So here you are, fashionably green with organic seeds, natural fertilizers, a fresh shipment of live beneficial bugs. What are you planning to do about your dirt?

Good organic gardening starts from the ground up.

"You get the best of everything when you take good, lush soil that will produce the tastiest, healthiest vegetables available," said Jim Gerritsen, who owns and operates WoodPrairie Farm in Bridgewater, Maine.

It's one thing, however, to refine the soil in a large planting bed, where it becomes a seasonal matter of testing, amending and tilling. It's quite another when you want a specific blend for small raised gardens, patio gardens and pots. Then you can dip into the scores of mixes available commercially by the bag.

"Our organic soils are growing very fast as a new product offering — much faster than the average organic product," said Steve Titko, Director of Technical Services, Growing Media, for The ScottsMiracle-Gro Co.

Using natural materials offers better plant nutrition and means you're dealing with a living ecological system, said Frank Morton, a seedsman and plant breeder from Philomath, Ore. Instead of just holding the plant up, organic soil can sustain bacteria, earthworms and "everything functional to the plant and its roots."

———You can contact Dean Fosdick at deanfosdick(at)netscape.net.

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