Jardinier amateur ?

There are more than 13 million amateur gardeners on nearly 2 % of French soil. This has an undeniable influence on nature as fertilizers and pesticides are used in doses that are 3 to 10 times too high. Analysis shows that 90 % of a chemical product spread on a garden is not used by the plants and thus pollutes the soil and the surface water. Chemical products are easily replaced by non toxic natural products, where natural techniques are favored: this is the principal of organic gardening. This mode of cultivation, without risk to health or the environment, respects the natural balance of the soil, of plants and of visiting insects and animals. So this facilitates the natural defences of the plant to avoid numerous diseases. These techniques are easy to employ, for both the beginner and the experienced gardener.

The majority of amateur gardeners have a tendency to see the soil as a simple support for cultivated plants. Even though the plant obtains from the air 88 % of the elements indispensable to its existence (carbon and oxygen from the atmosphere), one must bear in mind that plants extract from the soil certain elements essential to their development: water and nutritive elements (minerals and trace-elements).

In organic gardening, therefore, it is necessary to look after the balance between the soil (texture and structure), the presence of nutritive elements easily accessible to plants and the organic activity of the soil. The use of compost is highly recommended ad the micro-organisms that it contains mineralize little by little organic matter which then becomes assimilated by the roots.

Digging deep is very detrimental to organic activity as it disrupts the superficial structure of the soil.

Just as in nature, diversity is essential to the garden. The more diversified your planting, the better your chances will be of attracting other species (species useful to fight off undesirables). Each one of your different local plants attracts insects that are really helpful to the gardener. The presence of different environments (pools, meadows, vegetable plots...) in or around the garden also contributes to this diversity.

A lawn offers a clear space in which predators can easily spot their prey. When this space is managed in a natural way, it becomes an area full of life, a true ecosystem within itself. Its maintenance needs very little time, and avoid the use of weed killers and insecticides, great pollutants of the garden. For very little cost you can have a natural lawn where a variety of flora and fauna will flourish. In this way you will combine charm and beauty with the protection of nature.

If you wish to turn a part of your terrain into a flowering meadow, you will have very little maintenance to do. Only two or three cuts a year are necessary: one at the end of spring and one or two at the end of summer and in autumn.