Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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

Catherine wrote:
 
> When I was a master gardener it was made very clear that all 
> questions were to be answered from the university research 
> data and recommendations. No if, ands, or buts.

We've been told that if we want to offer an organic or folk remedy we must
preface our remarks with the caveat that (1) the remedy doesn't come from
Virginia Tech and (2) it's something "some people have had success with."
 
>  The only time I 
> saw a hort agent fly out of the office into the phone room 
> was when he overheard a MG tell a client to pour a 
> non-selective herbicide straight out of the bottle over a 
> lilac bush to kill it.

Ack! As well he might have flown out of the office!  On the other hand I got
a sour look recently when, in a conversation with another MG about weeds, I
said if the lawn is infested with weeds it's because that's what the soil
can support and that the better approach is to improve the soil rather than
spray the weeds.

> I never felt any hostility from a hort agent or professor. 
> They were trying hard to keep home gardeners and their 
> families safe and to keep chemicals from being purchased in 
> the first place. 

This is so with our agents, too, as well as many of the VT publications.  I
should say as well that I was asked to teach the compost unit of the current
MG class, using our property as the classroom.

> On the other hand, I didn't preach my 
> philosophy at or over anyone else, so I may have flown below 
> the radar.

Well, I don't preach, either. I figured out, right from the beginning of the
class, that the better way was to wait until someone asked me how I did
something.  Now they know.  
 
> I don't think an organic gardener who would find it 
> spiritually or morally uncompromising to suggest chemicals 
> should be a master gardener. Once you sign that agreement 
> you're agreeing to speak for the university and not for Rodale.

I had planned to leave the MG program at the end of last year, but I'm in
too deep in one project to do so in good conscience.  During my first two
years I didn't participate in any of the existing programs, including the
Help Desk, because I they were not organic. Then an opportunity arose for
the MGs to design an historical "kitchen garden" as part of the restoration
of an 1850s plantation house that the county owns.  I'm keenly interested in
historical garden design and techniques; thus, I find myself the historian
and the designer of this project, which is adhering to organic practices.  I
thought I could continue advising and writing even if I left the MGs, and I
probably could, but the head of the project asked me to stay on in my MG
capacity, at least until the project gets firmly established.  I put in so
much time on just this one project that I have no difficulty meeting the
hours requirement, and I get to explain no-till, permanent mulching, and
other organic methods to a select subset of interested (even if doubtful)
MGs.

Pat
P.S. I'm signing off the List tonight; if you want to reply or otherwise
continue this conversation, you can contact me privately.