What Is an Organic Garden? (Part 2)

Many home gardeners seek to grow "organic food" - but how many of us really explore what that term means. In this two-part article I've decided to give it some thought.

I started writing this two-part series with the intention of developing a better understanding of what is meant by the term “organic garden”. In the first installment, I reviewed three ways of defining of what makes a garden an "organic garden". The first was that it has no synthetic chemical inputs (i.e. fertilizers /pesticides/herbicides) - but I had a problem with that notion, because there are synthetic chemical compounds that are completely benign; and there are non-synthetic chemicals that are very very toxic and are not pest specific (e.g. rotenone). Secondly, I explained that there are specific rules for organic producers that must be followed if they are to market their products as "certified organic" - but had a problem with this approach because it is really not practical for a home gardener. Finally, I discussed the notion of "purity" in the sense that organic gardens must have only organic inputs - but explained how this can get a little tricky, if not ridiculous, when one is trying to discern just how truly “organic” an input might be depending on how strictly one chooses to define that term.

From all of this pontification I have come to the following conclusions;

1. Organic gardening means one thing to the commercial gardener, such that the product can only be sold as organic if all the rules are followed.

2. Organic gardening can mean many things to home gardeners depending on many factors, such as their tolerance for rules and/or orthodoxy, their understanding of biology and chemistry, their patience, their pragmatism, and their over-arching ethical underpinnings with regard to the environment.

For those in the former category, the garden and its produce are organic if the rules that govern the production of whatever product being grown are followed. That means that any fertilizer or pesticide or other input can be used so long as it is allowed.

For the home gardener, I think the question is more one of personal ethics. For some, that might mean simply following all the same rules that commercial organic producers follow. For others, that might mean going above and beyond those rules based on some higher ideal.

One’s approach to organic gardening is an implicit expression of one’s relationship with nature [source].

Still, for others (like me), I think it is a question of thinking it though, by first coming up with a conceptual definition of what an organic garden is, and then establishing a hierarchy of principles that allow one to work within the confines of that definition. So here goes. For me, the definition and hierarchy of principles are very simple: