Organic Gardening

Start Your Own Organic Vegetable Garden

Organic gardening is easily within the grasp of any green-fingered wannabe who want to grow your own vegetables and fruit.

It is widely accepted that vegetables are good for your health and as such should form part of our everyday eating habits.

Organically produced vegetables (grown naturally without the use of pesticides and with only natural fertilizer) are even healthier still.

However, buying organically grown vegetables can cost more.

Therefore, the solution to this dilemma of course is for you to start an organic garden of your own.

It is very easy to do and can be fun for both you and the kids.

Everybody knows that kids love nothing better than digging around in the dirt.

So, let them plant some veggies as well and enjoy watching their own plants grow.

Think Of Your Health And The Environment

These days, people are more aware of their health and environment.

We all know that pesticides and fertilizers can do more harm than good.

That is why organic vegetable gardening has become the favored option for gardeners the world over.

Yes, we know that by using these chemicals, farmers can produce larger vegetables quicker than nature intended.

But, sometimes we need to take a harder look at whether a faster turnaround for harvesting these chemically enhanced vegetables is worth the potential threat to our health, by the chemicals used to make this possible.

For centuries, farmers have relied on irrigation and mother nature to supply the sunlight required for growing organic vegetables.

This is the way nature intended our plants to be grown, and that very idea is making a huge resurgence.

Because organic gardening is such a simple concept (requiring only the very basic elements of soil, water and sunshine) people are coming to realize that they can easily attempt to grow their own vegetables at home, in their very own organic garden.

If you think this kind of idea may be of interest to you, but you are unsure of which plants you could grow, well let me give you a few ideas.

You could start with potatoes and carrots, broccoli, onions and cabbage, the list is by no means exhaustive.

You are only limited by your own imagination… and possibly the size of your garden.

The only real restriction is that certain plants will only grow during certain seasons throughout the year.

You must make sure that your garden offers sufficient drainage to grow the vegetables.

If not, one alternative may be to use raised beds to grow them in.

Research is key here, but don’t sweat it.

If you are unsure, you can always ask your local county cooperative extension service which they would advise.

Protect Your Organic Vegetable Garden From Pests

Once you have made your purchase, your next step is to go home and plant the seeds in your brand new organic vegetable garden.

From now on, your new job title is “The Protector”.

It is your job to ensure that nothing harms your little “babies” until it is time to harvest them.

Threats to your plants will come in many guises such as, animals, pests and weeds.

The best deterrents against animals eating your plants are to put up fences around your organic vegetable garden and; also to place animal hair and/or perfumed products such as baby powder and soap thereabouts.

Actively encourage birds and other insects into your garden to eat the pests before they damage your vegetables.

If you have a small pond, you could also place toads into your garden as they will keep your garden pest free.

The best way to avoid getting weeds is to sow varying types of plants closely in between each other in the garden.

If any weeds make their way through, you should simply pull them up.

If you prefer, you could always utilize mulching as a preventative measure.

This is a mixture of garden compost, leaf molds, manure and chipped bark.

See our related articles for effective mulching techniques.

Growing Organic Vegetable Indoors

Obviously, there is another way to avoid pests and that is for your organically grown vegetables to be planted indoors.

Tomato plants are the perfect example as they can be grown in a wooden, clay or plastic container.

It is worth mentioning that if you are using these containers, soil alone does not contain enough nutrients for growing organic vegetables.

A mixture of vermiculite, perlite and peat would be more beneficial.

If you are going to grow your plants indoors, you must not forget to give them sunlight and a daily watering.

You could place them outside for their daily quota of sunshine, weather permitting, and just bring them in by late afternoon/early evening before the temperatures drop.

If the weather is too cold to put them outside, you could just place them in a south or western facing window.

Benefits Of Organic Vegetable Gardening

Finally, it is worth mentioning that although buying seeds from a store may be slightly more expensive, you could save money by growing your own and let it go to seed.

And if you have enough space, possibly make some money by selling your seeds at local markets or other homesteaders.

So, having your own organic vegetable garden can be beneficial to both your health, and also to your pocket.