Neighborhood advocates discuss organic gardening

When Ruth Kinler of Redenta’s Garden made the decision to go 100 percent organic in 1992, she took a deep breath and “literally dumped 4500 dollars worth of inventory.”

“It was a major step,” Kinler says with a short laugh. “It was what my customers wanted, I knew I could succeed as a business by being totally organic — and I didn’t like using the stuff (chemicals) myself.”

Kinler is part of a growing movement toward “the natural way” in our country. It’s a movement that has its roots, literally, in our own neighborhood and one that is characteristic of attitudes common to this part of town. Our numerous towering old trees, White Rock Lake, the many varieties of wildlife — all these we consider held in trust for us and our families.

“There was never a question for me of whether to go organic or not,” says Eddie Poston, sitting on the front steps of the M-street stone house he shares with partner Melvin Baker. “There’s a spiritual side to this in that we are stewards of the planet. Chemicals (used on lawns and gardens) seep into our groundwater and then we drink it. I don’t think using chemicals is very good stewardship.

“Plus, having pets and having friends with children … you want them to be able to play in your yard without fear.”

The protective instinct for small creatures frolicking in the grass is shared by Lake Highlands homeowner Gina Niesman.

“The main reason for us going toward organics was the wildlife in our area,” she says. “Squirrels, birds, raccoons. We just wanted to keep it safe so that we could enjoy them.

“In the mornings when we sit at the table, it’s nothing to see at least 10 squirrels out playing. And our yard has never looked healthier.”

“We have two little dogs,” adds Niesman’s neighbor, Fran Faccenda. “And it’s just safer and I feel more comfortable with it (organics). You can walk around and see these signs in some yards that say ‘Beware, this lawn was sprayed today by so-and-so.’

“I don’t have to worry about that.”

And then there’s Howard

Another clue as to why the organic movement seems to be spiraling out from here can be heard espousing his passionately held views on WBAP each day. If you’ve spend any amount of time listening to long-time East Dallasite J. Howard Garrett or if you use his gardening guide “Plants of the Metroplex,” you’re probably no longer startled by such flatly inflexible instructions as “DO NOT PLANT” and “If you must paint tree cuts to be able to sleep nights, use natural shellac or, better still, Lac Balsam.” Garrett doesn’t exactly hide his opinions, and he’s almost giddy with pride over our status as the hot spot of organic gardening.

“We have more going here in organics than any other place in the United States by far,” gloats the nicknamed Doctor of Dirt, who is equally ticked off by those he’s yet to reach.

“It’s an education deal,” says Garrett. “Most people do what their peers do. They go into a store, and the extension service has said to buy Dursban or synthetic fertilizer, and it’s for sale there. And they think ‘well, they wouldn’t be selling it if there was anything wrong with it.’

It’s just ignorance for the most part.”

One of Garrett’s converts who’s been on both sides of the fence is neighborhood lawn care provider Ron Hall. Thirteen years ago, Hall, a Dallas fireman, started his business to make his days off a bit more lucrative. “Ron’s Lawns” offered the usual line-up of synthetic fertilizers and might still — if it had worked.

“I was always trying to do a better job for my customers. And I had some year-round customers in Park Cities and on Swiss and … ,” Hall breaks off laughing as he tries to soft-peddle the demands of some of his high-income patrons. “It’s never green enough. The bushes don’t look good enough.

“So for those customers, I was continuously doing more. More fertilizers. More chemicals. And I noticed the more I would do, the worse the yard would get.”

About that time, Hall started listening to his radio and you-know-who. “What Howard said made sense and it intrigued me, “ says Hall. Even though he lost a third of his customers when he went organic, he’s never looked back. “There’s a perfect balance that’s supposed to be in our soil,” says Hall. “To correct that perfect balance is like everything else in life — there are no quick answers. When people go out and buy a luxury car, that car wasn’t made as quickly as a lower-end car. Your yard is the same.

“But we get mass publicity and mass advertising for products like Weed-N-Feed fertilizers. How can you make something live and kill it at the same time? It doesn’t work. The only thing that works is that they’re selling lots of the stuff.”

“Weed-N-Feed,” scoffs Faccenda. “I don’t know what they’re supposed to be feeding, but it doesn’t kill the weeds.”

Lessons learned

However profitable the quick-fix garden products have proven, there is a slow but steady movement away from the chemical approach to landscape maintenance and gardening. Since Garrett went on the air 11 years ago, over 60 gardening centers in the Dallas-Fort Worth area have begun offering organic products exclusively. And over 200 more offer at least some organic options.

Poston finds the ready availability of such products and information a refreshing change from his early experiences as a self-taught organic advocate. “By the time I was out of college, ecology had started becoming a major topic and was something I latched onto right off the bat,” he says. “But I didn’t know exactly what to do. So I would go and buy books — at that time there was not much out. Finally there started being organic nurseries.”

Hall too praises the virtues of neighborhood organic gardening centers. “The beauty of places like Redenta’s or Rhode’s is that they’re going to take the time to educate you as opposed to Home Depot.”

Kinler at Redenta’s says that, like Hall, she got her basic training in organics the hard way.

“A story I tell is about my first batch of roses, which were infested with aphids,” she says. “I had my employees using orthene and everything else all the chemical labels said — I couldn’t apply it myself because I was getting sick. And we couldn’t get rid of the aphids.

“One day I brought in a shipment of ladybugs and lacewings and just spread them around. Within three days, the aphids were gone.” (Redenta’s actually now sells bags of these beneficial insects in season.)

Garrett, not surprisingly, is blunter in his assessment. “Let me tell you — the major lies are that (1) the plant can’t tell the difference and (2) chemicals are safe and necessary,” he fumes.

Hall especially finds synthetic insecticides problematic. “Ninety percent of insects are beneficial,” he explains, pointing out that you can’t kill the pesky 10% without smoking the good guys. “And for some reason, I don’t know why, the good guys seem to be more susceptible to the chemicals. And the bad ones come back and then have no natural predators left.”

Green for the green

Isn’t cost a factor for the organic gardener? Yes, Garrett, Kinler and Hall say — organic is cheaper in the long run.

“When you first start doing the organic program, and look at an organic bag of fertilizer versus a synthetic bag, it looks like organics cost more,” says Garrett. “But when you look at the overall program — how many times you have to fertilize, how many times you have to spray, how many sick plants you won’t have to replace, how much water you’ll save … and it gets easier every year. You have to do less and less. The long-term savings are really substantial.”

Kinler says “When you use a synthetic fertilizer, they do provide nutrients to the plant for the moment but when they’re gone, all that’s left is salt. You’re just building up salt in the soil.”

Hall says, “I don’t know anybody who’d go spread salt on their yard.”

According to Hall and Kinler, when you use an organic fertilizer or organic matter of some sort — like cotton seed meal — you’re building up the soil time after time with nutrients that will always be available to the plant. The only bad news, says, Hall is that organics have the potential to rob him of customers.

“That’s the beauty of organics. You can take care of your yard and never spend a dime anywhere else if you want to do it yourself. You can save your coffee ground to fertilize your roses. You can crush up orange peel and make citrus spray to destroy your fire ants. Compost is the perfect fertilizer.

Even if you use Ron’s Lawn, Hall admits, “Once you go organic, in all reality, in three years if we’ve done our job, and you water right and mow right — you really wouldn’t need to do anything else to your soil. You’ll have that perfect ecosystem.”

How-to

According to Garrett the overall organic industry is already bigger than most people realize, and even though it’s still a small percentage of the main market, it is doubling every two-and-a-half years. Kinler talks about the natural gardening trend with satisfaction, day-in day-out watching all those who come in and routinely pick up their organic products with hardly a question. Not more than once or twice a month does a customer ask for something non-organic.

“Actually, we don’t call them customers, we call them gardeners,” she smilingly corrects. “At the beginning, I was struck by how much it was people’s pets (that they were concerned about being exposed to yard chemicals). I found that was motivating and scary to them.”

Kinler says that when she does get a newcomer unfamiliar with the organic approach, she tries to keep it as simple as possible.

Fertilize with organic materials, organic compost and something like a fish emulsion based foliar spray. Spread hardwood mulch (which breaks down into organic matter) on all bare soil to conserve water and control weeds. Use beneficial insects to control pests — although the best prevention is a healthy plant.

“If nothing else,” says Kinler, “just stop using the chemicals.”

Hall says exactly that same thing — as a last resort, do nothing. “Chemicals destroy the humus in our clay-based soil and just make it harder and harder,” he says.

In other words, if you aren’t ready to take the organic plunge, just back off for awhile and let nature take its course.

More simple advice — don’t rake. You’re depriving your lawn and garden of nutrients, and jamming up the city landfill.

“The City ought to make it illegal right now to send any kind of organic matter to the landfill; no homeowner should ever let any kind of leaves or grass clipping leave their property. It’s throwing money away. It’s just insane,” says Garrett.

Don’t like the way fallen leaves look? Run your lawnmower over them and mulch them into the grass.

And try to resist pruning and fertilizing trees.

“Butchering crepe murtles is a great example,” Garrett says. “People do that to shade trees too, which is even worse. And then we over-fertilize them and kill the root fungus they need. I think trees grow in spite of people.”

“Lakewood has got kind of an interesting environment for trees. We’ve got very shallow rock, but the soil is really good for growing trees. There are things we can grow here that won’t work further north like in Plano — trees like Lace Bark Elm, magnolias and some of the big hollies.”

Garrett is also big on planting the right plant. Some of his favorite native trees here are Texas Ash, Bur Oak, Red Oak, Cedar Elm, Native Pecan and Mexican Plum. Some very good adapted trees include Ginko, Tulip Tree, Chinese Pistachio and Silver Leaf Linden.

Hall agrees that Mother Nature is easier to join than beat.

“When you try to work with nature, you get a lot more than when you try to constantly battle nature. Whether you believe in God or not, there is a ‘Supreme Force’ in our universe,” says Hall, who also has thoughts about why so much of the organic community can be found here. “There seem to be a lot more people per capita in this neighborhood interested in society as a whole and I guess that’s what it’s all about. Building community.

“Organic people are all different politically, religiously — but it seems like they are all striving to build something.”

Or, as Kinler says, “It’s easier, it’s healthier — I just decided that was what I was gonna do.”

SOURCES

Organic Garden Centers
Living Earth Technology
1808 W. Northwest Highway
972-869-4332

Nicholson-Hardie
5725 W. Lovers Lane
214-357-4348

North Haven Gardens
7700 Northhaven Road
214-363-5316

Redenta’s Garden
2001 Skillman Avenue
214-823-9421

Rohde’s Nursery
1651 Wall Street
972-864-1934

Sticks & Stones Garden Market
5016 Miller Avenue
214-824-7277

Some Basics of Organic Gardening

Soil Testing
Have soil tested, by a lab that gives organic recommendations, to learn the total and available levels of organic matter, nitrogen, calcium, magnesium, sulfur, phosphate, potassium, sodium, chloride, boron, iron, manganese, copper and zinc. Tissue sample tests are important to see what nutrients are being taken up by the plants. Check for life by counting the earthworms in a square foot of soil – should be at least 10. The best lab for organic recommendations is Texas Plant and Soil Lab in Edinburg. They may be reached at 956-383-0739.

Planting
Prepare new planting beds by scraping away existing grass and weeds, adding 4-6″ of compost and tilling the mix 3″ into the native soil. Good additional ingredients include rock powders such as granite sand, greensand, lava sand, zeolite or soft rock phosphate at 40-80 lbs/1,000 sq. ft. and organic fertilizer at 20 lbs/1,000 sq. ft. Do not use pine bark, peat moss, concrete sand, artificial fertilizers, or artificial weed block fabrics.

Fertilizing
Apply an organic fertilizer to all turf and planting beds in early spring at 20 lbs/1000 sq. ft. Repeat every 60 to 90 days during the growing season if greater response is needed. Three applications per year is normal. Apply rock powders annually at about 40-80 lbs/1,000 sq. ft. The best choices include lava sand, basalt and other volcanic materials. Add bat guano, fish meal, kelp meal or earthworm castings at 10-20 lbs/1,000 sq. ft. to annuals and perennials in the spring and every 60-90 days if needed during the growing season. Add a small handful of earthworm castings or soft rock phosphate to each hole when planting bulbs or small transplants. Mist or soak bulbs or seeds before planting in a 1%-5% solution of seaweed, Garrett Juice or some other biostimulant.

Foliar Feeding
Foliar feed all plants with Garrett Juice. It’s completely non-toxic, highly effective, and you can make it yourself at home.

Mulching
Nature doesn’t allow bare soil and neither should we. For shrubs, trees and ground covers use at least 1″ of compost and 3″ of shredded native tree trimmings or shredded hardwood bark. Mulch vegetable gardens with 8″ of partially completed compost or alfalfa hay. Mulch preserves moisture, eliminates weeds and keeps the soil surface cooler which benefits earthworms, microorganisms and plant roots.

Mowing/Trimming
Mow a little higher than the organiphobes recommend. Start the season at 11/2″ to 2″ and raise to at least 3″ by mid summer. Mow weekly or more often if necessary, leaving the clippings on the lawn. Put occasional excess clippings in the compost pile. Do not send clippings to the dump. Do not use line trimmers around trees. Do not scalp the lawn in the spring. Scalping is hard on equipment, exposes the soil to sunlight and weed germination, and wastes organic matter.

Watering
Adjust schedule seasonally to allow for deep, infrequent waterings in order to maintain an even moisture level. About 1″ of water per week in the summer is a good starting point. When possible add 1 tablespoon of natural apple cider vinegar per gallon of water. Use a siphon attachment and include a light application of seaweed, molasses, and compost tea when possible also. Don’t use vinegar with acidic water or soil.

Weeding
Hand-pull large weeds, mulch all bare soil and work on soil health for overall control. Avoid the toxic chemical herbicides, especially pre-emergent types and those that contain 2,4-D. Use 10% (100 grain) vinegar or stronger at full strength and/or citrus oil as effective organic herbicides on hot days. Be sure to clean vinegar thoroughly out of metal spray parts, it is very corrosive. Use “The Weeder” or “Lawn Claw” for mechanical weed removal. Apply corn gluten meal in the Spring and Fall to control annual weeds such as grass burrs. Avoid all SU herbicides and those containing Pickloram.

Pruning
Don’t over-prune. If necessary, remove dead, diseased and conflicting limbs. Tree pruning is for your benefit, not the tree’s. Don’t make flush cuts and don’t paint cuts. Pruning paint slows the natural healing process and harbors pathogens. If you must paint cuts to be able to sleep nights, use natural shellac or better still, Lac Balsam. These are a good idea on oaks that must be pruned in the spring.

— J. Howard Garrett

Garrett’s web site, dirtdoctor.com, contains information on: