The Gardener's A-Z Guide To Growing Organic
An Interview With Author Tanya Denckla
By Tanya Denckla
Copyright © 2005. All Rights Reserved.
Reprinted here with permission from the publisher.

Question: While eating organic food is a growing priority in this country, visual appeal is important for most gardeners. Does an organic garden look different, better, more raggedy, than a non-organic garden?

Tanya Denckla: The average person wouldn't be able to tell whether a garden is organic or not just by looking at it. But to gardeners and practiced observers, an organic garden probably has more aesthetic appeal for a number of reasons. You're likely to see a lot more earthworms in the soil, as well as beneficial bugs like praying mantises, bees, and ladybugs. It may be more visually interesting because, for example, a wide variety of tomatoes are growing instead of just one kind of tomato, or monocrop. You're also more likely to see companion planting, where certain herbs, flowers, or other plants may be placed near or around the perimeter of garden beds to attract beneficial insects.

Q: What sets your book apart from other books on organic gardening?

TD: My book has two special qualities. First, it is truly for any gardener who wants to make gardening easy, whether or not they want to garden organically. It provides quickly accessible information, whether it's how closely to space your broccoli or when and how to prune your blueberries.

Second, for the organic gardener, nearly one-third of the book offers one of the most complete compilations of organic pest remedies to be found anywhere. After positively identifying the pest -- which the book explains how to do -- you can choose from an updated list of different organic remedies.

Q: There is a lot of information in this book. How did the project take shape for you?

I originally compiled all this information for myself, with no intention of making it a book. I was going nuts, having to look things up in a bunch of different books, so I decided to centralize my information to make my own life easier. No other book that I found offers this amount of information in one place and in such an easy-to-use format.

Q: How large is your organic garden? What do you like to grow?

TD: My garden is always changing and evolving. Right now I have four raised beds, each about 5' X 20', three of which are strictly for vegetables and one reserved for fruits (strawberries, raspberries, blackberries) and complimentary herbs. I rotate the food crops each year among the three non-fruit raised beds. I grow what we most love to eat - lettuce, broccoli, tomatoes, peppers, sometimes potatoes, spinach, kale, sugar snap peas, beans, and so forth.

In another part of the yard I have a small 3' X 8' bed for herbs. Elsewhere around the property are five different kinds of perennial flowerbeds (probably more than 2,500 square feet of them by now) in which I also grow a few fruits like apples, blueberries, and now rhubarb.

Without counting the time in canning or freezing my food harvest, I can generally keep this all going in one or two days of gardening on the weekends. It helps me to stay fit, but even more, it restores my energies from a stressful week of work.

About The Author

Tanya L.K. Denckla is a gardener, writer, and professional mediator specializing in environmental policy. She has extensive experience is grassroots community organizing. Tanya lives in Virginia.