Kaffir Lime

There are a number of formal organic gardening and farming systems that prescribe specific techniques. They tend to be more specific than, and fit within, general organic standards. Biodynamic farming is an approach based on the esoteric teachings of Rudolf Steiner. The Japanese farmer and writer Masanobu Fukuoka invented a no-till system for small-scale grain production that he called Natural Farming. French intensive and biointensive methods and SPIN Farming (Small Plot INtensive) are all small scale gardening techniques.

A garden is more than just a means of providing food, it is a model of what is possible in your community - everyone could have a garden of some kind (container, growing box, raised bed) and produce healthy, nutritious organic food - promoting a more sustainable way of living that would encourage their local economy - a farmers market, a place to pass on gardening experience, and a sharing of bounty. A simple 4' x 8' (32 square feet) raised bed garden based on the principles of bio-intensive planting and square foot gardening uses fewer nutrients and less water, and could keep a family, or community, supplied with an abundance of healthy, nutritious organic greens, while promoting a more sustainable way of living.

Soil fertility

The central horticulture activity of fertilization illustrates the differences from chemical-oriented horticulture. Organic horticulture relies heavily on the natural breakdown of organic matter, using techniques like green manure, the application of rotted animal manures and compost, to replace nutrients taken from the soil by previous crops. This biological process, driven by microorganisms, allows the natural production of nutrients in the soil throughout the growing season, and is often described as "feeding the soil to feed the plant." In chemical horticulture, individual nutrients, like nitrogen, are synthesized in a more or less pure form that plants can use immediately, and applied on a man-made schedule. Each nutrient is defined and addressed separately.

It seems likely that the majority of organic gardeners produce their own compost. This is a basic soil amendment used in the organic approach to horticulture. Certain other amendments — such as rock powders providing phosphorus, potassium, calcium, and other minerals — have been on the market since the 1960s and earlier, though less available in some localities than others.

In addition to compost, mulches, green-manure crops, and rock powders, organic gardeners often use prepared, naturally-derived amendments – such as fish-waste emulsion (a byproduct of the fish-processing industry) or seaweed emulsion – these being concentrates, containing nitrogen and minerals, that can be mixed with water and sprayed or sprinkled on plants and soil to boost fertilization.

These items (plus insecticidal soap, bagged rotted manure, etc.) have been increasingly available through retail outlets since the 1970s. Indeed many products of this sort were (in North America, at least) developed for use at the horticultural, or garden, scale before they were developed for distribution for field-scale agricultural use. Parallel with this fact is that organic-horticulture literature, and recognition of the organic approach and methods in the standard horticulture and gardening literature, have also increased immensely during this period.

Pest control

Differing approaches to pest control are equally notable. In chemical horticulture, a specific insecticide may be applied to quickly kill off a particular insect pest. Chemical controls can dramatically reduce pest populations in the short term, yet by unavoidably killing (or starving) natural predator insects and animals, cause an increase in the pest population in the long term. Repeated use of insecticides and herbicides and other pesticides also encourages rapid natural selection of resistant insects, plants and other organisms, necessitating increased use, or requiring new, more powerful controls.

In contrast, organic horticulture tends to tolerate some pest populations while taking the long view. Organic pest control involves the cumulative effect of many techniques, including:

allowing for an acceptable level of pest damage encouraging predatory beneficial insects to flourish and eat pests encouraging beneficial microorganisms careful plant selection, choosing disease-resistant varieties planting companion crops that discourage or divert pests using row covers to protect crop plants during pest migration periods rotating crops to different locations from year to year to interrupt pest reproduction cycles Using insect traps to monitor and control insect populations Each of these techniques also provides other benefits — soil protection and improvement, fertilization, pollination, water conservation, season extension, etc. — and these benefits are both complementary and cumulative in overall effect on site health. Effective organic pest control requires a thorough understanding of pest life cycles and interactions.

Organic pest control is not synonymous, but shares some concepts with integrated pest management.

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