UC Davis New book demystifies organic gardening

New book demystifies organic gardening
Submitted by SHNS on Mon, 05/25/2009 - 13:35.

* By DEBBIE ARRINGTON, Sacramento Bee
* gardening

Fern Marshall Bradley has been preaching the organic gospel for decades.

A lifelong gardener and a University of California, Davis, alumna, she tends her own vegetables, fruit and flowers without resorting to chemical pesticides. She went "green" long before the word meant more than the color of her thumb.

Now, with millions of gardeners digging into homegrown tomatoes and other vegetables, Bradley has found that the demand for organic gardening advice is at an all-time high.

With Trevor Cole, Bradley edited the Reader's Digest "All-New Illustrated Guide to Gardening" (Reader's Digest Trade Publishing, $35, 576 pages).

The "all-new" feature?

It's an all-organic edition and the most massive update of the popular tome since it was introduced more than 30 years ago.

"It took a good couple of years to complete," Bradley said in a phone interview. "So much of the book was reworked or completely redone. The older book had become a little too much out of date, so the decision was made to make the book all organic."

It was a logical next step. According to the National Gardening Association, about 43 million U.S. households will boast a vegetable garden this summer. Of that, an estimated 5 million will be all-organic. That number is expected to continue to grow as people try to reduce their carbon footprint and save money by growing their own produce.

Organic produce may be better for you, too. According to UC Davis research, organically grown fruits and vegetables may have higher levels of antioxidants than their conventionally grown counterparts.

"You have fewer worries about the safety of your food, too," said Bradley, noting recent salmonella outbreaks in commercial vegetables. "It's less scary. I know I can eat peas straight off the vine, and they'll be safe."

Bradley's large-format book contains more than 2,500 new photos as well as about 800 step-by-step diagrams and illustrations on such topics as how to support beans (string tepees, nets or poles) and how to remove lawn for a vegetable bed (skim off the sod, then stack chunks, grass side down, to decompose).

She covers not only vegetables but also all manner of flora, from groundcovers and ornamental grasses to rock gardens and shade trees, reflecting newer plant introductions and current gardening tastes.

"People are growing a lot more herbs and sunflowers," she said. "Even in a small garden, you can create a good environment for beneficial insects such as bees, and these days, everybody is concerned about bees."

Forty pages are devoted to common plant disorders and pests, but all recommended treatments are environmentally friendly alternatives to traditional pesticides.

"There's a whole body of science behind this information," Bradley said. "Chemicals sprayed on gardens end up in the groundwater. They affect the water we drink and the food we eat as well as wildlife. ... This is a much healthier approach."

Bradley, a former gardening editor for Rodale, knows her subject well. A resident of upstate New York, she co-authored the Reader's Digest book on "Vegetable Gardening" and conceived and edited "The Organic Gardener's Handbook of Insect and Disease Control" and "The Expert's Book of Garden Hints."

This summer, she and her husband are tending a 2,000-square-foot vegetable garden, "the biggest I've grown in years," she said.

The taste of fresh-picked, straight-from-the-garden vegetables is worth the effort, she said. Many gardeners know the joy of backyard tomatoes, but what about Brussels sprouts, turnips or beets?

"They're so delicious, not anything like what you get in the supermarket," she added. "We tried (Japanese) hakurei turnips, harvested at the size of golf balls and roasted with a little olive oil. Vertus turnips (a French heirloom) are also great, very white and very sweet. Now, we're hooked."

For beginners, planting turnips is very easy. Instead of using rows, Bradley recommended preparing a little patch of ground, 8 by 24 inches. Scatter the seed and cover lightly with soil, only a quarter-inch deep, then mist with water.

"The turnips come up in a solid mass," she said. "I never thin; I just harvest as they mature. That thins naturally."

Planted in the spring and again in the fall, the turnips can be used for greens as well as roots.

Bradley uses that method for several vegetables, such as radishes, lettuce, salad greens and carrots.

For vegetables, flowers and lawns, she recommends making "compost tea." Put a shovelful of compost in a burlap bag. Put a gallon of water in a bucket. Dip the bag into the water like a giant tea bag and let it steep for one to two hours.

Remove the bag (you can use that compost in the garden) and bottle your "tea" in a sealed gallon container for future use. Mix 1 cup compost tea with 1 gallon water to feed a mature rosebush or shrub, or a planter box of tomatoes. (Always wash your hands after handling compost.)

"It's wonderful on lawns, too," she said. "It not only feeds the plants but boosts beneficial microbes in the soil. You're helping build healthy soil."

And that's key to organic gardening success.

(E-mail Debbie Arrington at darrington(at)sacbee.com)

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)

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