I love seeds. I have been addicted to them since I was a kid. My dad used to give me a tiny space in his garden where I planted radishes, lettuce, beans, peas, tomatoes. And they grew! It was like a miracle. I was also hooked on different varieties. Well, at that time I went for color and shape. I did not care about the flavor. They taste the same anyway. But yellow tomatoes — WoW. Let me add here that it was in early 80s, the dark times of communism, where only red tomatoes had a chance, ones bred by the Socialistic Community of the Comunistic Gardening Enthusiasts (or something like that). Old varieties were not in fashion.  Trading “strange” shapes and colors felt like we are doing our part in the dissident movement to crack the stupid regime.  The truth is that the exciting veg seeds we always got from our “socialist brothers”. I remember tomato seeds from Hungary or interesting squashe brought over by students from Vietnam.

You might think the situation has changed. Well, it has. 20 years after the Communist Bloc collapsed, we are members of the EU, we pay with Euros and life is sweet. Except the seeds. EU has a list of permitted varieties. Most of them are hybrids. Yes you can get pear shaped, tiny yellow tomatoes. The problem is that they have no taste. Like, none. Zero. The “superb” tomato varieties like “Tornado” will withstand a nuclear attack, but will not find a place on my plate. People do not know what heirlooms are and they have no access to them. It is illegal! I feel the same way as when I was a kid. Doing something “underground”. I really do believe in heirloom varieties so much that I break the law.  I don’t think the law will change. People do not care. They do not know. I feel that in Slovakia I am the only one using heirloom seeds. I have to get them from the USA during my visits or one year I have ordered them through eBay. This year I was especially lucky. For my birthday my wife suprised me with a wide selection of heirloom seeds: different corn, tomatoes, beets, watermelon, etc. Does she know that we are going to live on the shady side?

Organic or not organic, I’m asking myself again. In the beginning of the season I was all excited to do a full organic approach. While our neighbors were dumping tons of chemistry on their land and laughing at this naive beginner, I was full of happy thoughts for my crops. Our lawn is not perfect but we love it. Our back lawn is meadowy and we love it. The neighbors do not like it, they look at it and say the weeds must go. I tried to explain my approach and why I try to plant heirloom and not some fake and over-bred hybrids, I have explained that the little flowers and volunteer plants in the lawns are not bad. It is all about biodiversity which will promote the natural balance which will help me grow organic. That was until now.

I have to say the weather was notmerciful to me. It was constantly raining and then it heated up and then raining and hot again. Now it is hot and raining every second night. The days are extremely humid. I have to say neighbors warned me ! Your crops will be eaten by mold and fungi ! They were right. My tomatoes are rotten one after another. And when there is a little chance that they could start to recover, the rain comes again. Plenty of strawbs and beans were victims too. Bye bye beans, bye bye tomatoes.

I was warned also about the Colorado Potato Beetle. There is a great poison against them. I did not use it. I went organic. I picked them and smashed them. Until now. They finished my eggplants. Bye Bye eggplant.

The humid air also managed to wipe out my grapes. I have a small vineyard with 400 roots /vines/. Organic. And without yield.Our house has a view to some micro-vineyards, and all we can hear is the engine of sprayers. After each rain the farmers go and spray. I did not.

So what is next? What a hell should I do? Should I start to use chemicals? That helps. Maybe. I have to say I am damn tempted ! The season is not over. Lets see what is going to happen with my apples and pears, are they going to be the next victims of pests and diseases? Ahhh…bye bye Braeburns and Buy bye Fuji?

I am tempted to leave the organic approach but I will not. I am really sorry for my crop and next year I have to think of something to protect it in an organic way. I can buy non-organic produce in the shop so I do not need to grow it. I have two small humans at home who will benefit from this, and maybe one day they will have great memories. The veggies and fruits which survived gave us plenty of pleasure and we knew what are we eating. We had great peas, awesome corn, and we still have some tomatoes /the Black Cherry is a tough guy/, okra / I realized I do not like it/, one or two eggplants, plenty of strawbs, some blueberries, some peaches, some nashi pears, red and black currants, jostas /not that yummy/, raspberries and many other things. The damage was big but we still got plenty of stuff. So all in all nature gave us something and we were happy about it.

The other reason why I will not give up is that in the area where we have the vineyard we purchased a small cottage with overgrown wines and few fruit trees. This is a really neglected area. i love it, because it is meadow and trees. Unfortunately the land has no official ownership papers /something which was left over from the Communist times/, so we did not invest in it. We left it as it is and we just go there to harvest plums, cherries, strawbs, almonds, walnuts etc. There were also some really neglected grapes. I have trimmed them just to practice the grape trimming. They grow among weeds, were never sprayed, I did not touch them since the trimming and they look much better then my cultivated grapes or even the neighbors sprayed grapes. Generally plums had also a hard year but not on this spot.  This gives me hope that organic make sense and once biodiversity and biobalance is reached everything will be ok.

It is hard to be organic in a country where spraying is a spring and autumn ritual. My neighbors spend more money on chemicals than on food. Plenty of farmers went out of business claiming that chemicals became so expensive that it is not worth growing crops, and I do not blame them. The literature and all the available press is all about chemicals. If you have a problem treat it with XYZ /carefully kills everything including your pets/ And if you want to organic use sulfate /what a relief/. Nobody talks about biodiversity, improving your environment to the level that your plants will take care of themselves. I have to say I am not a crazy pro-organic freak. I just use common sense. I want to know what I am eating, what I am breathing in when walking in the garden and how to make my garden need less maintenance.

So what is better for a busy gardener? Well I would say go organic. Initially it is more work, but when the system is set and you will be happy. But do not think about organic as a one treatment for a concrete problem. Organic for a busy gardener means setting up a system where nature takes its course. Yes, you still have to weed and yes you still have to prune and you still have to take care of your veggies. But if the system is right and in balance and your minds is set to “natural” mode you will have much less work to do. The part where I say set your mind in the “natural” mode is very important. What do I mean?

1 . Nothing is perfect in nature. Do not expect it from your plants. Do look at them and admire them as they are. Find the beauty in their imperfections (some of us already did in heirloom tomatoes – aren’t they beautiful because they are imperfect?). I am sure your also have some imperfect parts, scars, your nose is bigger then you want, there is dirt under your fingernails, you have a hole in your sock etc. So do not expect the plant to be perfect. Just flow with nature and admire as it is.

2. Share with nature. I do not mind to share with nature. If the birds eat 20% of my cherries there is still plenty left for me. If some of the apples are nibbled by worms I can still have some. Of course there are cases when all of your apples get “infected”, all of your blueberries end up in the hungry birds’ stomachs. Well, the question is if you need to plant more crops to share with nature or set the right natural balance. But learn to share with nature.

3. Sometimes you can try anything but certain plants will be attacked by pests, or will just die on you. Yes you can use spray and try to save it, but the question is if it can be saved. It is extra work and you have to repeat it over and over and over. From the stand point of a busy gardener I do not have the time and mood to do it. If I am really determined to make it happen then I try to pick more resistant varieties or I try to do use the Soviet WWII strategy. I plant plenty of plants and hope some of them survive and get adapted to my garden. These days I am crazy about persimmons so that’s exactly what I did /I will blog about it/. I bought 300 seeds and will do the “hurraaaa” attack on my garden. I just want persimmons! But if you do not have time or that plant is not vital for your life just give up. Plant things that are happy as they are and they do not need you constant attention.

So from a busy gardener standpoint organic way is the way to go. Once the natural balance is set everything takes it course naturally. But do not forget about to set your brain in “natural” mindset. Do not seek perfection, garden is a living thing not a carpet or piece of furniture.