Why Organic?

Organic gardening is done without the use of any insecticides, fungicides, or herbicides, collectively known as pesticides. An organic garden has no adverse impacts on the health and well being of people, pets, wildlife, and the environment as a whole. Organic gardens are safe for all living creatures and especially for streams and rivers.

Conversely, gardens that are maintained with pesticides can sicken or kill pets. Imagine a cat or dog walking through a lawn or garden that has just been treated with a pesticide. As they lick and clean their paws and fur, they ingest these toxic chemicals. Meanwhile, many birds rely upon insects for food, especially while they are feeding their chicks. A garden that has been sprayed with insecticides will provide no food for nesting birds, thereby disrupting the natural life cycle of lovely birds like chickadees, wrens, flickers, robins, and many more. Meanwhile, pesticides are carried by rain into neighboring waterways, where they poison all kinds of aquatic creatures. Even the so-called organic insecticides, which are made from plants and are biodegradable, are poisonous to all animals, including you.

Kettler Gardens has a pretty simple approach to organic gardening -if it's a plant like a rose that needs pampering with chemicals to stay alive, either we don't plant it, or we let it die. There are plenty of plants that thrive without chemicals, like the ferns.

Occasionally, on large country properties, we will carefully use very specific herbicides to deal with only two tenacious and obnoxious plants - poison ivy, and the invasive multiflora rose.

Overall, our approach is to work with Nature, rather than trying to fight with it. We have learned a lot of organic gardening tricks over the years that have proven to be very effective in creating lush healthy landscapes.