmers plowed every year, though no-till agriculture is on
the rise.
3. Over 50% of American lawns are mowed too short; below two inches.  Mowing
the grass too short happens because guys see the height of the grass on the
golf course fairway and say hey that's what I want.  The fairway is always
green and thick, so it must be okay.  Of course the fairway is spiked every
ten days, aerated two or three times a year, fertilized seven times a year,
and is cared for by a team of ten workers.
4. Allowing bare soil to remain around trees, shrubs and in garden beds.
Farmers can't mulch 500 acres of corn very well.  The soil has to be bare.
That's why they have to cultivate.  The hoe is a tool that never should have
been introduced to the gardener.  Mulch is the answer and as I drive around
Central Michigan with all of its farms, I see very little use of mulch
anywhere.
5. Raised beds are the only way to veggie garden - the French taught us that
a hundred and fifty years ago.  In the majority of American vegetable
gardens, we still set out our gardens in rows and paths because the farmers
in the late 1800's planted their crops in rows.
6. Gypsum is used by professionals in certain situations, almost always
where there are low sodium conditions.  That last part gets lost and gypsum
has been touted to deal with heavy clay all over the countyry for 40 years.
And you get the idea.  So in many cases, what is a mistake or at least
inappropriate use in the home landscape may be perfectly appropriate in the
commercial setting.  The trouble is that the County Extension Service
usually just took what worked for the farmer and scaled it down for the
homeowner.  The County Extension has passed this practice on to the Master
Gardeners so the "myths" emerge and continue to be repeated, inadvertently
in most cases.
Food for thought.

Jeff Ball

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