Community Garden: Truly Organic Growing
In Fairhope, Alabama, there is a 20-plot community
garden behind Homestead Village. In early 2022, Julie Groth, avid organic
grower, was frustrated with the expense and lack of organic choices at the
grocery store. She decided to take advantage of the community garden to grow
her own food at lower expense and without pesticides.
“In the
community garden, a few of us wanted to go truly organic, so we converted six
of the existing raised beds to organic with no synthetic chemicals,” says
Groth. “There’s a relatively new movement called biological or biodynamic
growing, where the focus is on the biology in the soil or the microbes. I’ve
been a long-time organic grower and was interested in trying this next level
organic, and the community garden gave us the green light to try it.”
Groth decided to research regenerative gardening, also known as biologic growing or no till gardening. It was there that she came across Dr. Elaine Ingham’s work on the soil food web, which describes how the microbes and critters in the soil create channels near the roots of the plants that ultimately send minerals, oxygen and more to feed the plants.
Taking on
three of the beds herself, Groth first had the soil tested. She knew she needed
to start over with healthy soil and, after learning how to create it using
local topsoil, earthworm castings, kelp meal, alfalfa meal and other things,
she set up her beds with the best quality soil and local municipal
compost.
The
spring/summer crops didn’t grow as well as hoped, not surprisingly with new
soil, as they had symptoms of nitrogen deficiency. As a remedy, she planted
cover crops such as field peas to raise the nitrogen level naturally. The fall
harvest showed her efforts as it yielded large dark green, productive and
longer lasting plants. “With truly organic regenerative gardening we get
cleaner, healthier, nutrient dense plants that produce delicious food,” says
Groth.
“There are many benefits to being a gardener,” Groth says. “You are outside communing with nature, watching butterflies, living the fruits of your labor and witnessing miracles. If I have a question during the growing process, I ask myself, ‘What would nature do?’ And I always get an answer!”
Groth has
managed to grow cabbage, kale, collards, broccoli, eggplant, cucumbers squash
and more using the techniques she learned. She believes the key to her success
was starting with totally clean soil and focusing on healthy microbes. “Nature
will do the rest,” she says.
For more information on
regenerative growing, contact Julie Groth, [email protected].
Location: Homestead Village Retirement Community, 924 Plantation Blvd.,
Fairhope, AL.
