deep purple fruit that looks like blown glass
bulbs decorating the garden. Many people
do not share my eggplant enthusiasm. My
friends protested the second year and added
insult to injury when they declared they
did not enjoy eating eggplant, nor could
they find neighbors to accept the eggplant
harvest as gifts. To each his own.
DENSIT Y
For most people the determination of
density (proximity of your plants to one
another) is a simple matter of following the
readily available instructions on seed pack-
ages and starter plant labels. For me, it is
an annual ritual of debate between those
labels and myself. Much to my chagrin, my
wife always sides with the labels. I usually
pretend to surrender the argument, then late
in the evening, after the labels have been put
in the trash can and my wife has been put to
bed, I (in stealth like secrecy) go back out to
the garden and (by the light of the moon) …
add a ‘few’ more plants. Every year it creates
crowding and makes harvesting feel like
a trek through a tropical jungle without a
machete. I repeat this mistake EVERY year.
I do not know why, but if you share that
urge – RESIST. Don’t do it.
ORGANIC VS. NOT ORGANIC (AND
WHAT DOES ORGANIC GARDENING
EVEN MEAN?)
There are countless good books that
define, teach, guide you with ‘how to’s,
advocate organic gardening and extol its
virtues. Read one. A very simple explana-
20 HimPower April 2018
tion is that organic standards are designed
to allow the use of naturally occurring
substances while prohibiting or strictly
limiting synthetic substances. This applies
to all aspects of gardening, included but
not limited to, fertilizers, pesticides, herbi-
cides, etc. The generally accepted benefits to
the health of the humans that consume the
products of the garden as well as reduced
health risks to the humans that work in the
garden (my wife, children, grandchildren,
friends and myself) make the choice easy.
The question for me is not whether or not
to garden in accordance with organic stan-
dards; rather, it is how strictly do I adhere to
those standards and can I do a little better
job each year at increasing my compliance
with organic principals and thereby increase
the health benefits to all the people who eat
from or touch our garden. A good begin-
ning to the practice of organic gardening
can be easier to achieve than you might
think.
Just remember what every good wine
maker and grape grower knows to be true,
the soil is profoundly important.
In many ways organic principals of
gardening begin with and are built on (and
in) the soil. This is also another advantage
to raised bed gardening because you can
build up soil for your raised beds using
certified organic material. Whether you
purchase your soil in bags from your garden
supply store or in a truck load at a supply
‘yard’, you can buy certified organic soil.
From that important beginning, at most
every purchase choice you have the option