For three generations, the name Rodale has been synonymous with gardening practices that use traditional methods. Traditional, that is, before the invention of chemical fertilizers, manufactured pesticides and other artificial additives.

        In the olds days, plants were fed with compost, fish emulsion, bone meal, “manure tea” and other natural sources of nutrients. Weeds were controlled with regular cultivation, mulching or dense planting to discourage weed germination. Insects were washed off plants with water, hand-picked or generally ignored unless they were a major deterrent to plant health.

Rodale

        “It all makes so much sense,” says Maria Rodale, the third generation of this family to promote chemical-free gardening. “If we put chemicals on our gardens, in our soil, we affect our pets, our children, ourselves. Why would we want to do that?”

        Ms. Rodale, vice chairman of the Rodale Institute board and president of its Organic Living Division, will speak 11 a.m. next Saturday at the Cincinnati Flower Show in Ault Park.

        In her book, Maria Rodale's Organic Gardening (Rodale; $35), she remembers as a child observing her grandparents and parents experiment with chemical-free gardening. In a section called the “Organic Family Tree of Philosophies,” she combines her family's beliefs with the concepts of five notable organic gardening pioneers:

        • Rudoph Steiner's mystical, spiritual and holistic approach.

        • Masanobu Fukuoka's emphasis on less human effort and more of nature's way.

        • John Jeavon's biointensive method and the John Seymour self-sufficiency method for high-yield, small-scale garden farming. These are based on old, rural lifestyles of Europe and Africa, often using animals, people and gardening as a part of the cycle of nature.

        • Bill Mollison's permaculture method suggesting that backyard gardening is only the beginning of the organic issue: We need to look at integrating home design, energy usage, water usage and waste streams with how we grow, raise and consume food for the planet.

        Ms. Rodale calls organic gardening a lifestyle choice. As the editor of Organic Style, a new magazine to be published this fall, she and her staff will encourage readers to make more organic choices in their lives and become a part of the new lifestyle emerging among those who are concerned about making the right choices for themselves, their families and the environment.

        “It will feature food, health and beauty, travel, home design, decorating,” she says — and “suggestions for a more spiritual way of living.”

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