The Ecological Approach

Ecological gardening works with nature not against it. It accepts uncertainty and values questions more than answers: How do my actions impact the web of life? Am I forcing the environment to do what I will? How can I respect this ecology and help it create something of benefit to life and me? Am I giving back as much as I take?

These are difficult questions without simple solutions.

There is no avoiding the reality: gardeners mess with nature. It is not natural for me to have a garden in a mountain forest. My greenhouses, mostly made of non-renewable resources, allow me to recreate an ecosystem that is more like zone 6 than zone 3.5. In return, to balance the debt, I build fertile, microbial soil that would take thousands of years to create naturally.

For many years I tried to garden conventionally – and failed. My vegetables were mediocre; 50% of my plants and trees died. Only when I started using Bountea and built a foundation of living soil did my garden thrive. Now my garden ecology is full and rich. Birds flock to eat abundant insects and seeds. Bull snakes hunt the chipmunks (the picture is of one under my deck). The compost pile writhes with immigrant red worms. There is more of everything: bigger healthier cabbages and bigger healthier cabbage worms.