Press Release: Health-conscious Consumers Turn to Organic Gardening for Economical, Healthful Way to Eat and Live

January 6, 2010, Lawrenceburg, Indiana: As more and more Americans embrace the organic lifestyle for healthy living and minimal impact on the planet, they’re turning to organic gardening as a way to provide healthy, organic produce for their families.  Growing an organic garden—especially from seed—is an economical way to raise your own chemical-free fruits and vegetables.  But organic gardening doesn’t begin when you opt for all-natural pest controls in place of the chemical ones—it starts from the very beginning with organic seeds.  Produce isn’t considered organic unless is it comes from plants started with organic seeds certified by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The USDA National Organic Program has very specific requirements for certifying organic seeds.  Among these requirements is that seeds not be genetically modified in a laboratory.  This eliminates the potential for plants to contain the DNA of animals, other plants, bacteria or viruses.  Genetically modified plants are engineered to possess traits desirable by growers, such as resistance to pests, herbicides, harsh environmental conditions, improved shelf life, and increased or newly introduced nutritional value.

Many believe it’s not healthy to eat vegetables that have been genetically altered; others avoid them because of the royalties U.S. farmers must pay to the large patent-owning companies for the right to sow genetically modified seeds, even if the seeds are harvested from the previous year’s crops.

Other requirements for organic seed certification include farmers’ use of all-natural fertilizers and organic pest controls.

U.S. vegetable and fruit producers are turning to certified organic farming systems as a potential way to lower costs, decrease reliance on nonrenewable resources and boost farm income.  Organic farming systems—as well as organic home gardens—rely on ecologically based practices, such as avoiding synthetic chemicals, antibiotics and hormones, and only using certified organic products to control pests and disease.  The result is healthier produce and a reduced impact on our environment.

Gardens Alive!®, a mail-order garden supply company, specializes in environmentally responsible products for the home and garden and features a complete line of organic vegetable, herb and flower seeds.  Gardens Alive! brings consumers more than 100 varieties of organic seeds—many specialty and hard-to-find varieties—including 29 new varieties for 2010.  Here are our top choices, all organic, unique and new for 2010.

An heirloom variety, Giant Sweet Chinese Pepper produces high yields of huge, sweet bell peppers that measure 6 inches long and more than 4 inches across.  Peppers ripen to deep red on compact 24-inch plants.  They’re excellent for stuffing, cooking and in salads.

Use the fully double, creamy-bronze blooms of Calendula Zeolights as an edible garnish for salads, eggs and baked goods.  Just the right size for cottage, kitchen and cutting gardens, Calendula Zeolights grows 12 to 24 inches tall and produces long-lasting cut flowers.

No green bean can match the pencil-thin, stringless gourmet beans of Haricot Vert Maxibel.  A snap bush bean, Haricot Vert Maxibel offers sweet, delicate flavor on 7-inch beans that are best enjoyed fresh.  Upright 24-inch plants produce prolifically and are anthracnose- and bean mosaic virus-resistant.

A rare Asian variety, Satsuki Madori Cucumber produces 10- to 14-inch long slender fruits with tender skin and few seeds.  Delicious and never bitter or tough, Satsuki Madori is quickly becoming our favorite slicing cucumber.  Serve in salads or sliced.

Nematocidal Marigold is a 7- to 10-foot-tall flowering hardy annual that kills root-eating nematodes, repels mosquitoes and keeps down weeds.  Nematocidal Marigold’s roots secrete a natural chemical that kills nematodes where they live and breed.  Its effects work best when the plant is grown as a cover crop and tilled into the soil.  Small, tubular yellow flowers attract beneficial insects, further reducing the need for insecticides.  Nematocidal Marigold reseeds itself readily—choose to deadhead regularly to prolong bloom time or leave seed heads intact for next season’s crop.

For more organic seed varieties from Gardens Alive!, visit www.GardensAlive.com . For more information on Gardens Alive! seeds or products, contact us at publicity@gardensalive.com .

Founded in Sunman, Indiana, in 1984 by founder and owner, Niles Kinerk, Gardens Alive! is a mail order and online gardening supply company that sells all-natural and environmentally safe fertilizers and biological control of garden pests. Based in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, Gardens Alive! distributes catalogs throughout the nation, and maintains a considerable web presence.

Dane Coleman, 937-667-2491 Ext. 3509, publicity@gardensalive.com

Gardens Alive, Inc., 5100 Schenley Place, Lawrenceburg, Indiana 47025