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Grow your own Organic Vegetables

An organic home vegetable garden can provide many benefits to the home owner.  It not only helps you in terms of health, as gardening can be seen as a form of exercise, organic gardening can also help relieve stress as it gives you the opportunity to switch off from your daily routine and relax in the process.  Other than the physical & mental benefits of organic gardening, the main benefit is the healthy produce you do actually produce.  You will find that your vegetables will start to taste better, will be better nutritionally and reduce you pesticide and chemical intake.  To create and achieve an organic vegetable garden you will need to:

1.   Pesticides - stop applying all pesticides and weed killers to the soil in and around your entire garden.

2.   Location – Location - Location - Find the spot that ideally has sun all year in your yard.  If it is shaded part of the year, that should also be fine, as long as it gets some sun light.

3.   Size doesn’t matter - Start small,  you don’t need a huge garden patch.

4.   Tools – You may be surprised that everything you need can be found in your local garden centre.  You will need some wooden stakes, a shovel, gloves, garden twine and a garden fork.

5.   Clean garden – you will need to remove whatever debris is covering the dirt including rocks larger than a fingernail. If plants or weeds are already growing, remove them & start fresh.

6.   Use Organic Materials – utilise any organic materials you have around the house, including leaves, dried grass clippings, and any other materials by scattering them over your garden.

7.   Compost – Spread a thin layer of good compost (mushroom compost can also be used). By doing this, you will be inoculating your soil with all manner of soil organisms, little bugs, worms and other beneficial life forms that are going to do most of the work for your garden if you give them the chance.  Remember, compost nourishes the microbes, which, in turn, fertilize your plants.

8.   Mulch – is a gardener's best.  Mulch not only helps to suppress weeds, but it also helps conserve water by retaining moisture in the soil. The best materials to  mulch an organic garden are grass clippings, straw or leaves. These materials are handy and they break down and feed your plants and soil as they go.

9.   Use the pick or shovel to mix the top 3 – 4 inches of soil and organic material. Burying the organic material any deeper just kills the critters and wastes your energy.

10.       Keep the soil damp like a wrung out sponge, not soggy.

11.       Avoid soil compacting - never walk on your soil, utilise a board to avoid compacting it. If possible design the garden in a way where you can reach the centre without needing to step on the soil.

12.       Obtain vegetables in 2 - 4" pots. Dig a hole slightly larger than the pot size, remove the plant from the pot, fluff its roots and plant it. Mulch around the plant with additional organic material to keep the soil moist underneath it.

13.       Create your own compost pile in a corner of the garden or use a compost bin. Just toss in all the clean organic material that you can get (including those used within the kitchen) and mix it up occasionally. Apply the compost periodically to the soil around your plants or use it to grow your own seeds.

14.       Late Summer – Many people think that late summer is too late to plant a garden.  The good news is that you can grow warm weather vegetables in late summer.  Mature vegetables and herbs will do well if planted in late summer.  Autumn is a great time to plant greens, such as cabbages, lettuce, spinach or cauliflower. You can start the greens by seed or buy small plants from your local garden centre.