“Organic gardening is not just the avoidance of chemicals, in the larger view, it is organic living using nature’s laws.” I read this quote by an unknown person sometime ago and realized that my parents and others like them were organic gardeners long before the current resurrection of these principles.  They didn’t use chemicals on the food they would feed to their children and gardening was a part of daily living to ensure there was sufficient food to preserve for the long winters.  Everything was re-cycled and kitchen scraps were routinely thrown onto the garden to replenish the earth.  Organic fertilizers such as manure were used and the only fertilizer on the roses was bone meal.  My mother and father produced the best tasting vegetables and lots of them – enough to feed a family of seven throughout the winter.  Birds, worms, and other signs of a living earth were welcomed into the garden.

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