What is organic gardening?

Organic gardening involves using the principles of organic horticulting in your garden. Issues such as how the soil is built, how the soil is nurtured, and how pests are managed are of paramount importance to organic gardening.  Basically, organic gardening involves working in cooperation with nature in your garden.

In simple terms, organic gardening means that you grow your garden without using synthetic products or chemicals such as those used in pesticides and fertilizers. You would use sensible methods to replenish the soil like feeding the soil with composted plants, or rotating the plants that are planted in a given area to allow the soil to get enriched.

Creating and maintaining an organic garden can be fun and satisfying .

Why is the soil so important?

The soil needs to be fed and nourish, so that it can nourish our plants in turn. This simple, common sense idea is a core principle in organic gardening.

You can encounter types of soil in a garden.   Clay soil is rich in nutrients and holds water better, but the soil can sometimes hold the water too well and not let enough air in. Sandy soil, on the other hand drains water well, but is usually low in nutrients. In either case, the solution is to add some organic matter to improve the soil’s texture and improve the nutrient content in the soil.

How can you eliminate pests without chemicals?

If you are an organic gardener, does it means that you have to live with pests in your garden?  That certainly seems to be a common question in the minds of gardeners unfamiliar with the tenets and methods of organic gardening.

The gardener’s job of watching over the garden and plants diligently remains the most important first step. Secondly, the gardener has to adopt the mindset of cooperating with nature. Thirdly, the gardener has to recognize that old methods of gardening won’t necessarily be consistent with the desire to be an organic gardener, and so they have to commit to become more knowledgeable about the specific issues faced by their plants and then look for natural options to solve them. 

Sometimes, with pest control, if you know the exact nature of your pest problem, you may not need to do anything at all because the invader’s time in your garden may be strictly temporary, and they’ll be gone at the end of the season forever. It is not necessary to be trigger-ready to kill the pests all the time, with this approach.

Sometimes, it is valuable to look to nature to see if there are other insect that are natural predators for the pests inflicting your plants. If so, it would suffice to introduce a small number of the “beneficial insects” into your garden to solve your pest problem. For example, ladybugs love to eat aphids. 

Yet another example is to use physical barriers like sticky traps to catch flying insects.  Simple, yet safe and effective methods like this abound.

Here are some common and effective techniques to keep your garden thriving, organically:

• Allow for some pest damage. i.e. Don’t set the target to be 100% pest free.
• Select plants carefully. Choose varieties that are disease resistant.
• Use smart planting of companion crops that can discourage pests naturally
• Rotate crops from year to year to disrupt pest reproduction cycles
• Use row covers to protect plants during pest migrations

Becoming knowledgeable with methods like these will help the gardener in making wise choices in dealing with pests in the garden.

How can you enrich the soil without fertilizers?

There are many ways to keep your soil nutrient rich , without resorting to chemical fertilizers.

You can use “green manure”. Green manure is a type of crop that is grown for a specific period, with the main idea of adding nutrients and organic matter to the soil. Leguminous green manures like clover and vetch fix the soil’s nitrogen content in a manner that plants can use. Other green manure crops can help increase the organic matter in the soil. Some cover crops behave as natural weed suppresants while preventing soil erosion and compaction at the same time. Oat, Rye, Fava Beans, Clover, Mustard, Fenugreek etc. are all popular green manures.

You can use “compost”. Compost is a decomposed combination of plants, animal and other organic materials that is rich, black soil. As an additive to the soil, compost provides a rich growing medium and nutrients for plants. You can make compost yourself by using vegetable, food and other organic waste materials from your home. Many methods and materials are available to help with composting. Compost is like a natural fertilizer for plants.

You can use “mulching”. Much is a protective ground cover placed over the soil to help it retain its moisture, and suppress weeds from growing . Organic mulches also provide nutrients to the soil as the cover decays.

Summary

Organic gardening is a nature friendly way of approaching gardening that does away with the use of toxic chemicals in the entire life cycle of growing plants in your garden. By working in synch with nature, you’ll enjoy the satisfaction of having your garden flourish.

There are some good resources availabe online and you can start here by using this guide to the best Web resources on organic gardening.

For other gardening resources , please consult this gardening guide.