Total Environment Centre (TEC) today released the ‘Easy Guide to Organic Gardening’ at the showcase of the Integrated Sustainability Education Partnership Program. The new guide provides home gardeners with advice on how to avoid exposing themselves and their families to the harmful chemicals found in many synthetic pesticides, fertilisers and herbicides used in the garden.

The Easy Guide details hazardous garden products and practices to avoid and offers advice and information on choosing safer garden alternatives, such as; buying certified organic products, creating healthy soil, using organic wetting agents and ensuring garden products used are genuinely biodegradable.

Jerry Coleby-Williams, one of Australia’s leading organic gardening experts and Gardening Australia host said, “While chemical garden products have promised a convenient and seemingly effective way of managing pests and boosting growth, the downsides are becoming increasingly apparent. In the past thirty years many of the most popular pesticides used and promoted by gardening experts worldwide have been banned from home use. Once sold as ‘safe’, these pesticides are now subject to global bans because of the serious dangers they pose to our environment and health”.

“We need to get off the pesticide treadmill in the garden and realise that over half of the common gardening problems can be avoided by developing healthy, compost-rich, well-nourished soil and by growing the right plants in the right spot. The key focus of organic gardening is to prevent problems from arising in the first place”, he said.

The Easy Guide which is available as a free download from www.safersolutions.org.au highlights the reasons for avoiding chemicals commonly applied in home gardens and offers information on organic gardening techniques which can create healthy sustainable gardens, do not pose risks to children, pets, wildlife and the environment and which can help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The Safer Solutions website was launched last year and addresses: the home, garden and renovations. The resource is a key component of a collaborative project between TEC and the NSW Environmental Trust, which addresses the growing concern about exposure to hazardous chemicals, and impacts on health and the environment.