Just asking....

Olds, just came across this thread.

I have gardened organically since 1975. I too, feel as you do about the change in Organic Gardening Magazine but I quit subscribing to it after they changed their format (and size) in the late eightys.

I have subscribed for a year here and there since but they just don't begin to compare to the earlier issues.

I wouldn't part with any of these old mags, what a wealth of information! Here's a picture of my collection going back to 1955, and a few earlier issues.

This message was edited Mar 14, 2004 9:44 PM

boy am I jealous - I was a kid and my parents did not
keep them.....I remember how full and useful they were

I will check ebay

my mother had a garden when we lived in minnesota and the only thing she put on it was manure....no chemicals. my first garden was in 1974 and i did as she did. a local farmer brought over a huge load of cow manure and i was set.

We quit both Organic Gardening mag and Mother Earth News for the same reasons. They were going too far off the beaten path!

We've been growing by organic methods forever. But serious and making a living since 1989. :)

Since 1974 when I graduated high school. Fruit, veggies, trees, flowers, grass, kids (!!!!)....whatever I plant, it's grown organically. No fertilizer, no chemical plant food....."if the good Lord don't make it, I don't use it", as my mom would have said.

I just subscribed and wanted to say hello to all the fellow organic gardeners. I started growing things organically for the past couple years, so I'm pretty new to this game. Will admit nothing beats gardening organically. I guess I like the challenge(figuring out ways to solve problems without poisoning my food) in additon to eating much tastier and healthier food. I have a question about vermiculite and perlite??? Are those products safe to use in organic gardening to amend your soil?
Thanks for your help!
greengarden

Hi and welcome!!

Actual perlite is volcanic and vermiculite is a mica product so both being mineral, I have always used them. Certainly there is someone else here who knows more but I always assumed they were okay......

Commercial potting mixes have something that looks more like styrofoam to me which would be an oil based product.

A Hearty Welcome to DG, greengarden! Come on in and have a seat!

As daisy said above, they are both mineral and fine to use. Be careful using vermiculite in a confined area though due to the fine particles that are easily inhaled. Some tests were done a while back by the EPA and found trace amounts of asbestos in some bags of vermiculite.

There are probably cheaper sources of items to use for soil conditioning...peat moss, bark, sawdust, etc.

Welcome greengarden!!!

Great site and hope to keep it open. I have always used perl and peat mixture as a seed starter. I have also seen a new product that looks like "packaging popcorn" that is made or derived from peanut oil and breaks down completely in a compost pile. Any info ??? I also have a ComposTumbler for making compost and helps me get rid of chicken droppings. Great soil ammendment which gradually has turned my clay, alkaline soil into black gold full of earthworms.

I too gave up on Organic Gardening Mag in the early 80's and the new one is merely full of advertisements with no new info.
Recently, I have found alot of good info in Countryside & Small Stock Journal.

I am about 99% organic but get out the big guns when I am over run with fleas and ants. Garden and Yard is completely organic. Great forum..Lets keep it going

Hiya, Nada, I'm your organic neighbor!!!

Hello Daisy. Yep, you are practically across the street from me. I bet we share the same nursery or at least go to the same Botanical Garden. Ha.

Too funny!!

I am in downtown LB on ...guess- Daisy Avenue. You are close to that?

Boy, are we ever up late tonight. I would never expect Daisy Ave as a street. How appropriate for you. But hey, I live in Garden-a. Actually in unicorporated LA county with a Gardena mailing address. Directly across the street from El Camino College. Small world.

yep! Which nurseries do you like over there? We have only been here for a little over a year and drive over to OrangeCounty Farm Supply in Orange for all of our supplies. Its so far!

you know, I figure organic gardeners are too busy outside this time of year to have much time to post items to a web site...or do anything else! I've been an organic gardener since I started gardening on my own in 1987.

One of my favorite garden memories was the year aphids got on my roses...the lady bug larvae were right behind them. For several evenings I came home and set up a lawn chair and watched the larvae methodically eliminate the aphids.

Much more fun than highly toxic chemicals.

Oh, and count me in as one who misses McGrath and the old OG. I still subscribe -- I guess out of habit more than anything -- I can't think of the last time there was an article or column that seemed truly worthwhile.

I started gardening when we moved out of the city in 1990. We had a new dog (my 1st) who's pen was right by the garden and I didn't want to poison him.. I ran across an issue of OG somewhere and decided that if I couldn't grow something without chemicals, I just wouldn't grow it. I could deal with the bugs.

I subscribed to OG until Mike McG left and for a short time thereafter, it just wasn't the same and since I had kept all the old issues I cancelled the sub.

Now I have 5 dogs and 1 old cat and would not dare put anything into their environment that would harm them.
My husband is NOT worried about such things but since he doesn't do any gardening, I don't have to worry about it.

The only time I have to watch the dogs is when we are setting tobacco using Orthene or when sucker spray is being put on. The fields are quite a way from the house and I don't let them out of the yard during those times.

Even now that I have started growing roses, I just overlook the blackspot and don't grow any that are really prone to it.
I still feel that if I have to use chemicals to grow something, it's not worth growing.

This message was edited Jul 22, 2004 4:29 PM