Organic gardening is a fancy word describing food grown without pesticides and harmful toxins. Thousands of years ago, people grew their vegetables the natural way, and they did not call it organic gardening.

Whether this is your very first garden or you have been gardening for years, it is never too late to discover the joys of growing your own vegetables. You can save money by growing your own organic vegetables. Grow enough to freeze or can and you’ll have extra food for the winter.

Have Healthy Plants

Every great garden starts with healthy plants and rich soil.
In the fall, begin to prepare your ground. Put your spade and tiller away. Instead, get out cardboard, removing all the tape and plastic. Next, lay out the cardboard, overlapping the ends. Do not worry about the weeds. Just put the cardboard right over them. Now take all your lawn clippings, leaves, and straw and place this over the cardboard. This is followed by a layer of good compost soil. Water this section thoroughly and keep it watered until it snows. Next spring, just dig your holes and plant. You have eliminated the backbreaking work of weeding, and using toxic herbicides.

Making a Compost Pile

To keep your garden growing you have to keep your soil rich. You need to begin a compost pile and it is so easy. First, you choose the spot where you want your compost to be. A good place would be close to your garden area, so you will not have far to carry the enriched soil. Dig up the area with a spading fork, and then water it a little. Using mesh wire, like chicken wire, put it around the soil you just loosened up, making a little pen. Now you layer with grass clippings, or leaves, making this layer about ten inches deep. Next comes a layer of newspaper. You need to water this down, thoroughly. Next layer is well-rotten manure to a depth of two inches. Add four inches of grass clippings, and leaves, newspapers, and just keep repeating these layers. When you finish, sprinkle with a layer of topsoil. Be sure to add water, so each layer is moist.

Now, cover this area with a piece of black plastic. The plastic will heat things up and decomposition will happen at a faster rate. With your spading fork, turn the mixture every 10 to 14 days. I have several compost piles working, each one at a different stage of decomposing. Your compost pile can be composed of pruning from your plants, tea leaves, soil, and hay. You can use fish scraps, but do not use animal products. You can also use weeds, but make sure that they have not gone to seed otherwise those seeds will geminate and grow. To enrich your soil further, add rock phosphate and granite dust, and bone meal. Should your compost become smelly, add baking soda. I also add my fruit and vegetable scraps, eggshells, and coffee grounds.

Now you have a great start to your organic garden.