Organic vegetable gardening

Organic vegetable gardening is gardening in harmony with the earth, recycling garden wastes into next year's soil, and managing the garden in as natural a manner as possible. An organinc garden requires the minimum outside resources, and releases as little waste to the outside world as possible. This is the most earth-friendly way to grow your vegetable garden.

Organic vegetable gardening follows nature's own practices which is the way to a sustainable back yard garden.

The principles of organic gardening are easy:

• No poisons
  • When pests appear, start with the most benign mechanical methods like hand-picking, water-jetting
  • Encourage predatory insects & birds to the garden
  • Use systematic biological controls (Integrated Pest Management)
• No chemicals
  
  • Chemical fertilizers kill the creatures living in your soil
  • They are short-lived shock treatments
  • Compost your garden wastes to make the perfect replacement fertilizer  to replace the nutrients you need
• Minimum Inputs
  
  • Don't buy fertilizer
    
    • Make compost instead
    • Course materials, tree trimmings become mulch
  • Don't buy toxins
    
    • Use I.P.M.
  • Save water by
    
    • Mulching your garden
      
      • This also retains soluble nutrients in your soil and lessens the need for fertilizing.
      • Prevents salt build-up at the soil surface
    • Installing a garden irrigation drip system
• Reduce, Re-Use and Recycle
  • Compost!
    
  • Wherever possible, use recycled materials in favor of new materials
  • Work that waste-stream!

Integrated Pest Management, a system of garden management that use natural control methods, such as predatory insects, naturally occuring insect diseases (such as Bt, used against tomato and corn worms), or steatgies for breaking the insect or pest's  life cycle. When used with organic practices, IPM allows you to create, or at least encourage, development of a self-regulating garden environment.

Using natural control methods means having a garden free from toxic chemicals. Let the predators take care of the plant-eating pests. Grow healthier soil and you get healthier plants - and you suffer fewer bug and disease infestations as a bonus.

Click here to see a real life case study of predators attacking an aphid outbreak. See how using safe, natural, non-toxic and benign methods produces results.

Organic gardens are also water-wise and independent of chemical fertilizers. A mulch layer reduces weed growth and water evaporation. Composting your kitchen wastes produces a safe, rich food for your soil. Don't throw away a valuable resource and then have to pay to replace it with a non-renewable resource.

This web site has lots of helpful article that will show you how to have a successful organic garden. Please look around...

Here's a "Composting 101" site that also covers the subject in detail.

Another new site loaded with infomation is the  University of California's California Gardening web site. This is the best arranged information from the state agencies...

Here is some non-peer-reviewed off-site reading: These sites are for ideas and may not represent the best practices for this area.

• Starting an Organic Vegetable Garden - Sustainable Kitchen Project ... - I so love the idea of growing my own vegetables, fruit and herbs. There's just one problem. I have the world's blackest black thumb. So for me, starting an organic vegetable garden is a bit like my own version of the Odyssey.

• Tips for Starting an Organic Vegetable Garden - Starting an organic vegetable garden is a great way to provide your family with nutritious, safe vegetables all season long. It can also be a fun hobby that the entire clan can participate in, from sowing the seeds to weeding the crops. ...

• Color Round Up For Fall - Organic Vegetable Gardening. Growing Organic Vegetables Explained! RSS · Home · About · Contact. Pages. Organic Store · Privacy Policy. Categories. Gardening News · General · Harvesting and Storing · Organic Foods · Organic Gardening ...

• Trellised Tomatoes in 1 Square Foot - I was more than a bit skeptical that a large indeterminate tomato plant could be grown in 1 square foot on a vertical frame. Well…I did it and it was great! The plants grew without disease and were easy to manage. ...

• Organic Vegetable Gardening Tips - We all want to stay healthy by eating chemically free, fresh, vitamin filled and natural foods. When we grow our own food, it makes us less dependent on commercially grown foods, which are coated with chemicals and are also quite tasteless. The US Department of Agriculture compiled data that reveals that the mineral levels in vegetables, fruits, dairy and meat has decreased substantially in the foods that are commercially produced.