Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Laura McKenzie" <laurabrownmckenzie@worldnet.att.net>]

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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