Organic Gardening
An Organic Garden - Where Do I Begin?
When starting out an organic garden, step back look around your yard. Take notes of the following:-
- Areas get a lot of sun
- Areas shaded all day
- Areas sunlit for part of the day
- Spots tend to be damp all the time
- Areas that dry out very fast
Now use that information to choose the site of your new garden and the plants that will fare well there.
When you select plants that thrive in your conditions, you have to care for them less.
Before you buy the plants, you want to prepare the site. Loosen the soil with a shovel, garden fork and/or tiller 6 to 8 inches deep, and add several inches of compost to it. If the soil is sandy, mix in an extra helping of compost. In most climates, vegetables, fruits and herbs grow best in raised beds, which are built up 4 to 6 inches above the surrounding ground.
Most flowers thrive in raised beds, too. The soil in raised beds drains quickly so plants never sit in water, and the soil warms up fast in spring. You can build a raised bed by adding a lot of organic matter to the soil and fluffing up the soil with a garden fork, then raking soil from the areas that will be paths up onto the beds.
Many gardeners like to enclose their raised beds in wooden or plastic frames; others just mound up the soil. (Please don't frame your garden with what's commonly called "pressure-treated" CCA wood - it contains arsenic and other toxins that can leach into your soil.)
Successful organic gardening requires consideration of many factors, including resistant cultivars, crop rotation, sanitation, incorporation of organic matter, garden location, and insect and disease control.