Growing an Organic Garden

The health benefits alone of producing food that does not contain harmful fertilizers and pesticides should be benefit enough for most people, but there are more benefits to consider such as the fact that organically grown plants give back to the soil instead of depleting it of nutrients. Organic gardens help conserve natural resources, reduce air, water and soil pollution and the food just plain tastes better! An organic garden is best for our environment and for our health.

There have been many strides made over recent years that include using beneficial insects and using natural plant extracts that makes organic gardening a little easier than it was before these strides were accomplished.

The organic fruits and vegetables do tend to grow slower but are full of nutrition, vitamins and have the best anti-stress compounds that are ideal for optimum human health benefits.

The opposite is true of the foods and vegetables grown in gardens that are not organic. Using pesticides and fertilizers has resulted in foods harvested that are low in nutritional value, are toxic and have a negative impact on human health. The materials used in gardens that are not organic cause damage to our environment, erode the soil, causes water pollution and air pollution.

Researchers trying to answer the question as to why cancer rates are increasing have concluded that chemical farming has had a huge impact on the rise cancer rates. When foods are not grown organically they are nutrient deficient, heavy metals cause toxicity in fruits and vegetables, which are directly attributed to the fertilizers and pesticides used in chemical farming.

There can be no doubt that food grown organically is much better than food grown with pesticides and fertilizer (inorganic food). Members of the scientific community have concluded that individuals desiring to improve their intake of vitamins and minerals while reducing their exposure to harmful fertilizers and pesticides should choose fruits and vegetables grown organically whenever possible. A study done in 1977 showed that nutritional value of produce declined drastically since chemicals started to be used in farming.

Scientists have proved that organically grown fruits and vegetables are high in cancer-fighting chemical compounds called phenolic compounds. These compounds are high in anti-cancer, anti-oxidant and in platelet aggregation inhibition activity.

Organically grown food not only does not contain the harmful fertilizer and pesticides but it also does not contain growth hormones, toxic artificial additives like flavoring, coloring or preservatives. All of these added chemicals can cause harm to the human cells. Organic food has its nutrient content intact, tastes better and stores better than inorganically grown food.

Organically grown plants add back to the soil nutrients instead of depleting the soil of nutrients like inorganically plants do.

Organically grown food keeps our environment and our bodies healthy for us and for future generations.

Gardeners who participate in organic gardening do not use synthetic fertilizers or pesticides while growing their plants. Organic gardening is much more about what you are doing than it is about what you do not do when gardening.

Organic gardening is very much a frame of mind. The organic gardener views the garden as a whole system within the nature that surrounds us. The system starts with the soil, includes the water source, the people caring for the garden, the wildlife that visits the garden and it even includes both the insect pests and the beneficial insects that come to the garden. The organic gardener does everything with the purpose of working with nature and in protection of nature so that no harm is done to the environment and the gardener replenishes the resources that the garden uses in the course of each season.

Care is taken of the soil by adding organic matter to the soil after testing to find out what the condition of the soil is prior to preparing the ground. The lawn supplies the organic matter, as well as the garden and kitchen so there are always available raw ingredients to make up the organic matter needed by the garden. Ideal material for your organic matter comes in the form of decaying plant wastes from your garden, grass clippings from mowing your lawn, fall leaves, and vegetable scraps from your kitchen. An organic gardener usually has a compost pile with these gathered raw ingredients as a base for that pile. The organic matter that you add to your soil gives your garden a healthy start.

The next important ingredient after the soil are the plants. Plants for an organic garden need to be healthy or if using seeds you need to choose healthy organically grown seeds. Plants should be selected that are suitable for your climate and location (soil condition). Choosing plants that are local plants will mean less interference needed from the gardener during the growing season. The gardener only needs to supply an ample area of sunshine, an adequate water supply, and natural pest control using beneficial insects. Doing all of these things, soil preparation, plant selection and giving the garden what it needs to grow will insure that your organic garden will have what it needs to be a success.

Building a healthy organic soil:

The key to healthy organic soil is replenishing the nutrients that your plants use each season. Mixing your organic matter from your compost pile into the soil will add back nutrients needed for healthy plants. Nature has cycles, they are birth, and decay and rebirth; which is what organic gardening is about - birthing healthy plants by giving decaying raw materials back to the soil so that it can accomplish the process of rebirth. The important first step in having a healthy soil is doing a soil test.

You can get a test done commercially which will usually include not only the test of your soil composition but also guidelines as to what to do to improve your soil's composition for healthier plants. There are also self-testing kits for soil that you can purchase and run the soil test yourself. The results of the soil test will reveal what not only the composition is but what the soil pH is and what if any nutrients are out of balance in the soil. This information is what you use to prepare your soil for planting. There are many additives besides your own compost, like: organic soil amendments (bonemeal, greensand and rock phosphates), these amendments are all natural sources of nutrients that are perfect for the organic gardener to use.

Healthy Plants

If you are planting young plants instead of growing from seed you will need to check the root base to make sure that there are not any kinked roots. You also want to make sure that the plant is stable and does not have any soft spots or rotten areas. Ask the staff at the nursery where you are purchasing your plants to help you select healthy ones.

Enjoy both the gardening and the results of your organic garden!

Talk to anyone who loves to eat and they will tell you that organically grown veggies are the BEST tasting veggies ever! Why is that, you ask? Organically grown vegetables taste better because they don't have all that chemical fertilizer and pesticide on them. Growing organic vegetables is not difficult to do, in fact most gardeners will tell you that there are simple steps to making the change from chemical gardening to organic gardening. The steps are relatively easy to implement and are not time consuming (well any more so than any other gardening is). Here are some things you can do to get your organic vegetable garden off to a good start.

Planning your organic vegetable garden:

Take the time to plan out your vegetable garden, doing so will save you time, allow you to be better organized and make your garden easier to manage.

Make sure the plot you chose is close to a water supply because the hard work of growing makes veggies awful thirsty!

Put your best face forward!

A vegetable garden should always face south so that it gets plenty of sun. A vegetable garden needs a minimum of 6 hours of sunlight to produce the best crop of vegetables. It is also wise to be sure that there are no obstacles to the sun like trees, or your house!

Other tips:

Rid your garden of weeds before planting. Make sure you do not use any chemical weed killers!

Once the weeds are there you need to pull them by hand. Use a shovel or weeding tool to be sure to get each weed by its root to prevent repeat weeds from cropping up.

You say there has to be a better way? Yes, there is, you can do your best to prevent the weeds from growing in the first place.

Here are some tried and true weed prevention tips:

1. Locate bird feeders away from your vegetable garden as seeds that are left over can sprout unwanted weeds. Locate your bird feeders at least 20 feet away from your vegetable garden plot.
2. Spread used coffee grounds on the ground. Starbucks has great left over espresso grounds, which make a wonderful natural fertilizer that is actually good for the health and grow rates of your vegetable plants. The Starbucks corporate offices actually encourage employees to promote this "freebie" as a way to recycle the coffee grounds. The next time you stop by your neighborhood Starbucks don't forget to ask for the left over coffee grinds to use in your vegetable garden.
3. It is important not to reinvent your weed garden after working so hard to destroy those little buggers, so be sure to rinse off your gloves, clean the tools you used to weed with, clean your knee pads if you used any and don't forget your shoes, they need to be cleaned too. When you rinse or clean your clothing, shoes, tools and equipment after weeding you are ridding them of any weed seeds that may be on them. If you don't rinse and clean you may just be re-depositing the weed seeds in your garden from these items.
4. Spread some good ole cornstarch on the ground to rid your vegetables of weeds. The cornstarch will not harm your plants and it adds nitrogen to the soil, which is like adding a natural fertilizer to the soil that has the bonus of killing the weeds.

Weeds are one of the worse enemies to your organic garden. Weeds will choke the life out of your desired plants as they battle for water, sun and air. Controlling weeds with chemical herbicides is out of the question when organically gardening is involved so the gardener must know and utilize natural weed control measures.

You will need some tools for combating weeds the organic way. The tools you will need to fight weeds are: hoes, mulch, weed barrier mat and a weed knife.

Your first line of defense is to pull any offending weeds by hand, by hoe, or by using a weed knife. Doing it by hand is hard work, but it is the most efficient way to kill weeds. You do need to be sure that you are getting the roots too and not just the weed stem and leaves. After pulling the weeds make those enemies useful and toss them into your compost pile so that they can benefit your garden.

Mulching is an important step to keeping those weeds away. Mulch serves many purposes in an organic garden; preventing weed seeds from germinating, and keeping the surface shaded, and also helping to maintain the moisture level of the soil.

You can use a weed barrier mat before you start to plant. The mat is a physical barrier that will prevent weeds from emerging from the soil.

You can find organic pre-emergent herbicides on most organic gardening retail sites and catalogs.

Special tips for getting rid of weeds from your organic garden:

Using dark colored weed barrier mats will allow you to plant earlier in the season because dark colors absorb heat, resulting in your chilly spring soil getting warmer.

Do not let your weeds gain control by staying on top of them and pulling them while they number in the few rather than waiting until they number in the many. Many weeds can take over your garden easily, a few can be snatched and tossed before they can cause any harm to your plants. Young weeds have not gone to seed yet and older weed plants will go to seed, creating more weed plants for you to have to deal with.

Dampen the soil before pulling the weeds by hand because the weed plant is easier to pull up when the soil is wet. You want to be very careful to get all of the root and not just the stem and leaves of the root plant to prevent the weed from growing back.

Weeds are a fact of life for any gardener to deal with, the organic gardener narrows down the possible tools to use to those that are safe for the environment and the plants in the garden as well as any wildlife that may visit the garden. This narrows the possibilities to the good old-fashioned hand pulling, the use of dark colored weed mats, and organic herbicides. It is important to have a weed defense plan drawn up before planting your garden so that you will know in advance what tools you will need and when to utilize them.