Q: I want to do more organic gardening this summer, but I am not sure how to tell if something is organic or not. I want to make my garden soil better by adding more organic matter. How much should I add?
A: There is a lot of confusion about what is organic and how to garden organically. What we need to understand is the difference between organic matter and organic material. Organic materials are made from plants or animals. Raw pieces of plants, such as tree bark, leaves, coconut hulls, and straw, are organic materials. Composted pieces of plants, such as peatmoss and composted leaves from your trees, are organic materials. Manure, bone meal, blood meal, and feathers are organic materials from animals.
