What if you could have a beautiful, lush garden without the aggravation of weeds or marauding insects and fungi? What if you could grow more delicious, highly nutritious herbs and vegetables? What if you could avoid the health risks of deadly chemical intervention? What if it cost less to do this than what you pay now and actually needed less time and work? Would you try it?

Save money. Save time. Save the environment and your own health. Go organic!

Switching to organic may cost about 10% more than chemical intervention in the first year. However, the second year the cost is 20% less, and in subsequent years the cost is practically nil! You can save a bundle AND have a healthier lawn and garden! All that it takes is an understanding of nature's processes.

Life exists with certain inherent safeguards in place to ensure the survival of only the fittest. Healthy plants, animals and humans are endowed with sufficient self-protective immune properties to ward off elements that will threaten them. This keeps the strongest and most intelligent surviving to replicate and improve the species. The weak, the genetically inferior are naturally culled out. An intricate food chain has evolved to take care of this.

The food chain begins at its most basic level with soil. Rich, healthy soil is comprised of a broad spectrum of minerals, living organisms, moisture, and decomposed vegetation. Rocks provide the foundation.

Rocks are composed of various elemental minerals. Micro-organisms slowly ingest rocks, releasing their minerals in a positively-charged form plants can use. Negatively-charged humus particles in the soil attract these positive minerals. Plants then absorb them through their root hairs and chemically alter the minerals into an organic form for their own nutrition. Animals and humans then ingest plants and gain an electrically-charged form of nutrition which cells can readily absorb. Without this organic transformation, elemental minerals would not be assimilable, since they lack the proper ionic charge. They can, in fact, be toxic.

Inorganic minerals cannot be absorbed. Instead, they become deposited in the arteries, joints, organs and brain, leading to degenerative diseases.

When the most basic element in this process is compromised--soil quality and condition--the health and viability of the entire food chain declines. Soil devoid of minerals contains no life-giving electrical charge or nutrients. Plants grown on it become nutrient deficient. Anyone ingesting the plants, in turn, becomes nutrient deficient.

How is it that farmers grew crops for thousands of years without need for pesticides or weed killers? The answer can, in part, be found in biblical times in Egypt.

The Egyptians learned through experience that they must allow land to be left fallow for a time equal to the number of years it had been farmed. This allowed the land to regenerate naturally and remain fertile. Otherwise, crops were plagued with locusts, erosion, or poor quality of yield.

Native Americans also had a wise approach to farming. They took from the land only what they needed and replenished as they went. Tribes periodically migrated to prevent over-farming or over-hunting an area.

Unfortunately, it is difficult to practice these measures today. We buy a small tract of land and own it. Consequently, we must clear the land and farm the same small area indefinitely until the soil becomes entirely devoid of any nutrient value.

With trees removed there are no large roots to prevent erosion. Rain and winds soon strip the exposed topsoil.  Harvesting or clearing the land leaves nothing to till back into the earth. Very little decomposed matter is available to micro-organisms so they begin to die off. Now there are no organisms to aerate or enrich the soil.

Rocks are removed to prevent damage to tools and equipment. But, this removes the only natural source of minerals. As the land is repeatedly laid with crops, the existing minerals are eventually stripped. Subsequent crops become weak and nutrient-deficient, leaving them vulnerable to insects and fungi.

Like us, plants build up their own autoimmune system and natural defenses as long as proper nutrients are available to them. Insects and disease will avoid a healthy plant. To protect against inferior species that impair evolution, nature has safeguards. It prevents their proliferation.

A plant that is weak or damaged will be attacked by disease, the fungi living within its roots, or by insects. As a result, the inferior plant dies, decays, and ultimately regenerates the soil to improve the quality of future generations of plants. Nature heals itself.

Instead of replenishing the soil and encouraging the healthy cycle of life by observing the natural course of nature, we began taking shortcuts. In 1840 The Organic Chemistry of Agriculture was published. It endorsed the practice of adding nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium to unproductive soils. These are quick-acting, short-term plant boosters. Chemical companies immediately began to prosper and by the end of World War II chemical fertilization was normal practice.

By then farmers had begun to discover that their soils would not support crops for their livestock. The animals were plagued with disorders commonly attributed to nutrient deficiencies.

Chemical fertilizers made it possible to obtain high yields of crops virtually free of insect damage from what had been unproductive soils. But, the soils still were not good enough to keep their livestock healthy, so, they switched to producing food for human consumption. Unfortunately, increasingly more potent chemicals had to be used to produce the same results, and a vicious cycle of decline began.

Chemical fertilizers alter soil pH and affect its electrical conductivity. This changes the whole host environment of the soil. Earthworms and beneficial soil micro-organisms die. Their dead bodies are dissolved by the acid fertilizer, creating cement-like dead soil.

Without aeration created by worms and organisms burrowing through the soil, water cannot be absorbed and quickly runs off. Ground water becomes contaminated. The root hairs of plants become coated with sodium ions from the fertilizer, preventing them from picking up the minerals they really need. They begin to starve.

Outwardly they may look like normal fruits and vegetables, but, without beneficial soil micro-organisms to protect them and nutrients to build immunity, starving weak plants are vulnerable to disease and predators. As a result, chemical pest control becomes necessary. The vicious cycle escalates.

Pesticides are like anti-biotics. They are designed to kill organisms. The problem is that they kill ALL organisms, including beneficial soil bacteria, funguses which break down minerals and protect the plant roots, and beneficial insects which prey on plant enemies. This actually worsens and perpetuates the condition, since the predators can return without competition. More importantly, chemicals are also harmful to us!

Co-inciding with the decline in soil minerals and an increase in chemicals, chronic disorders and health problems such as cancer and heart disease began to escalate in the population. Chemicals cause plants and humans to require more trace minerals. But, they block the uptake of minerals or cause them to be absorbed out of balance. Protein content also suffers. When trace elements are scarce or in improper ratios, our cells cannot maintain proper electrical conductivity and the entire body's functions are compromised at the most basic level. As cell action stalls, toxins build up and are retained, energy levels decline, all body systems are affected, and, like nutrient-deficient plants, we become vulnerable to disease.

Is your lawn or garden plagued with weeds, insects or plant diseases? Don't bring out the pesticide and herbicide. Your soil is the real problem! Bring your soil back to life and your weed and bug problems will go away on their own! Using artificial means to eradicate the problem only perpetuates it. Your crop yields and quality will decline, as well. In the long run you will spend more money and do a lot more work.

So, to have a healthy garden, all you need to do is encourage nature to do its job! The rest will take care of itself. Initially this may take a little more effort and money. After all, you have to UN-do the damage you have already done! But, very quickly, nature will take over and, with a little support from you, will do a much better job of maintaining the health of your lawn and garden.

Begin your healthy garden by 'growing' your own soil--make LOTS of compost. It's FREE!

Collect grass clippings, leaves, trimmed vegetation, shredded newspaper, and organic wastes from your kitchen. It is best not to put in fruits or vegetables that are not indigenous to your area, such as citrus or bananas, or to use pet wastes, meat or fat that can attract animals. Add some earthworms and, if possible, some manure. Make certain air can get to it. This will guarantee micro-organisms and heat to help decompose the matter. This can take as little as 2 months or as long as 6 months.

The trick in getting your compost to break down quickly is to stir it regularly and keep it moist but not wet. Surprisingly, it does not smell! Make certain to continually add a variety of organic elements to broaden the spectrum of nutrients that will be produced.

Compost creates an ideal soil pH of 6.5-7.--neither too acid nor too alkaline, and enriches your soil with organic matter that is teeming with beneficial micro-organisms. It also allows a better balance of air and water to help plants develop a deeper, more fibrous root system. As a bonus, recycling all your organic wastes keeps tons of garbage out of landfill sights!

Compost generated by a predominance of green wastes tends to be bacteria-dominated and produces nitrogen. Compost made from woody material, paper or mushrooms tends to be fungus-dominated and produces carbon. A 50/50 balance of these will create an ideal foodweb that naturally supports and nurtures plants while deterring pathogenic and predatory organisms. You can never add too much compost!

When ready to use, good compost will be dark and crumbly. If you are using if for your lawn, choose bacteria-dominated compost. It you are growing trees or strawberrries, choose fungus-dominated compost. This will ensure your plants' symbiotic protection by the right type of micro-organisms and enhance their growth and health. That way you will not require pesticides.

Don't waste your compost! Only put it where you are placing plants. Otherwise it simply burns up and is wasted.

You can make a great "compost tea" by mixing 1/3 of a pail of manure with 1/3 of a pail of seaweed and filling the bucket with water. Let it steep for 3 days. Strain off the water and use it as fertilizer and a natural pesticide.

No seaweed available? Fill a bucket 1/2 full with compost. Let it steep for 10-14 days. Strain and dilute 4-10 parts. It should look like iced tea. You can even spray this directly on the plants!

Next, remineralize the soil. Simply scatter aggregate stone dust or sand over it. Choose stone comprised of calcite, quartz, limestone, agate, jasper, and even coral but not granite. Granite gives off radio-active particles as it breaks down.

you can also remineralize using seaweed. Dried seaweed is 40% organic matter, 20-50% minerals. Chop 2 lbs. and soak it overnight in 1 gal. hot water.

Add earthworms. They break up hard soil and aerate it. Their castings contain ground-up minerals and micro-organisms.

Cover your garden with organic mulch such as leaves, straw, cocoa beans shells, or grass clippings. This not only keeps it from drying out, it creates heat, which helps plants survive in colder weather, keeps out weed seeds, and provides a protective layer to support worms and organisms. It can also be turned back into the soil to create compost.

Also turn your plants back into the soil unless they are diseased. This self-perpetuates organic matter. Notice in nature how the areas of most prolific growth have plants that shelter the soil and supply their own organic matter and mulch through their own leaves and toppled stems.

Instead of using pesticides practice a few natural tricks that will not destroy your garden's natural ecological balance. Rotate your plants. Don't put them in the same spot every year. Disguise your plants and confuse bugs by planting highly scented herbs or flowers such as marigolds, calendula, petunias, savory, sage, garlic, or chives among your vegetables, roses and garden flowers. Most insects have their scent receptors on their feet.

Encourage beneficial toads, birds and insects into your garden. White flowers tend to attract them. Ladybugs control aphids. Wasps and spiders eat a variety of bugs. A toad will eat as many as 15,000 insects in a season!

Plant vegetables that support each other side by side. For instance, tomatoes love carrots.

Why choose to garden organically? Why choose to purchase organic produce?

To answer that you need to understand that there is a radical difference between the fruits and vegetables you now eat and those that are grown organically. The difference goes beyond simple nutritional values to the actual electrical conductivity and assimilable quality of the nutrients within the produce. All grains, fruits and vegetables may look the same, but the contrast in mineral content can vary as much as 100 to 1. Because of the difference in organic food's content and balance of minerals, and the ionic charge present within these minerals, your body is better able to absorb and use the nutrients and you gain more energy....you get more bang for your buck!

Each cell acts like a battery with a different electrical charge on the inside and outside of the cell wall. Minerals act as positive and negative electrodes producing voltage potential. The electromagnetic current that passes through the cell is the subtle energy that produces life. This is what stimulates the cell to utilize enzymes and release toxins. Only water and oxygen are as critical to life.

Only organic vegetables grown on properly mineralized soils can provide both the nutrient value and electrical conductivity we need. They absorb fewer radioactive or toxic elements than other plants because they possess the ability to select the appropriate elements from the soil.

Ingesting these plants supports and stabilizes the delicate pH balance of the digestive system. Their synergistic mineral content aids in the conversion of proteins to amino acids.

In addition, we are more likely to eat organic produce in its whole and unaltered state. Many other foods are refined, which additionally strips nutrients and fibre. Refined foods must have their nutrients artificially replaced. In this form minerals are not synergistic and are often elemental. The body cannot absorb them.

Organic growers generally choose older varieties of seeds and avoid hybrids and genetically-altered varieties. You should look for older varieties of vegetables, too. As well as their higher mineral and protein content, they are more easily digested.

To be certified as organic, produce must be grown in soil that has been chemical-free for a minimum of 5 years. While it will cost more than commercially-grown produce, the health benefits are worth it. Buy organic as much as you can! Better yet, grow your own!