OrganicBunny.com Living

Kathy's Garden
by Laura

The dark cool quietude of Kathy's parlor is a welcome relief from the sizzling Texas summer heat. I sip the refreshing glass of iced tea she's handed to me and gaze outside at her backyard. According to the thermometer on her fence, it's over 100 degrees out there, and I believe it. And yet, as we sit in the air conditioning and chat about one thing and another, I keep glancing out the window to that enticing backyard. Blue jays, sparrows, and chickadees flit with apparent glee from feeders to branches and back to feeders again. Kathy's garden begs to be discovered.

Kathy's love of gardening goes back over 30 years. Relatively speaking, her interest in gardening organically is new. "I used to use MiracleGro and all those harsh chemicals," she says, shaking her head as she reminisces. So when and why did she decide to make the switch? "I took a course on native plants back in 1999," she explains. "The instructor talked about organics, as well. At the time I thought 'growing organic' meant veggies only. Since I didn't grow vegetables, I hadn't thought about growing organically. But there were some other flower gardeners there, too, and we asked questions about it."

Kathy started with her grass first. For years she had used conventional "weed & feed" chemicals and though her lawn started out lush and green in the spring, by August it always looked "awful." So she decided to try the new methods that the instructor recommended. Instead of chemicals, she treated her lawn with compost and seaweed. The results were not immediate, she noted: "it took at least a year for the grass to respond." But respond it did: today, the grass in Kathy's garden is over 35 years old and has never been replanted. It’s hard to believe that it has ever looked "awful" - today (even in the wilting heat) it is thick, lush, and delightfully squishy under my feet as she shows me around.

"Native and organic gardening is so much more rewarding because the plants do so much better," she says. "Using chemicals and salts, my flowers would look beautiful for one or two years, but by the third year they'd be gone." Not now. As we visit each green patch in her flowerbeds, the obvious health of the plants is remarkable. The coneflowers swell. The sea oats cascade. The lavender parades.

By now I'm convinced, and ask Kathy how I can grow a garden like this. The key to organic gardening, she says, is to be patient. "It's not going to happen overnight," she cautions me. Most people lose faith because they don't see the results right away, but you've got to stick with it!" Also, it's more work-intensive. "You have to apply organic food more frequently than say, MiracleGro," - say, once a month or so, as opposed to only once a season. But, for Kathy, the results are worth it.

"My grandkids can crawl around in the garden and I don't have to worry about them being exposed to chemicals," she says. Plus, it just feels good to be doing something altruistic, something for the environment. "You feel like you have a presence." In Kathy's garden, there is indeed a presence - not only of the birds, the squirrels, the lizards, and the plants; but also of the natural peace that comes from a microcosm in balance.

   

Here are some of the organic products that Kathy uses on her garden: