In a typical Pittsburgh living room, a group of women listens intently as Kim Young pitches her products.

	Associated Press Live praying mantises are sold as part of integrated pest management -- using "good" bugs to get rid of "bad" bugs. Click photo for larger image. LISTEN IN: Backyard Gardener Doug Oster chats with The Happy Gardener representative Kim Young and other organic gardening enthusaists.

She's not hawking Tupperware, candles or handmade baskets. She's selling organic gardening products. Ms. Young works for The Happy Gardener, a direct sales company founded three years ago in Virginia.

"We're trying to educate consumers about the importance of improving and enriching the soil rather than just feeding the plant," she said.

Finding natural solutions for garden problems used to be very difficult, but it's getting easier each year. Products are available not only on the Web but also at an increasing number of nurseries and garden centers.

Ms. Young, who lives in Burke, Va., was visiting friends Peter and Maureen Guroff in Mt. Lebanon and planned the party for Mrs. Guroff's gardening friends. The family went organic after Peter was diagnosed with cancer. Now they try to eat organic and garden without chemicals.

The Happy Gardener offers organic fertilizers, pesticides and lawn-care products along with a line of containers and gardening tools that are guaranteed for life.

Because Ms. Young is a naturalist back home in Virginia, she enjoys explaining the benefits of creating a backyard habitat and sells items that help do that. She said birds and bats are natural pest-killers.

"If we're using chemical fertilizers and pesticides, it's very detrimental to them," she said.

The Happy Gardener: www.thehappygardener.info.

Construction Junction: 214 N. Lexington St., Point Breeze, 412-243-5025 or www.constructionjunction.org

Hahn Nursery: 5445 Babcock Blvd., Ross, 412-635-7475.

Soergel's Orchards: 2573 Brandt School Road, Franklin Park, 724-935-2090 or www.soergels.com.

Gardens Alive: www.gardensalive.com or 1-513-354-1482.

For the lawn, The Happy Gardener offers corn gluten, an organic weed-and-feed combination. A byproduct of the corn milling process, it was found to stop seeds from sprouting by drying them out. When it's applied early in the spring (when the forsythia bloom), annual weeds such as crabgrass can't sprout. As a bonus, it provides nitrogen to the lawn.

The Happy Gardener is just one way to find organic products.

Laurie Curl has managed Hahn Nursery for more than 20 years and has been carrying some organics for about 10 years. Each season, she's seen an increase in the demand for natural alternatives.

"It's the overall awareness, between all the TV shows, magazines. People are just learning about them and asking for them," she said.

One of her biggest sellers is insecticidal soap, an organic pesticide that coats the offending bugs and smothers them without harming the plant, other animals or insects.

At Soergel's Orchards and Greenhouse, Randy Soergel said insecticidal soap is his biggest organic seller. Right behind it is a natural weed-killer called Burn Out.

In his greenhouses, he uses a safe alternative to pesticides called integrated pest management. The idea is to introduce "good" bugs to eat "bad" bugs. Mr. Soergel stresses that if you don't see an organic product at your local nursery, ask, and it can easily be ordered.

Construction Junction has long been known as a place to recycle building materials. Now Mindy Schwartz is offering affordable organic products at the Point Breeze store. Ms. Schwartz has sold many of these products through Grow Pittsburgh, a nonprofit that promotes urban farming, and through her own urban farm, Garden Dreams.

One of the most popular products, Plant Pro Potting Soil, comes from Ohio Earth Food in Hartville, Ohio. This is a potting mix that will sustain container plants through the season without additional fertilization.It's also perfect for seed-starting because of the organic fertilizers in the mix. Construction Junction also offers organic fertilizers, pesticides and fungicides and other products that promote sustainability.