If you’ve ever thought the most successful organic gardeners and farmers seem to always hail from the Northern and Midwestern United States, you are exactly right.

Dr. Charles Mitchell, an Alabama Cooperative Extension System agronomist, says there is a reason for their success – it’s easy.

"It is definitely easier to be an organic gardener there," Mitchell says. "Here in the Deep South, we have to continually fight Mother Nature. With our climate and rainfall, organic matter breaks down almost as fast as we add it to our soils."

Mitchell says the South has biological activity, or decomposition, for 12 months a year.

"In Minnesota or New England, the soils are frozen during the winter, and biological activity stops," he says. "This means that in cooler climates, organic matter has a chance to build up in the soil before Mother Nature takes it away. A load of compost or mulch will last a whole lot longer in a Michigan garden soil than it will in an Alabama garden soil."

Alabama soils tend to be hard, crusty and sometimes difficult to till. In contrast, Midwestern soils tend to be dark, crumbly and friable.

"We can have dark, crumbly and friable soils, too," Mitchell says. "It just takes about twice as much work for us as it does our Northern gardening cousins. We have to continually add mulches, composts, rotted leaves, straw, bark and plant cover crops to add even more organic matter to the soil. Unfortunately, most Alabama gardeners are not willing to put this much work into it."

So what are lazy gardeners to do?

Try mulch gardening, Mitchell says.

"If you’ll notice, soil is very dark, crumbly and soft under an old pile of leaves," he says. "Earthworms are plentiful and the soil is rich in decomposing organic matter. This is Mother Nature giving us a hint – try mulch gardening. By leaving your valuable organic material like straw, leaves, compost, pine bark, etc., on the soil surface, it will last longer than it will if it is mixed with the soil or composted."

A good mulch reduces the need for soil tillage, eliminates weeds, keeps the soils cool during intensely hot summers, and conserves soil moisture.

"And, at the same time," Mitchell says, "that hard-packed mineral soil beneath that mulch is being transformed into a soil any organic gardener would love."

SOURCE: Dr. Charles Mitchell, (cmitchel@aces.edu), Alabama Cooperative Extension System Agronomist, (334) 844-5489