Every hobby introduces its enthusiasts to a new lexicon, which informs the hobbyist about what is important and how to think about the new pursuit. Organic gardening is no different, and new gardeners may feel lost when they hear terms like “GMO” bantered around. Other terms, like “organic,” seem so straightforward, but what do they really mean? Consider the following glossary for beginning organic gardeners, which elucidates both the technical and the mundane.
Beneficial Insects include common garden friends like ladybugs, which consume mealy bugs and aphids; conspicuous praying mantises, which can spot the movement of a moth or grasshopper meal 60 feet away; and tiny parasitic wasps, whose larvae may devour caterpillars from the inside out. Organic gardeners may order beneficial insects, or attract them to the garden with nectar-rich plants.
Biological Controls include a pest’s natural enemies occurring in the garden, like predatory insects, but also include pathogens and microorganisms packaged for the gardener’s benefit, like milky spore disease.
Carbon to Nitrogen Ratio is important to achieve an actively cooking compost pile. The ideal carbon-nitrogen ratio for compost is 30:1. Without enough nitrogen, the pile remains cold and inactive. With too much nitrogen, smelly anaerobic bacteria proliferate.
Companion Planting takes advantage of beneficial plant relationships, such as marigolds repelling nematodes from vegetables, or collards drawing moths away from a cabbage crop.
Compost is the organic matter that results from the decomposition of garden and kitchen waste. Although it resembles soil, it is rich with nutrients and packed with living microbes that stimulate a plant’s immune system.
Cover Crops or Green Manures stop erosion between crops and enrich the soil with organic matter when the gardener works the spent plants into the soil. Examples of cover crops include rye, wheat, soybeans, and vetch.
GMO, or Genetically Modified Organisms, are increasingly common in farming as a way to allow food crops to survive herbicides or resist common diseases. Altering the genetic makeup of plants is a hot button topic for many organic gardeners, and is not readily accepted by the organic community.
Humus is the portion of soil comprised of organic matter. A soil with low humus content is a dead zone in which garden plants will not thrive. Organic gardeners constantly strive to increase the humus of the soil by adding compost or rotted manure.
Organic Gardening eschews the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides. Instead, gardeners work with the materials nature provides us, such as compost, mulch, and natural predators to nurture plants and control pests and diseases, all while minimally affecting the environment.
Vermiculture describes the process of making compost with red wiggler worms. Gardeners can use plastic tubs or specially constructed worm bins for this purpose.
Source:
National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service
Jamie McIntosh - Jamie has written hundreds of garden articles for the web, and is your guide to Flowers on About.com.
