A Beginners Guide For Organic Vegetable Gardening

Organic vegetable gardening is not as difficult as many beginning gardeners believe it is. It is true there is a bit more work and increased attention levels to the details of an organic garden than a regular garden. However, with the proper guidance you will soon discover it’s not anywhere near as difficult as you thought it was.

Assuming you know little to nothing about organic vegetable gardening lets make certain you understand what it is. Quite simply it means you are going to plant your garden without using synthetic fertilizers, for making the vegetable plants grow and chemical pesticides to control the bugs.

To really maximize your garden, regardless if its going to be flowers, herbs, veggies or a mixture of several plants it’s best to have a detailed plan. The best time to formulate your plan is in the fall, right after the fall growing season ends. The reason for this is you will have time to prepare the ground before the spring planting season begins.

Perhaps the most critical thing you must do before anything else is to select the optimum location for your organic garden or for that matter any garden. Your plants will do extremely well if they can receive about six hours of sunlight per day. In almost all cases positioning of your planting area in the southeast part of your ground will give more than adequate amounts of sunshine. Also make sure your ground has easy access to water and the ground has good drainage, to allow water run off and aeration of the ground.

Once the proper location has been determined the next step is preparing the ground where you will be planting. This means it’s time for the physical labor part. You are going to till the ground using a yard fork or a tiller, then get on your knees to start pulling weeds, grass and removing the rocks. To make the weed and grass removal successful you should perform the initial removal, then go back a couple of weeks later and remove any weeds and grass which have grown up in the meantime.

Now it’s time for you to actually determine what your selected ground is going to need, in the way of the proper nutrition to help your vegetables grow. You do need to have the soil tested for the proper ph level. If you’re not sure you would do an accurate job of this take a sample of your soil to your local nursery or garden center and they can do this for you.

Once the testing has been completed by the nursery folks they can tell you exactly what kind of natural fertilizers and pest control product you will need. While you are at the nursery or garden center you should ask their advice on the proper plants and vegetables which will grow best in your treated soil.

This is just the basic things you need to start your organic vegetable gardening project the right way. It has covered the location of the garden, the sunlight exposure, preparation of the ground prior to planting and the proper nutrition your ground will need. Organic vegetable gardening is not as complicated as it seems.

Do You Want An Organic Vegetable Garden

In the simplest of terms, raising an organic vegetable garden is the process of growing healthy vegetables without the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. However, for a better understanding of what organic gardening really means, you have to consider the planted area as part of an overall effort of helping your slice of the environment. Beginning with the soil and replenishing the nutrients used during the growing season with natural products is all part of the effort required for an organic vegetable garden.

People have begun to see the effects that many of the commercial fertilizers and pesticides have their own area. Many plants require nature’s help with germination and bees and other insects are recruited to help this process along. While many of those with an organic vegetable garden have learned that these insects are needed, others continue to use artificial means to turn them away, reducing the potential yield in their garden.

Using plants in your organic vegetable garden that grow well together as well as within the local climate can help. That is not to say that some vegetables that are not native to the climate cannot be grown in an organic vegetable garden, but they will require some additional help to reach their full maturity and potential.

Composting Offers Best Natural Fertilizer

For many with an organic vegetable garden, composting grass clippings, leaves and other organic matter is the most popular method of providing the fertilizer they need. However, their efforts can be interrupted if they use vegetable wastes from other sources that may not have been from an organic vegetable garden. Any synthetic fertilizers or pesticides used in the growth of any food item will remain in the food and subsequently in the compost in which they are used.

The same is true with your grass clippings and if any chemicals were used for weed prevention or to stimulate the lawn’s growth, the clippings used in the compost and deposited in the organic vegetable garden will remain in the compost and grow into the vegetables being grown. Even meat scraps from the table that may be included in the compost pile will have to be from certified organically grown cattle in order to keep the organic vegetable garden free of chemicals.

For those hoping for a true organic vegetable garden, there is not only the work involved of treating the soil and pests in a natural way, but there is also a lot of research of the other products used in the home that can make or break the organic designation of the garden.

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