AboutLong Island Gardener Expertise There is NO EXCUSE today for a gardener to use chemicals. Perfect Lawns? Pristine Roses? Immaculate Flowers all Summer long? If you live in the Northeast/Atlantic Coast, I'll guide you down the non-toxic road to Organica - and you will not believe how easy it can be. Yes, it can be complicated, but backing off from Ortho and Scotts is not as hard as you think. Your neighbors won't believe their eyes. I have intelligent answers on soil care, bug killing, weed control and fungus-freedom!
Experience I have college credits in horticulture and botany, and 30 years of gardening for personal pleasure. Plus I am a volunteer docent at the local botanical gardens. But a person's real gardening skills are learned from trial and error. I am strict about not using chemicals in the garden. Always have been. Always will be.
Question I'm am on a request to have a completely natural, chemical-free garden. Because of walnut trees, I am forced to do container gardening. I'm learning about composting, but ended up buying some Organic Miracle Gro to get started. Is this really organic? I read the ingredients--one of which is poultry litter. If this poultry litter comes from caged chickens that are standing in their own feces...being given anti-biotics, how organic can their litter be? This whole process has been very frustrating--right down to learning that most seeds you find in the store are genetically modified. I found organic, heirloom seeds from bountifulgardens.com...but now I'm worried about my soil.
Answer Let the buyer beware, but that's what happens when you purchase "organic" from a multinational corporation. Good thing you read the label. Bad thing you read it after it was paid for.
Any chance you can return this to the store? That kind of statement would speak volumes to them about what company they're dealing with.
Figure this: If a company is big enough to be mporting and exporting its fertilizer and weedkiller all over the globe, it is probably not that serious about Organic Fertilizer. Same goes for anything you buy to eat.
I truly appreciate your concern about those poor Chickens. We haven't even begun to deal with these problems, have we?
Here's a short lesson on Organic Gardening that you really must read to get the hang of why buying "organic fertilizer" is counter-productive:
