Organic Vegetable Gardening

If you are new to organic vegetable gardening then these tips are essential in making sure that you grow the best vegetables that you can and without having too many problems from bugs and insects.

Click Here for a fool proof method of growing organic vegetables

1 Healthy Soil

Getting the right soil is essential when it comes to organic vegetable gardening so it is important to make sure you mix the soil with a nice compost, this will ensure that the soil has all of the vital nutrients needed for growing your lovely, healthy vegetables.

2 Companion Planting

Growing plants that have a strong scent along side your organic veg can attract the nasty insects away from your vegetables. This is one of my favourite ways of keeping the bugs at bay.

3 Making your own compost

I find that it is so much better to make my own compost out of tea bags, vegetable peelings, bits of newspaper…. basically anything that you would normally just throw away. (within reason of course)

4 Natural Pesticides

Experimenting with natural pesticides can be a very rewarding and a simple way of keeping the bugs away from your vegetables. For example, you could try using a lemon grass plant to repel the mosquito’s, or if you plant garlic around fruit trees, it will repel borers. So if you are having problems with a specific insect or bug then it isn’t too hard to just look up a way of using a natural pesticide to deter them.

5 Wildlife Is Your Friend

While organic vegetable gardening, having an abundance of wildlife is a fantastic way of keeping your vegetables healthy.

These 5 tips will ensure that you are able to produce some fantastic vegetables and not have too many problems with them being nibbled on.

But if you are fairly new to organic vegetable gardening and would like a method of growing delicious vegetables without any of the usual problems organic gardeners face then i would strongly recommend the Food4Wealth program as it completely takes the guess work out of your gardening and is ideal for first time gardeners.

Organic gardening is becoming much more popular in recent years, one of the main reasons for this is because the thought of the mass produced fruit and vegetables that are sprayed with numerous harmful chemicals is not very appealing and people want to look after their bodies by eating organic produce. There are a couple of things that you must make sure that you get right when it comes to organic gardening otherwise most of your crops will unfortunately die or get eaten pretty quickly.

The first of these things is your soil, this is what your plants are going to be getting their nutrients from so failure to get this right will mean your plants will not be able to grow big ad strong as you want them to. Certain plants will need different types of soil so be sure to do a little bit of research on the exact type of soil you will need for all of your crops. As well as getting a good quality soil you should start making your own compost, now this is a fairly straight forward process but it does take a long time and is an all year round project so the sooner you get started with it the better. When your compost is finished it will help with the fertility of the soil in your organic garden and also give your plants everything that they need to be big, strong and more importantly delicious. Plus you will also be doing your bit for the environment because the things that you use on your compost heap will be recycled waste products from your kitchen.

The second important thing to get right when growing your own organic vegetables is making sure that you do not get too many bugs and animals eating all of your lovely crops. This can be done in a couple of different ways. One of my favourite and most effective ways you can do this is by doing some companion planting, if you have never heard of this before then it is basically just a method of growing certain plants in close vicinity of each other that are able to help each other out by repelling the nasty bugs and insects that are going to eat your plants or by attracting good bugs and insects that will help to defend your plants. This is a simple but very effective way of protecting your garden and is certainly important for any organic gardening project.

Organic gardening is certainly worth while and is a great way of feeding your family healthy and delicious food, and if you have young children then they will be more likely to try different fruits and vegetables if they have been involved with growing them so is fantastic in that aspect. So if you have not started growing your own organic food yet you must give it a go and I’m sure that you will absolutely love the results.

by Jonathan White B.App.Sci. Assoc. Dip.App. Sci.

The term Ecological Gardening seems to be gaining popularity.  But what is it?  My experience with Ecological Gardening started many years ago.  You see, I have always been a fence sitter.  As a teenager I could never make my mind up whether I wanted to be a horticulturist or an environmental scientist.  And sometimes I’m still a little unsure!

Fortunately, I have been able to gain qualifications in both.  My specialty is in growing food using ecological principles.  But I’m not talking about some sort of alternative hippie technique.  I’m talking about sound scientific principles.

In my experience, the study of natural ecosystems will reveal everything we need to know about growing food.  Natural ecosystems are generally diverse and there are a number of intricate interdependent relationships occurring between the living and non-living components at any given time.  Put simply, each component relies and benefits from its interaction with other components.  They fuel up on each other, causing the system to be able to sustain itself.  If one part of the system gets ‘out of whack’, the whole system is affected.

When studying a natural ecosystem, such as a diverse pristine rainforest we find that there are many living components co-existing in a given area.  Each of these components occupies a niche space.  If a component, let’s say a plant, is removed by an animal eating it, we are left with an empty niche.  An empty niche provides an opportunity for another life form to fill the space.  In natural ecosystems, nature does not tolerate empty niche spaces.  Once the niche becomes available, there will be a whole host of willing opportunists ready to fill that space.  Dormant seeds, sometimes decades old, will spring to life and quickly try to occupy it.

The same thing happens when we are trying to grow food.  In any agricultural practice, such as a vegetable garden, there are always empty niche spaces.  And remember, nature doesn’t tolerate empty niche spaces.  So weeds will try to fill the empty niche spaces.  Weeds are very good niche space fillers.  They are the ultimate colonizing plants.  So as we can see there is no difference in the way nature works, whether it is in a pristine natural ecosystem or a vegetable garden.

Ecological Gardening aims to create a system where nature works for us, and not against us.  It is actually quite easy to have a weed-free vegetable garden.  You simply do one of two things.  Firstly, you avoid having empty niche spaces.  And secondly, you make sure there is something desirable to fill niche spaces, should they become available.  That’s just one simple example, but Ecological Gardening can easily prevent a number of problems from ever arising.

My experience with Ecological Gardening has been phenomenal.  I have been able to combine natural weed management, soil ecology, pest ecology and crop management into a very simple and easy method.  In fact, I have been able to create a garden that requires very little attention and produces far more than a traditional vegetable garden, simply by applying sound scientific principles.  And from the incredible results that I have achieved, I can say, with absolute certainty, that Ecological Gardening is the way we will be producing food in the future.

Jonathan White is an Environmental Scientist and the founder of the Food4Wealth Method.  For more information see www.Food4Wealth.com

Organic vegetable gardening definitely has a lot of benefits but before you begin your first vegetable garden there are a few things that you need to know. Once you know these basics then you will have a much better chance of success. Read on to find out what I am talking about….

Although there has recently been a big gain in popularity regarding organic vegetable gardening it is surprisingly still a topic that a lot of people do not know much about. In essence organic gardening is very much similar to normal gardening, with the main difference just being the method in which things are done due to not using any chemicals on your crops.

The vegetables are grown using only natural means by taking advantage of all of the nutrients that are already in the soil. In terms of fertilizer organic gardeners will use kitchen and garden waste to make a natural compost. If you are interested in making your own compost then be sure to check out My Guide To Compost

Like any other garden or even more so in fact, pests, insects and weeds can be a real problem. But there are many natural ways of dealing with these pests without too much hard work. Or you can even get 100% natural pesticides these days which get the job done pretty well.

As many people only have a small amount of space available for growing their organic vegetables it is vital that the correct planning should be undertaken to ensure that you are making the most out of the space you have. This should include choosing vegetables that your whole family love and making sure you don’t grow too much otherwise you will have a lot of waste which would be a real shame. One more thing you should check before going ahead with your organic garden is to make sure that the soil in your garden is good and healthy for your veg to grow in.

As you may know, certain vegetables will grow better than others under certain conditions so crop rotation is an important part of any organic vegetable garden. This just means that you plant different vegetables according to season. This way you are able to maximize the space that you have as well as achieving better results..

Organic vegetable gardening is a great way of growing your own healthy and delicious food, If you are a little confused as to which vegetables you want to grow then just think about which vegetables you eat most often. By doing this you will be able to reduce your grocery bill as well as making sure your whole family is eating a healthy diet, what could be better than that?

As you well know, bugs and insects eating your vegetables is one of the biggest problems when it comes to organic vegetable gardening and can be very frustrating and hard to handle, but there are a number of organic pest control measures that you can put in place in order to protect your precious vegetables.

With these tried and tested tactics under your belt you will start beating these nasty bugs and you will have your lovely vegetables back to yourself again in no time at all.

Plant Some Flowers

Believe it or not, there are some insects and bugs that will help protect your vegetables for you by eating the nasty pests, so what you should do is make your garden inviting and welcoming for these friendly insects. The best way to do this would be to plant a variety of different flowers that these particular insects love so they will come and set up home in your garden and be your vegetable bodyguards Some of these flowers include:

Marigold

Daisy

Candy Tuft

Viola

Californian Poppy

Golden Rod

So as you can see there are plenty to choose from as this is just a very small example and there are even certain herbs like Sage, Parsley and Chives (just to name a few) that will help as well which is very handy indeed.

Attract Friendly Wildlife

As well as using flowers in order to attract the friendly insects you should also be doing everything you can to attract other forms of wildlife that will help you protect your precious vegetables. If you have enough room in your garden it would be a fantastic idea to get a pond put in, that way you will attract frogs and dragonflies. Birds are also very helpful when it comes to organic gardening so putting up a bird box and/or bird bath would be also be a good idea. A few of the other animals that are good to have around are:

Centipede

Garden Spider

Hedgehog

Lady Birds

So once you have started attracting this friendly wildlife into your garden you will see a remarkable increase in the health of your vegetables and the best thing about this method is that once you have attracted these animals they will generally stay around as long as you make sure your garden is full of the things that they like.