I was a teenager before I knew there was any type of gardening other than organic. Growing up on my grandfather's farm, I never questioned why the grass was so green and lush, why the fruits and vegetables were so sweet and prolific, or why the egg yolks were so yellow. My grandfather was J. I. Rodale, who in the early 1940s introduced the United States to organic farming.

It was only when I entered the brutal years of junior high school that things got strange-kids made fun of me for being part of that "organic weirdo family." Or they made fun of me because their parents told them I ate only brown rice, tofu, and raw carrots-not true, of course.

As I grew older, I realized that people are afraid of things they don't know about-things such as organic farming and gardening. We are all creatures of our upbringing. However, some of our learned habits, such as applying fertilizer and pesticides to our gardens and lawns, can leave a toxic legacy for our children. You owe it to yourself, your family, and the environment to change these habits, and you can begin in your own backyard.

You don't have to be a gardener to practice the basics of organic gardening. Start by considering your lawn. The average American suburban lawn is deluged with chemical pesticides. More than 70 million pounds of pesticides are applied to lawns in the United States each year. In 1995 homeowners spent more than $1.9 billion on pesticides for their homes and gardens. And the poisons that you apply to your lawn and garden will stay around a lot longer than you will, which means that future generations will inherit more than your favorite china.

In the 1940s, my family found out that our yard was contaminated by lead from a gasoline station and car-painting factory next door. We had to dig up a foot of the soil and have it removed to a hazardous-waste dump. If we hadn't cleaned it up, we would have been creating problems for ourselves and for anyone who lived there after us.

For a fabulous lawn that even your neighbors will love, here's all you have to do: Plant a native variety of grass in soil enriched with compost, which adds all the nutrients you need. Cut the grass to about three inches high (longer than the norm) so that it can develop a strong, deep root system.

Water the lawn occasionally, but only if you must. Most people over water their lawns, so the chemicals that remain on the grass wash into our rivers and streams, killing fish. The chemicals then go back into our water system, which we draw on to drink. Pesticides are also subject to vapor drift; that is, they are transported by air to other areas.

Fertilize your lawn-but only if it looks limp and pale and seems to need nutrients-by topping it with fresh compost and running over it with your lawn mower. Also, consider shrinking the size of your lawn by planting more shrubs and trees for wildlife.

Next, learn to live with bugs. This planet could survive without people, but it needs ants and bees. Ants aerate the soil and circulate nutrients even more than earthworms do. Honeybees tap 2 million flowers and fly 55,000 miles to make a pound of honey. In the process, they pollinate most of our fruits, vegetables, herbs, and flowers.

When you're faced with a mysterious invasion of bugs, it's tempting to think that a little bit of pesticide here or there won't matter. But pesticides don't kill only the bugs that you think are causing trouble; they also kill the ones that help you. I look at bugs as messengers. Beneficial insects have a job to do, and often their job is to eat and decompose diseased or malnourished plant material. If you have a bug problem, it's a symptom of a greater problem. Maybe your soil needs compost. Maybe you have been planting the same thing in the same place for too long. Maybe you planted things in the wrong place to begin with. Whatever your problem, get to the root of it; don't kill the messenger.

Finally, if you garden organically and observe and commit to learning from nature, you can't help ending up with a profound faith in nature and a respect for the role that each creature performs. So plant flowers for the bees, let the ants roam free, and listen to what the bugs are trying to tell you about your plants and your garden.

We all have a responsibility to do what we can to make the world a better place. For me there is no greater joy than going outside on a summer evening after work and lying in the warm grass with my kids. With a clean lawn and a clean yard, I can do so with a clean conscience. I have faith that I am doing the right thing for myself, for my family, and for nature. You can, too.

Maria Rodale is the vice-chairwoman of Rodale Press and the author of Maria Rodale's Organic Gardening (1998).

By Ellen Phillips

In the past 50 years, the organic-gardening movement has contributed thousands of tips and techniques to gardeners everywhere. Here are 20 of the most enduring.

1. Make and use compost.

Compost is a wonderful way to recycle kitchen and yard wastes and enrich your garden while keeping trash out of the landfill. Just heap grass clippings, shredded leaves, vegetable and fruit scraps, shredded newspaper, and other organic materials (no meat or fat, please) in a pile, and let it rot. In a year or less, you'll have rich, crumbly, odor-free organic fertilizer for your plants.

2. Mulch.

Mulching retains soil moisture, so you don't have to water as often; it suppresses weeds and keeps the soil warm longer, extending your growing season; it enriches the soil as it breaks down; and it makes your garden look better. To mulch, cover the bare ground in your garden bed with a layer of shredded leaves, newspaper, grass clippings, pine needles, compost, or other organic material.

3. Don't treat your soil like dirt.

Healthy soil is alive with microorganisms that break down organic matter to release plant nutrients; earthworms and other small creatures that aerate the soil as they burrow and enrich it with their droppings; and tiny feeder rootlets, in-visible to the naked eye, which bring nutrients into the plant. Rather than compacting the soil with heavy machinery and dousing it with toxic chemicals, treat it gently with hand tools, work in the paths rather than stepping on garden beds, and apply healthy doses of organic matter like compost.

4. Rotate your crops.

Pests and diseases can build up when you grow the same crop in the same area year after year. By alternating crops, you don't give pest and disease populations a chance to grow.

5. Try companion planting.

A big planting of a single crop like corn practically shouts at pests -- from earworms to raccoons -- "Eat me, eat me!" But when you plant squash and beans in the same plot with your corn, pests are confused and can't recognize the smell, appearance, and other allures of each crop as easily. As a result, you protect all three crops. Growing herbs and other aromatic plants like marigolds with your crops also throws pests off the scent. Adding nectar-producing flowers attracts beneficial insects to fight pests for you.

6. Use foliar feeding for a quick fix.

When your plants need a fast-acting boost, spray nutrient-rich liquid seaweed, compost tea, or manure tea directly on the leaves. The nutrients will be absorbed into the plants' tissues immediately, resulting in perkier plants in a matter of hours. To make compost tea or manure tea, fill a five-gallon bucket half full of finished compost or well-rotted manure, top it off with water, and stir daily until the liquid looks like dark tea. Strain out the solids, and apply them to the garden as mulch.

7. Conserve water.

Don't waste water and weaken your plants by watering them with a handheld hose or a sprinkler -- you'll lose a lot of water to evaporation and encourage shallow rooting, which makes plants more susceptible to drought. Instead, use water-conserving soaker hoses or drip irrigation, which directs water to the plants' roots.

8. Invite garden allies to call your yard home.

There's a whole world of creatures that are ready, willing, and able to help you in your fight against garden pests. You just have to invite them in. The easiest way is through water -- set out a birdbath on a pedestal and one on the ground, and watch pest-eating birds, beneficial insects, and toads come around. Put up a bat house, and get some real pest-eating power -- a bat consumes thousands of insects every night. Beneficial insects love plants with flat flower heads, like dill, fennel, Queen Anne's lace, and yarrow.

9. Discover heirloom flowers, fruits, and vegetables.

These plants were originally developed or selected because they grew well in a particular place, had incredible flavor or fragrance, looked fantastic, or served a specific purpose (like cider apples). Today, when most plants are developed to withstand the bumps and bruises of shipping rather than for quality, heirlooms are a real find for the backyard gardener. Check specialty seed catalogues or join the Seed Savers Exchange (319-382-5990) for a wide selection.

10. Use tricks, traps, and homemade treatments to fight pests.

When you do encounter pests, don't spray. Netting, sticky traps, shiny strips, beer bait, soap, oil, and garlic—hot pepper spray are just a few of the safe organic tools at your disposal.

11. Fight plant diseases with vinegar and baking soda.

As with fending off pests, simple ingredients from your pantry are effective disease-fighters if you catch symptoms early. Among these are a tablespoon of vinegar or baking soda (or both) in a gallon of water. Compost and rhubarb-leaf tea are other safe ingredients.

12. Grow disease-resistant varieties.

Check seed catalogues for resistant varieties of crops such as tomatoes and cucumbers. Nurseries often sell alternatives for flowers that are notoriously plagued by a disease -- black spot on roses or powdery mildew on phlox or bee balm, for example. (For these three plants, resistant varieties include Stanwell Perpetual, Madame Plantier, and rugosa roses; David phlox; and Marshall's Delight bee balm.)

13. Raise your beds.

Growing plants in raised beds rather than at ground level has many advantages. Drainage is improved. Paths are easy to find, so the soil in the beds is less likely to be compacted by feet. And perhaps most important, if your native soil is solid clay, hopelessly rocky, sandy, swampy, acidic, or otherwise impossible, you can create a custom soil for your raised bed that provides an instant fix. Gardeners in the desert Southwest, where raised beds would fry, may instead want to try a sunken bed to retain moisture and cool air.

14. Cover up.

Nature abhors a vacuum -- in this case, bare soil. Savvy organic gardeners grow cover crops, also called green manure, in their unused plots. These leafy crops -- including alfalfa, clover, annual rye, and buckwheat -- grow rapidly, outcompeting weeds. They prevent erosion. And when you turn them into the soil at the end of the season or the following spring, they add organic matter and nutrients, building better soil and rejuvenating your garden.

15. Try a chicken tractor.

Small livestock, such as a few chickens or rabbits, can make a real contribution to your garden. Rabbits produce nitrogen-richmanure, which can be applied around plants, worked into beds at the end of the season, or added to the compost pile all year. If you let chickens range from garden bed to garden bed in a movable wire cage called a chicken tractor, they'll eat pests and weed seeds, loosen the soil, and deposit nitrogen-rich fertilizer at the same time.

16. Diversify.

The more diverse your plantings, the richer your rewards. Don't just grow carrots -- try three kinds of carrot, and have a family taste test. (Next year, pit the winner against two more varieties.) Grow a range of strawberry, blueberry, or raspberry varieties so you'll have berries from the earliest possible moment to the end of the season. Enrich your garden with herbs and flowers to attract beneficials and confuse pests. Spice up your landscape with a mix of trees, shrubs, ground covers, and vines for visual interest and to attract wildlife. Add a water garden and delight in the beauty of visiting birds, the call of resident frogs, and the flash of fish. Instead of planting the usual shade trees, choose fruit trees for beauty in flower and bountiful crops.

17. Stretch your seasons.

Don't be daunted by a late spring or the threat of winter. You don't need to head South or invest in an energy-eating heated greenhouse to enjoy crops both earlier and later than your neighbors do. Instead, rely on solar power and a few simple devices like cold frames, row covers, cloches, growing pits, or a simple unheated greenhouse. Grow crops and varieties that can take the cold, such as salad greens, cole crops like kale and brussels sprouts, and root crops like carrots and parsnips. Use raised beds and dark mulch to warm up the soil.

18. Buy good tools.

You don't need a shedful of tools to have a great garden. But when you purchase tools, choose them carefully and buy the best ones you can afford. Tops on many gardeners' lists are good gloves, a cherished weeder, and sharp pruners. My top three are my beloved rustproof trowel, garden fork, and poacher's spade (a narrow-bladed model that's great for working in between plants).

19. Go native.

Native plants help preserve natural diversity and add beauty to a garden. (Consider the spring wildflower display.) They are already regionally adapted, so they'll thrive in your landscape with no fuss. Often pest- and disease-free, they provide food and shelter for native wildlife. Mix native plants in your ornamental beds and borders, or create a woodland or meadow garden especially for native plants. But be responsible -- when you buy native plants, make sure they're nursery-propagated and not dug from the wild.

20. Get the big picture.

As a homeowner and a gardener, you're responsible for caring for your piece of the earth. One way to start is to look at your yard as a whole, not each garden area as an isolated unit. How do the pieces of your landscape fit together? Have you provided sheltering corridors of trees, shrubs, and other plants so that birds and other wildlife can travel through your property unmolested? Are you avoiding the use of toxic chemicals? Once you begin seeing your whole yard as a garden, you've developed an organic perspective. Organic gardening isn't about "us and them" -- us and pests, us and wildlife, us and weeds, our yard and other people's yards. As responsible gardeners, we must recognize that our actions and our choices link all of us together.

Ellen Phillips is the executive editor of garden books at Rodale Press and the coauthor of Rodale's Illustrated Encyclopedia of Perennials.