Organic Gardening in the Media

Organic gardening, once on the fringe of American gardening philosophy, now is seen in every possible media.

Today, just about every magazine with a garden section will cover organic gardening practices on a regular basis. Slowly, natural solutions to garden challenges are becoming widely accepted. Televised garden shows often highlight environmentally friendly alternatives. There are far more books on the subject of ecology at every level of life than there ever was before.

That's pretty exciting to this gardener. I remember writing to my senator when I was in eighth grade about clean water. I remember growing up in a household that recycled newspaper, metals and glass. My mother didn't want to quit after WWII and my father and brother collected newspapers regularly as a fundraiser for their Boy Scout troop. We had a small kitchen garden just outside the back door where we grew tomatoes, parsley, green beans and other vegetables.

Over time, products to assist growing things were invented. Organic gardens gradually got the reputation of being kept only by elderly gardeners who "didn't know any better" or hippies out on communes. Mother Earth News was the back to earth manifesto for the fringe of our society. The rest of society was steeped in an enthusiastic pursuit of convenience and chemical solutions. Discoveries about the long-term consequences for some of those conveniences are changing the common conscience.

Now that we know better, let's do better.