One Day, I Will Be the Organ Grinder

by Mike Clark

I have always had an affinity with organics.

Commercial pressures in my previous life prevented me from adopting the organic way of gardening (and indeed life), though no doubt this may be seen as an excuse.

But it is a fact of life that while on a personal level the whole concept of organic gardening is, among all its other benefits, extremely cost effective, in the commercial world it is still a prohibitively expensive option.

In the landscaping business, if I had tendered for a job offering natural hard landscaping materials and organically grown plants – not to mention non-chemical soil improvers and peat-free soil conditioners – I would, quite simply, never have worked.

But these days, working on my own as a "freelance" gardener, I have the opportunity to persuade my regular clients to allow me to exercise the organic option. And this approach is generally well received.

Now, if you thought that all this was leading up to C in the P's Complete Guide to Organic Gardening in one article, you do both the subject, and me, a disservice.

I, myself, am on a learning curve. But as I learn, I will share my thoughts and experiences with you.

I have recently subscribed to the HDRA, and I wish I had done so years ago.

"The HDRA is an international membership organisation that researches, promotes and advises on organic gardening, commercial horticulture, farming and food." (© HDRA)

The HDRA (formerly Henry Doubleday Research Association) is a registered charity working at the forefront of all aspects of organic growing. With over 30,000 members, it is Europe's biggest organic membership organisation, and pioneers research into all aspects of organic horticulture and agriculture.

Among many other things, HDRA operates a Third World Support Group, funding research and advisory work across the tropics, promoting the organic practices beneficial (indeed essential) for small-scale farmers. The antidote, in fact, to the short-term, ultimately destructive practices advocated by the agro-chemical industry, which have already been seen to exacerbate the famine and misery which they purported to eradicate.*

If you would like to learn more about the HDRA, go to www.hdra.org.uk.

For me, one of the best elements of the HDRA is the Organic Gardening Catalogue. Now, you don't have to be an HDRA member to get the catalogue, but if you are, you get a 10% discount. (The Aberdonian in me lives forever.)

Produced in conjunction with Chase Organics, the Organic Gardening Catalogue offers a mouth-watering range of organic seed – flowers, vegetables and herbs, along with seed potatoes, onion sets, and a range of micro-propagated plants. Within this stock list lurk many old and almost forgotten varieties of vegetables, with their traditional disease resistance and flavour. Yes, all those good, tasty veggies your granny used to grow, but which are out of favour today because they are not uniform and pleasing to the undiscerning eye, and do not conform to the rigid standards of the supermarkets. In other words, they don't have the right shape, or the right colour, or the right size. B*gger the taste – supermarkets don't care what they taste like.

Talking about conformity, it is a sad reflection on our government's obsessions with bureaucracy and centralisation, that due to the incomprehensible dictates of Brussels, not only can the Organic Gardening Catalogue offer certain items for supply within the UK only, they are also barred from selling certain organic heritage varieties within the UK, although they can be sold elsewhere within the EU.

Eh?

Hello?

Is a lobotomy a prerequisite of becoming an MEP?

The Organic Gardening Catalogue is also online at www.OrganicCatalog.com

And finally, if you want some down to earth advice on organic growing . . . keep reading this column . . . no, subscribe to Organic Gardening, an excellent monthly magazine which I can only describe as the organic equivalent of BBC Gardeners' World magazine, only better.

For example, the August issue featured, among a host of other tasty treats, articles on organic answers to pond problems, a beginner's guide to crop rotation, organic ornamental plants from Peru, interviews with traditional allotment gardeners, scented herbs, and an introduction to bio-dynamics. Not to mention the raising of serious questions about GM crop trials.

Owned, published and edited in Shetland by Gaby Bartai Bevan, Organic Gardening sadly does not yet have a website. But the editor can be contacted by email at organic.gardening@virgin.net, and the subscriptions dept at jeanarmin@ogardening.fsnet.co.uk

Though I'm busy with clients' gardens, I still have time for my own. This is almost the end of the first growing season in yet another new garden I have started from scratch. Even here, in the far north, I expect my sprouts, kale, winter caulis, winter cabbage, parsnips, beetroot and carrots to stand well into the New Year. And my modest freezer is bulging with broad beans, runner beans, peas, caulis, broccoli and spinach. Not to mention enough vegetable soups to feed the five thousand, should they ever become stranded in a Caithness snowdrift within a small radius of my kitchen.

And I haven't used a single, solitary chemical spray of any sort whatsoever.

My dexterity at squashing caterpillars between thumb and forefinger is rapidly becoming the talk of the county.

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