From my garden to yours

At Sundew Gardens, "natural and practical" is an operational parameter we've used since founding the gardens. Whether applied to crop selection, soil improvement or pest control, our methods must meet real world requirements. Using federal "organic" labels that are now defined in statutory law requires a forbidding administrative effort. Trust and truth be told, I have raised my family on the food from my gardens and "natural and practical" are good enough for me.

When the word "organic" appears on our food, pest control methods are frequently our first considerations. Industrial poisons that are designed in laboratories, tested in controlled and real world experiments, applied under strict guidelines, are still dangerous toxins. Just as the Gulf oil spill is a testament to applied technology, agricultural poisons let loose in nature have infinite possibility to pollute. "Organic" pest controls may be a processed product, but their negative environmental effects are minimal because that product is already part of nature.

Observation is the most important first step in any pest control arsenal. Daily garden visits lead to noticing signs of problems before the pests themselves becomes apparent: droppings on leaves, decapitated sprouts, single defoliated branches, holes in that prize-winning tomato. Catching problems early allows for effectively hand picking pests.

Caterpillars are the larval stage of butterflies and moths. They are controlled with Bacillus Thuringiensis (bT), a naturally occurring soil bacterium, concentrated into a liquid or powdered product. Sold as Dipel or Thuricide, we apply the liquid bT with a pump sprayer. The moth or butterfly larva eats the bT, contracts a stomach ailment, quits eating, and dies a few days later.

Other pests calling Sundew Gardens home include flea beetles, white flies, mites, aphids and thrips. These we control with neem oil, a broad-spectrum spray. Derived from the seeds of the neem tree, neem oil has been used as a pest control for more than 2,000 years.

Even though summer could be considered Florida's gardening off-season, the weeds are growing faster than ever. Smother weeds with thick layers of locally available mulch — palm fronds, lawn trimmings, hurricane tarps and cardboard. Tilling and fallow growing beds lead to weed genocide by seed infanticide. Fallow soils also starve root knot nematodes. As a last resort, we hand pull, hoe, spade and even flame weeds into submission before they seed.

Productivity of "natural and practical" methods depends on how big of an equation is considered in the garden plan. Crops, bugs, plots, homes, families, communities and the Earth fit into my garden plan. How big is your garden?