SO HOW ORGANIC IS ORGANIC?

Garden Organic's Anton Rosenfeld discusses how you can be sure what you're doing in your garden is organic and not harmful to your soil or wildlife

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Organic growing is a system that works with natural processes. It's a holistic approach where the soil, biodiversity and a healthy growing environment are integral to growing practices. From a legal perspective, any produce sold with an 'organic' label must be regularly monitored by an organic certification body, such as the Soil Association or Organic Farmers and Growers. While we may not follow this official route in our own gardens, our Garden Organic Principles of Organic Gardening can still be extremely useful if you'd like to grow organically. These cover a wide range of everyday gardening practices, including soil care and pest management.

We understand that acceptable practices are not always black and white, so in our Principles, we've developed a traffic light system to help guide you. Deep green for 'best organic practice', light green for 'also acceptable', yellow for 'only for occasional use' and red for 'never use'. It's the practices in the yellow 'for occasional use' category that often surprise people or divide opinions.

METHODS THAT ARE NOT RECOMMENDED FOR ORGANIC GARDENS

Below are a few examples of treatments that fall into our 'yellow category' - and can cause some contention among gardeners. Although considered organic, they wouldn't be our first choice. In commercial organic growing, they may only be allowed under restrictive conditions when it has been demonstrated that all other, more holistic approaches have been ineffective.