Why you shouldn't use pesticides

Imagine this: you transplant your seedlings from their containers into your soil, which is typical Colorado soil. After a few days you find your plants aren't healthy; they're shocked at being in poor soil and produce carbohydrates disproportionately to proteins; attracting bugs - bugs love carbohydrates.

Seemingly overnight you have a bug problem. So you apply pesticides, which kills the soil life and stresses your plants even more, which causes them to create more carbohydrates. You've killed the bugs (for awhile), yet now your plants don't look so good.

Naturally you think fertilizing might do some good, so you add some fertilizer, which kills more soil life, damages the soil structure, leading to even sicker plants, which attracts more bugs, which require more use of pesticides and fertilizers which kill the very things the soil needs to grow any kind of plant: earthworms and other invertebrates; microorganisms that facilitate the complex symbiotic relationships between soil and plant roots.

Shortly thereafter, your plants die. You are left to wonder what went wrong. Maybe the pesticides didn't work. The fertilizer didn't work. Maybe you just don't have the skill to grow food.

Pesticides and fertilizers are not the answer - compost is. If you let nature do its job, your compost will do its by:

• improving soil structure — which allows air to circulate into the roots.
• improving soil texture — which allows micro-organisms to interact with the roots by giving the roots nutrients in exchange for carbohydrates, which in turn they break down to avoid attracting bugs
• improving water retention — which keeps nutrients available near the roots, which makes everything in the soil happy and productive.

If you want a garden that lasts more than a year, start composting.