healthy-gardenThe buzzword in gardening and agricultural circles these days is “integrated pest management” (IPM).

Pest management is nothing more than symptom management - because the real cause of plant disease is nutrient deficiency, not the presence of plant feeding insects or microbes. Killing the insects will not make the plants healthy - plant disease is not a pesticide deficiency.

Worldwide, billions of pounds of pesticides are used every year in an effort to combat plant enemies. Pest management is a warfare approach, health management is a welfare approach.

Pest management decreases biodiversity, health management increases biodiversity. Pest management sends the ecosystem on a downward spiral towards ill health and death, health management creates abundance and health for all.

Health management is easy when we manage our gardens, forests and agricultural fields as ecosystems.

And that is it - the essence of organic gardening. We call it organic gardening, because it acknowledges and supports the wholeness of Nature, the interconnectedness of all life.

The beauty of organic gardening is that it allows each of us to make a contribution that benefits the whole. We may think that our actions are insignificant, but every little piece of earth whose biological function has been maintained or repaired adds to the health of the environment overall.

This is important in cities where the natural environment has been virtually destroyed by human activities. And it is also important in the country, where conventional agricultural and forestry practices have severely impacted the natural biodiversity, and reduced the capacity of the soil to support life.

To repair and protect our planet’s biodiversity we need to restore and maintain year-round food and habitat for all the earth’s creatures.

May your garden be a source of health and abundance!


We go much deeper into this topic in our online course, which you can discover here:

Organic Master Gardener Online