Gardening is the practice of growing and cultivating plants as part of horticulture. In gardens, ornamental plants are often grown for their flowers, foliage, or overall appearance; useful plants, such as root vegetables, leaf vegetables, fruits, and herbs, are grown for consumption, for use as dyes, or for medicinal or cosmetic use.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to organic gardening and farming:
The organic movement broadly refers to the organizations and individuals involved worldwide in the promotion of organic food and other organic products. It started during the first half of the 20th century, when modern large-scale agricultural practices began to appear.
Sir Albert Howard was an English botanist. His academic background might have been botany. While working in India he was generally considered a Pathologist; this more than likely being the reason for his consistent observations of the value of compost applications being an increase in health(of the whole system). Howard was the first Westerner to document and publish the Indian techniques of sustainable agriculture. After spending considerable time learning from Indian peasants and the pests present in their soil, he called these two his professors. He was a principal figure in the early organic movement. He is considered by many in the English-speaking world to have been, along with Rudolf Steiner and Eve Balfour, one of the key advocates of ancient Indian techniques of organic agriculture.
Rodale, Inc. was an American publisher of health and wellness magazines, books, and digital properties. Rodale was headquartered in Emmaus, Pennsylvania and maintained a satellite office in New York City. It published health and wellness lifestyle magazines, including Men's Health and Prevention. The company published a collection of bestsellers, including An Inconvenient Truth and Eat This, Not That.
Organic horticulture is the science and art of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, or ornamental plants by following the essential principles of organic agriculture in soil building and conservation, pest management, and heirloom variety preservation.
Jerome Irving Rodale was a publisher, editor, author, playwright and founder of Rodale, Inc. He was an early advocate of sustainable agriculture and organic farming in the United States. As an author, his work included several magazines and books, including books featuring different authors, on the subject of health. He popularized the term "organic" as a term for growing food without pesticides. Rodale also published works on other topics, including The Synonym Finder.
Traditional farming was the original type of agriculture, and has been practiced for thousands of years. All traditional farming is now considered to be "organic farming" although at the time there were no known inorganic methods. For example, forest gardening, a fully organic food production system which dates from prehistoric times, is thought to be the world's oldest and most resilient agroecosystem. The industrial revolution introduced inorganic methods, most of which were not well developed and had serious side effects. An organic movement began in the 1940s as a reaction to agriculture's growing reliance on synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. The history of this modern revival of organic farming dates back to the first half of the 20th century at a time when there was a growing reliance on these new synthetic, non-organic methods.
Ehrenfried Pfeiffer was a German scientist, soil scientist, leading advocate of biodynamic agriculture, anthroposophist and student of Rudolf Steiner.
Rodale Institute is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit that supports research into organic farming. The Institute was founded in 1947 by entrepreneur J.I. Rodale in Emmaus, Pennsylvania. When J.I. Rodale died in 1971, his son Robert purchased 333 acres and moved the farm to its current site in Kutztown, Pennsylvania.
Robert David Rodale was an American adherent of organic farming, regenerative agriculture, and gardening and a publisher focused on health and wellness lifestyle magazines and books. Rodale was the founder of the Lehigh Valley Velodrome.
Smithson–McCall Farm is a 256.3-acre (103.7 ha) historic district in Bethesda, Tennessee. The farm was listed under the National Register of Historic Places in 2007. The listing claims that the property "documents the impact of the progressive agricultural movement of the early twentieth century on the operations and landscape of a middle-class family farm," and includes an "architecturally significant group of buildings and structures, placed within an agricultural landscape of high integrity...that represents a good example of farmstead architecture in Middle Tennessee and that reflects the impact of the Progressive Farm movement of the early twentieth century".
Maria Rodale is an American businesswoman and author. She is the former chief executive officer and chairman of Rodale, Inc., a publisher of health, wellness, and environmental content. She is the third generation of the Rodale family to lead the company, which was founded by her grandfather J. I. Rodale in 1930 and later led by both her father, Robert Rodale, and mother, Ardath Rodale.
Siegfried's Dale Farm, also known as the Rodale Research Center or Rodale Institute, is a historic home and farm complex located in Maxatawny Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania. The property includes 13 contributing buildings and 1 contributing structure. They include three houses built between 1790 and 1827, the John and Catherina Siegfried Bank barn, calving barn, two small barns, corn crib, Henry Siegfried Bank barn, spring and rendering house, one-story brick school house (1906), smokehouse, and carriage house. The John and Catherina Siegfried house (1790) is a 2+1⁄2-story, four-bay, rubble stone house with a slate gable roof. The Henry Siegfried house (1827) is a 2+1⁄2-story, five-bay, rubble stone house in the Georgian style. The Johannes Siegfried house (1790) is a 2+1⁄2-story, four-bay, sided rubble stone dwelling with a three-bay Victorian porch. Moravian settler Johannes Siegfried acquired the property in 1732. The property remained in the Siegfried family until shortly before it was acquired in 1971 by The Rodale Institute.
The Hopewell Farm, also known as Lower Farm and Hopedell Farm, is a historic home and farm located at 1751 Valley Road in Valley Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania. The 500-acre farm complex has six contributing buildings, one contributing site, and six contributing structures. The buildings and property were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2010.
South Brook Farm, also known as the Charles A. Higgins Estate and New Bolton Center for Veterinary Medicine, is a historic estate located in East Marlborough Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania. The original section of the house was built in 1717, and expanded in the 19th century. In 1940, it was modernized and enlarged by architect R. Brognard Okie in the Colonial Revival style. Also on the property are a former stable or carriage house transformed into a cottage and photographic studio; an English bank barn; early 20th century terra cotta silo; and one-story garage (1940).
Mountain View Farm, also known as Spencer Plantation and Mountain View Farm at Rebec Vineyards, is a historic home and farm located near Clifford, Amherst County, Virginia. The property includes an 18th-century mansion, built about 1777, a 19th-century cottage and five other supporting buildings. The main house is a standard timber frame, two-story, three bay, I-house with a rear ell addition. It is sheathed in weatherboard with end chimneys. It was moved to its present site in 1831. The cottage is a one-room building with a lean-to shed addition. It was originally used as a doctor's office by Dr. Paul Carrington Cabell, and probably dates to the 1830s or 40s. Also on the property are the contributing well house, a playhouse, a smokehouse, an ice house, carriage house, and a chicken coop. The property has been home to Rebec Vineyards since 1987.
The Isaac M. Raymond Farm, now Uphill Farm, is a historic farm property on North Bridgewater Road in Woodstock, Vermont. The farm is the reduced core of a larger farm property accumulated in the first half of the 19th century by Isaac Raymond, and revived as a gentleman's farm in 1940. The property includes an altered 1805 Cape style farmhouse and 20th-century Colonial Revival farm buildings. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993.
Knoll Farm, also formerly known as McLaughlin Farm, is a historic farm property at 700 Bragg Hill Road in Fayston, Vermont. The farm has seen agricultural use since 1804, and the patterns of use are evident in the surviving farm buildings and landscape. The property, is still actively farmed and also used as a retreat center and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.
