Re: Organic gardeners hate survey's.......

**Duane Campbell d*@juno.com**

On Sat, 18 Oct 2003 10:58:31 -0800 "Jeff Lowenfels" <jeff@gardener.com>
writes:

> I want to point out a distinction I see between the old, 
> Rodale-style
> organic gardeners vs. those who came to organic gardening (and are 
> still
> coming to it even though they don't buy organic pesticides) in the 
> past 10
> years or so. The newer folks tend to be real purists.

I guess there may be THREE kinds of organic gardeners.

I consider myself to be an organic gardener. I put HUGH effort into
improving my soil (I hire a guy named Hugh to double dig it for me) and
wash off aphids because it is easy and works.  I use two to three cubic
yards of compost a season, but I also get a bag of 5-10-5 at the farm
store and pour a lot of "blue water" on my containers. And on July 2nd,
when the Japanese beetles emerge looking for my roses, I don't think
limited and careful use of Sevin will bring on the end of the world.

Then there are organic gardeners who conform to some set of standards.
Sub-sects fight over exactly what those standards should be, but they're
fairly like-minded. They don't want organophosphates on their food, or
especially their kids' food, and that's OK. They usually can't explain
why they won't spray fungicide on their roses but will smear fungicide on
tender parts of their bodies, but I don't press them on that. Usually.

Then there are the true believers who mix up organic gardening with
religious and political beliefs. These are the ones whose neck turns
purple at the mention of Monsanto. These people won't use even organic
products unless they are made in someone's kitchen by candle light. I get
nasty mail from this organic cotton clad crowd with the words and phrases
cut out of Mother Jones magazine and pasted to recycled paper.

D

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