Our Environment

By Clifford Stanley ORGANIC agriculture, defined as a system that relies on ecosystem management rather than external agricultural inputs, is a system that considers potential environmental and social impacts by eliminating the use of synthetic inputs, such as synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, veterinary drugs, genetically modified seeds and breeds, preservatives, additives, and irradiation. 

WATER is as vital to plants as it is to other organisms. The pressure of water within the plant cells helps the plant’s leaves to remain firm. Water also is essential for most of the plant’s biochemical reactions. In addition, water stores essential dissolved nutrients.

PLANTING AND TRANSPLANTING Before planting seeds,  prepare or till the soil using a variety of methods. Some gardeners prefer to turn over the soil with a spade, while others loosen it with a garden fork.

HEALTHY soil is indispensable to a healthy garden. Plants derive water, oxygen for their roots, and essential nutrients from the soil.

A HEDGE is a fence or boundary formed by closely growing bushes or shrubs.

CONTRARY to popular belief in some quarters, a vegetable and fruit garden is no more trouble to cultivate than a flower garden. And some vegetables and fruit plants produce flowers, so you can have it both ways.

ATTRACTING hummingbirds and butterflies to your garden can bring a sense of delight.Said to be nature’s perfect helicopters, hummingbirds, often heard by their hum before they are seen, are attracted to tubular-shaped flowers.

EVERYONE likes a bright, colourful garden. So, instead of a hodge-podge, disorderly combination of plants and flowers, one can use combinations of plants with various flower colours in order to create the look one wants in a garden.