Synergistic Gardening

What is Synergistic Gardening? A Guide

The History of Synergistic Gardening

Synergistic gardening is one of many different growing systems associated with organic gardening. The system was developed by Emilia Hazelip (Who amazingly was one of the Merry Pranksters that Tom Wolfe immortalized in his book!). However the real originator goes back even further than that: back to 1970’s Japan and the famous writer Masanobu Fukuoka and his book One-Straw Revolution which stressed the benefits of natural gardening (Something that is still known as the Fukuoka method).

The idea is that a garden is best left in as natural state as possible. While this means the usual organic practices such as not using chemicals are important, it also means saying no to manure and fertilizers! This is the first important principle: the garden does not need external inputs to grow.

Mulching

Because of this ‘natural as possible’ approach, mulching is used instead of other techniques. In synergistic gardening the mulch is made with organic materials such as:

  • grass. Usually these are  mixed with leaves to give the plants some aeration. Be careful not to use freshly cut grass as its decomposition may cause too much heating up of your delicate crops. Instead dried grass or slightly dried grass is better.
  • composts
  • leaves. Synergistic gardeners are recommended to avoid larger leaves as this can form a suffocating mat over the plants, however smaller leaves allowed to decay are great for synergistic gardens.
  • parts of plants (bark, wood chips). These are usually applied a couple of inches deep and allowed to decay naturally.
  • dried products (Hay and straw). Both are excellent. Most gardeners have started using salt hay which has a neutral pH, excellent water retention and has protection against weed seeds (Which can often grow in other hays).
  • animal hair (Wool is commonly used). This can be tough and expensive to get in large enough amounts to cover a big garden.
  • Peat moss/ Sphragnum moss. This is every gardeners secret weapon for growing acid-loving plants such as Camellia sinensis, however you will want to be careful if your plant does not survive well in acidic conditions (Ask your garden center).
  • In cooler areas, small rocks and gravel may be used to conserve heat

Once the plants have been planted then there is little that you need to do, so you can sit back and relax: there is no need for tilling, digging or transplanting under this model. Therefore it is best to give your plants as big a ‘head-start’ as possible. This means selecting plants that grow well with each other (Italian herb garden plants are a great example of this).

Otherwise you have little to do. Because synergistic gardening is mostly about creating a mini-ecosystem and letting it run its course you are not even encouraged to get rid of pests as long as their abundance is not too large. The only big problem remains with slugs and gardeners will unfortunately discover that synergistic gardens are beloved by them!

For the true organic grower a synergistic garden is as natural and organic as it gets. Therefore it is something to consider for gardening health benefits. If nothing else, it will give you a great feeling of getting back to nature that is an important part of the gardening experience.