Thank you all Mitchel, Steve & Ron ... your time is MUCH appreciated.
Whew! There is certainly a lot to learn about organic gardening! I know my mother used to be heavily into that when I was a little girl in the 60s -- I even remember seeing issues of Organic Gardening magazine & their books on our shelves, but she had a severe stroke at 39 (when I was 8) which ended her gardening career, so I was sadly never able to learn from her experience.
We grew up with my grandma & great aunt into holistic medicine & Mom her organic gardening -- and I truly prefer holistic/organic whenever possible 0 I agree with wanting to be a good steward of the earth we have. However, I find that working FT & taking care of mom has sadly left me next to no time for researching how to compost & garden organically.
Boy, this thread makes me reminisce: I remember Mom always prattling on about manure & her compost & how she used to take us along to a place where she shoveled her own manure for free. Man, we HATED it because it was near an incinerator & the smell around there was so horrible that the swings we played on nearby weren't enough to distract us from the stench
-- wish I'd understood then how valuable it would have been to learn at her side tho.
Thanks again.
Andrea