Published: July 05, 2008 09:01 pm         

Alternative approach

Wally Dibble dabbles in organic gardening

Wally Dibble has been gardening ever since he could walk behind a push plow. Over the years, Dibble has made the transition from conventional gardening to organic.

Dibble’s garden sits on a lot a few feet from his house. After retiring from his career as an electrician, Dibble often finds himself spending several hours a day in the garden.

Dibble calls the garden one of his proudest accomplishments, and he says organic gardening is the way to go.

Dibble grows rows of tomatoes, potatoes, corn, beans, beets, radishes, peppers and carrots. He doesn’t use fertilizer, and he relies on plant-based sprays to kill insects and fungus.

Arone Hardwood manager Jim Michael said organic gardening is high in demand. Michael had to begin offering organic seeds due to the amount of customer requests.

“We’re selling more organic seeds that we ever used to,” he said.

Shane Hanna, extension educator at the Cass County Purdue Extension office, said there was more interest in organic gardening these days.

He said people choose this type of gardening because it allows them to eliminate outside sources of fertilizer.

Other benefits to organic gardening include reduced costs. Gardeners can use natural sources such as grass and manure as an alternative to fertilizer.

And they can have their own compost piles as well.

However, Hanna says, organic gardening is much more management-intensive.

“It requires attention to detail and forward planning,” he said. “It requires a little more time and effort. It’s not for someone just looking for a cheap alternative to buyin veggies at the store.”

Dibble agrees. He says organic gardening is not for the “lazy gardener.”

“A garden is something that takes a lot of care,” he said. “If you want a good crop, you’ve got to come out and tend to it. The main thing about organic gardening is that is requires a lot of work.”

It can take individuals who are transitioning to organic gardening a few years to have a functional system, Hanna said. Many people can become quickly disappointed in their efforts, he said.

Dibble said the key was trial and error.

“If you try it and don’t think it does any good, you do something else,” Dibble said.

Dibble described organic gardening as “going back to basics.” Over the years, he’s read books and researched what works and what doesn’t.

“There wasn’t much thought about organics back when I was younger,” he said.

When Dibble was growing up, his family grew a large garden on the west end of Logansport.

Growing up in the Depression, he said, families had to have a garden to survive. Now, he does it as a pastime.

Another benefit to organic gardening, Dibble says, is the difference in the taste of the vegetables.

Dibble, who is proud of his planted tomatoes, said they “taste like a tomato should taste.”

Hanna said there is an opportunity to enhance flavor with organic gardening.

Right now, Dibble is dealing with Japanese beetles, which may destroy some of his crops if he doesn’t get rid of them.

He says he’s switched to organic gardening to get away from using chemicals, so to kill off bugs that eat his plants, he uses insect-eating bugs.

The praying mantis helps to kill them off, along with ladybugs and parasite wasps. He plants eggs for the insect-eating bugs in his garden.

Man-made sprays kill all of the insects, Dibble said, but plant-based sprays spare the beneficial insects.

“There’s a lot of stuff out there that’s beneficial that man kills off,” he said.

Hanna describes organic gardening as a “total system.”

He said organic gardeners need to pick out the most disease-resistant plants.

“The options are much more limited,” he said of the plants and vegetables that can be grown.

Hanna said people should start thinking about their organic garden now or in the fall if they want to start one for the summer of 2009. He recommends researching non-traditional control methods. He also recommends doing a soil test before planting.

Dibble said he feels as though organic gardening is the healthy way to do things.

“Organic gardening is a benefit to everyone,” he said. “It’s a good, clean way of living.”

Hanna said that gardeners could plant healthy and safe products using chemicals, as long as they are used correctly.

Melissa Soria may be reached at (574) 732-5143 or via e-mail at melissa.soria@pharostribune.com



Need information?

To learn more about organic gardening, call the Purdue Extension Office at (574) 753-7750. The office offers an organic production guide (ID-316) online at www.ces.purdue.edu. Copies are also available at the office.