At a turfgrass conference at the Rhode Island Convention Center last month, Michael Polak, right, and John Kelly show products from the Portland, Maine, composting company where they work.

The Providence Journal / Mary Murphy

AKRON, Ohio — When Mark Roesner started working at Copley Feed & Supply in 1969, only the rare individualist was interested in its organic gardening products.

Today, those products are in demand.

With news stories highlighting environmental issues and celebrities embracing eco-friendly lifestyles, more gardeners appear to be turning their backs on synthetic chemicals. “It’s just concern for the environment,” said Roesner, who now owns the Copley Township, Ohio, store with his wife, Nancy.

Surveys bear out the trend. One study conducted in 2005 by Organic Gardening magazine and the National Gardening Association showed the United States has 5 million dedicated organic gardeners and another 7 million who use organic methods but still turn to chemicals sometimes. Another survey by Horticulture magazine determined 69 percent of its readers garden organically to some extent, while 14 percent have gone chemical free.

Why the change in attitude?

Scott Meyer, editor of Organic Gardening, credits in part the growth of the organic food business. People see the array of organic and natural items on their grocery-store shelves and think, “If my dairy farmer is doing this ... then maybe it’s not such a weird thing to do in my backyard,” he said.

Star power has helped, too, he said. When Sheryl Crow decries toilet-paper excess and Leonardo DiCaprio tools around in a Prius, people want to emulate their environmental concern. And one way average folks can do that is by thinking twice about what they put on their gardens and lawns.

Garden writer Doug Oster thinks kids are a prime motivator, too. As gardeners become parents or grandparents, concern for children’s health drives many to seek organic alternatives, said Oster, a garden columnist for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette who wrote the book Grow Organic with horticulturist Jessica Walliser.

Whatever the reason, “There are fewer people who think it’s fringy ... [who have] the perception, ‘Oh, you must be some kind of fanatic,’ ” Meyer said.

Not surprisingly, retailers have responded. More organic fertilizers, weed-control products and pesticides are available than ever. These aren’t just little-known brands limited to specialty stores, either. Big names such as Scotts and Miracle-Gro have organic products, and Home Depot introduced a broad selection last year. .

In many cases, the products have become easier to use. Instead of having to buy individual treatments such as bone meal or greensand, gardeners can buy products that are a blend of natural ingredients, Roesner said.

He worries, however, that some gardeners might pay less heed to the application instructions on organic products because they believe them to be benign. “They think organic means safe, and that’s not always the case,” he said.

Granted, it’s harder to overdo it with organics, but it’s still possible. Roesner likened them to water: In general it’s a good thing for humans, he said, but as the California water-drinking contest proved last year, too much can kill you.

The potential for overdosing underscores one of Roesner’s and Meyer’s points: Organic gardening isn’t just about picking up a few natural products at the big-box store and expecting instant results. It’s a way of life. Gardening with natural methods requires developing a different mindset, they said. It requires becoming attuned to nature and learning how it takes care of living things by itself.

They said organic gardening entails choosing a long-term solution over a quick fix, a targeted treatment over a sweeping attack. It means changing expectations and accepting imperfection.

That doesn’t mean organic gardening has to be an all-or-nothing proposition, Roesner said. For most backyard gardeners, using both natural and synthetic treatments is fine. “They both have pluses, without a doubt,” he said.

Nevertheless, one of the central tenets of organic gardening is identifying the cause of a problem and treating only that cause. That involves a learning curve, Oster said.

Gardening organically entails a lot of education, Oster said — about pests, about diseases, about how to improve the soil and care for plants properly. But he and Walliser argue in their book that the satisfaction that comes with little successes makes gardeners crave more information, so learning is a pleasure, not a chore.

Making the switch isn’t always easy. Soil that’s been fed with chemical fertilizers contains a lot of salt, Meyer noted, which discourages microorganisms and other living things. Returning the soil and the plants that grow in it to good health can take two or three years, he said, and your results in the meantime will probably be less than impressive.

Luckily, plenty of resources are available to help you learn. Personnel at garden centers and stores that carry a lot of organic products can be good resources, Roesner said. So can books and online sources (Meyer, of course, touts his magazine’s Web site, www.organicgardening.com).

And Roesner noted that extension services are adept at providing thorough information in a usable manner. The Ohio State University Extension has fact sheets online at http://ohioline.osu.edu. Making the change takes effort, but the organic gardeners said the eventual result is healthier plants that don’t require a lot of products and treatments.

“It’s easier, it’s cheaper, and you’re going to have a better garden,” Oster said.Give it time

In organic gardening, change doesn’t happen overnight.

Switching to natural methods requires patience, since time is needed for soil to rebuild and plants to develop their own defenses, Doug Oster and Jessica Walliser point out in their new book, Grow Organic.

They recommend this step-by-step approach in making the transition:

1. Concentrate on the soil first. Building healthy soil through such organic means as adding compost will help plants become more vigorous, reducing the need for chemicals.

2. Learn how to make your plants better able to fend off pests and diseases. This involves building the soil, encouraging beneficial insects, feeding the plants a healthy diet and maintaining good horticultural practices.

3. Raise your tolerance of bugs, both good and bad. Learn enough so you don’t panic at the first signs of an infestation, but instead know when and how to respond.

4. Learn how to care for your plants appropriately — prune and stake plants correctly, keep the garden free of debris, mow to the correct height and so on.

5. Pay attention to Mother Nature. Learn about natural cycles and processes, so you know when and under which conditions problems are likely to arise. That way, you can prevent those problems rather than react to them.

6. Eliminate synthetic chemicals. Now that your garden’s healthier and you’ve developed some know-how, you can make the break.What to use

Here are some favorite products of organic gardening advocates Doug Oster, Scott Meyer and Mark Roesner:

• Corn gluten meal, a byproduct of corn milling that can be used on the lawn for pre-emergent control of crab grass, dandelions and other weeds. It works by preventing seeds from germinating, so timing is critical.

• BurnOut II, a weed and grass killer made from vinegar, clove oil and other ingredients. It’s good for spot-treating weeds in sidewalk cracks, mulched beds and fence lines.

• Blended fertilizers such as Re-Vita, made by Hartville’s Ohio Earth Food Inc., and fertilizers made by Espoma (Plant-tone, Holly-tone, Bulb-tone, Rose-tone, etc.). These are blends of natural ingredients combined to provide a complete plant food. They contain trace elements that result in tastier food crops and healthier plants.

• Insecticidal soap. This product kills a number of soft-bodied insects, including aphids, mealybugs, mites, earwigs and grasshoppers, but it must come in contact with the insect while it’s still wet. It can be used on vegetables right up to harvest.

• Horticultural oils. These oils kill aphids, mealybugs and some scales, and they’re good for killing overwintering insects or eggs. Some formulations also control powdery mildew and botrytis. Although the oils are usually petroleum based, they’re generally considered acceptable for organic gardening. They should be applied in early spring before bud-break.

• Cockadoodle Doo products. The lawn and garden fertilizer is made from dehydrated, pasteurized chicken manure, and it’s granular and odor-free. The pre-emergent weed killer is made from corn gluten meal.

• Safer Brand Caterpillar Killer. It contains Bacillus thuringiensis, a bacterium commonly known as BT, which kills tent caterpillars, gypsy moths, cabbage loopers and tomato hornworms.

• Neptune’s Harvest, liquid fertilizer made from fish-processing waste and seaweed.

• Merrill’s All-Natural Compost Tea, a liquid fertilizer made from poultry compost and other organic ingredients. Meyer recommends it for containers, hanging baskets and houseplants.