GROW POWDER

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Another consideration is that chemical fertilizers make plants more susceptible to insect pests than do natural supplements. Recent experiments at Cornell University found less harmful insects on collards fertilized with manure than on those fertilized with synthetics. (Completely unfertilized collards, however, had the worst infestations.)

Then there are the subjective arguments: Many growers feel that a naturally fertilized tomato tastes better than a chemically boosted N-P-K one. They often argue that it's better for you, too. (Although some research results have backed this claim—Rodale researchers, for example, found that manurefed spinach had one quarter the potentially harmful nitrates as spinach fertilized with ammonium nitrate—the data is not conclusive.)

Perhaps my own greatest concern is that synthetics foster a "quick-cure" mindset. If they're the complete answer for fertilization, why aren't pesticides and herbicides also the panaceas for bugs and weeds? Such easy "answers" short-circuit curiosity. They numb our desire to learn from what goes on in our gardens—to find for ourselves the whys behind successes and failures. And that's unfortunate. Learning those whys, the webs of interaction, can help us find our own answers, grow more productively and become, ourselves, parts of our living gardens.

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