Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Patricia Ruggiero" <ruggierop@earthlink.net>]

Paul wrote:
> I've been seeing Jerry Baker - "America's Master Gardener" - 
> lately on PBS and wondering where he gets some of his stuff. 
> He makes growing sooo complicated I'd give up if I had to do 
> all that. He preaches compost and mulching, but he wants 
> everybody spraying soil and plants with "tonic" made of 
> Listerine, tobacco juice, Epson Salt, beer, and God knows 
> what else. And he just told us how to use Roundup. Do people 
> do all this stuff in home gardens? 

I suppose some of them do, as I understand he's very popular.  People are
always looking for quick fixes and "easy as 1-2-3" sorts of instructions,
anything at all just so they don't have to learn about the soil food web and
how really to develop healthy soil.

Organic gardeners know that just because a substance comes from the kitchen
pantry or bathroom medicine chest doesn't mean it's "organic" or even safe.
Several whom I know from another list recently began protesting to their
public TV stations about Jerry's half-Baked ideas, pointing out that
re-using pesticide containers and modifying the label instructions are, at
the very least, violations of federal regulations.  The husband of one of
them works for their local PBS station; whether this "campaign" will get JB
off the air remains to be seen.

Pat
Central Virginia, USDA zone 7