Could I have organic crops?

Ok so my neighbours use artificial fertilisers and although I understand that you get good results, I thought about organically growing my own as an experiment. Now, I am a new gardener so my knowledge is limited and from what I can gather for me to truly have organic crops there has to be a large area where no fertiliser has been used from neighbouring gardens , fields etc so if I grew what I could in very large troughs and pots could I then have organic produce or would the pollination from bees etc affect the nature of them being orgNic? TIA

 

Yes, I blieve that there has to be a 'buffer zone' between organic crops and others, but this is for commercial growers. It is still nice to know that YOU havn't sprayed any 'nasties' on your crops.

Cheers, Tony.

 

Thanks Tony...I'm looking forward to the perculiar shapes and of course the delicious tastes

 

And bees don't carry fertiliser from plant to another either. The pollen they carry would not be contaminated either except perhaps if your neighbours soaked everything in Provado. BUT even if they do, it would probably kill the bees before they reach your garden. AND your plants would not be affected by it in any case, since you do not actually consume the pollen, unless you intend keeping bees for their honey.

 

Thank you Palustris, your advice is greatly received. I think beekeeping can take a backseat for a while though haha, just getting my head round the basics...although my partner has said I can be impulsive so who knows haha

 

I know lots of beginners like to go down the organic route.
But my thoughts are that really you need to be pretty good to make totally organic growing work.

So often it can be a disaster for beginners, kind of puts them off for good, which is not what we want.
So my thoughts, for what they are worth, is be as nature friendly as you can, but dont completely cut yourself off from some of the easier methods of growing good food.

 

Yes Pete I will take that on board, thank you. I am very excited about my new found hobby and can certainly see it is going to be a 'deep rooted' (see what I did there?) passion. Tbh I am a little limited on space so would be using cold frames, my new greenhouse and large planters and pots and I suppose I'm finding my feet and putting those pest free feelers out. I appreciate everyone's advice and am certainly enjoying taking it all onboard, I'm looking forward to meeting more experienced gardeners to help me and my lil un to enjoy successful gardening. Cheers me dears

 

Agree that being completely organic is not always possible. Our land has probably never been sprayed with anything. Before we moved here the previous owners did not garden it at all and before that it was a pig farm (and that was in the 1950's). However the fields around us are all sprayed to within an inch of everything's life.
As said, in the beginning, until you get the balance right, it is a case of doing what is needed to actually get a crop which you can use. Otherwise it is very easy to become disheartened.
Best advice is Do it and Enjoy what you do.

 

Maybe check with local council to see if they offer cheap compost bins. Keep all your uncooked kitchen waste ,egg cartons etc and make your own organic compost.

 

Wonderful!!!! Thank you for passing on you knowledge, I will have fun how can you not. My goodness I have got the gardening bug and my lil one loves it. He knows what seedlings are what and its how he greets folk who come into our homes me... He must must must show them what we are growing and asks them if they like it... It's so cute. I am going to feel very at home here and my little one too xx thank you all so much ☺️

 

WOW...will certainly try. Thank you

 

Weetam, thank you for this. I will make that call. I vaguely recall something on TV about asking council regarding waste ground and if there's a local group of 10!you can ask them if you can use that to grow vegetablea etc?