Reply #27: organic gardening takes less time than chemical gardening and is virtually free

[ima_sinnic]

when I think of the difference between my lush, busy garden with vegetables and flowers planted in a hodgepodge, all diverse and interacting, with heavy mulch preventing weeds and breaking down into food for the soil, NOT providing a handy monoculture for pest insects but rather plenty of resource for their natural enemies, contrasted with my neighbor's depressing-looking garden with poison white powder residue on the veggies, naked, dry, gray-looking soil most likely having very few worms and little life of any kind--and the time they had to waste weeding and rototilling between rows (had to make the rows 3 feet wide to fit the tiller--what a waste of space!) -- well, the difference was obvious. They had a problem with dryness and had to spend time watering, too. Hay mulch is king.