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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] organic master gardener program? / Alabama

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Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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  • From: "Laura McKenzie" <laurabrownmckenzie@worldnet.att.net>
  • To: "Steve Diver" <steved@ipa.net>, "Healthy soil and sustainable growing" <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] organic master gardener program? / Alabama
  • Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2006 16:27:34 -0500

Steve,

Its unfortunate that my friends looking for organic food didn't find Jones Valley or Grow Alabama to talk to at this farmer's market (Pepper Place). I think the two I mentioned are the only two I saw this year offering organic food. Never the less, my friend said the farmer at the market she talked to spoke with such conviction that she was certain I was performing some sort of miracle on my land. When talking about every day gardening, (not farming) its that gardener who is the one that is told organic impossible. I remember my first call to an extension agent regarding my apple trees. He told me there was no reliable solution to my problem without using fungicides. Well I'm eating apples just fine this year. Why? I took a great amount of time to find a solution and luckily had a patient online group to help me.

When you consider how much terrible stuff is being dumped into yards and small farms, that kind of advice is verging on criminal in my opinion. We live across from a very clean, large creek. In it live some of the only trout in Alabama. The creek winds its way past us and past hundreds of mostly cattle farms (nearly all using herbicides to keep weeds out of their hay btw) before emptying into a major river, the Coosa River, a major source of drinking water. On the opposite side of the creek is 400 acres about to be developed with 800 homes slated to be built. I know you can imagine what 800 to 1600 home owners using roundup religiously (and roundup IS nearly a religion here) is going to do to my creek, the trout and one of the most ecologically diverse areas for reptiles in the nation (as established by a friend of mine while earning her master's at Auburn). In addition, that 400 acres is part of a migration trail for Florida panthers and is home to black bear, beaver, red fox, and a myriad of other creatures. Its going to be gone this time next year.

We need an accessible, local places for people desiring quick (most won't be patient) answers... organic solutions. If its easier to contact an extension agent or master gardener who points the home owner to chemical solutions, that is the route nearly every person will take.


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Laura's Homeschooling, Garden, and Genealogy Site
is found here: http://home.att.net/~ekyorigins
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