Vegetable Garden SpotUnderstanding Organic Vegetable Gardening
Successful organic vegetable gardening are self-sufficient and self-sustaining; they do not require expensive and harmful pesticide, nor commercial fertilizers. Although successful organic vegetable gardens may not produce crops that are picture-perfect, you can be sure that these organic vegetables are more nutritious and beneficial than their commercial counterparts. Now that more and more people are looking to live a greener lifestyle, successful organic vegetable gardens are becoming the goal for families who wish to eat healthier as well as reduce the insults to the environment. Successful organic vegetable gardens can exist in rural, suburban and even urban settings, as long as a gardener understands the key concepts involved. To help potential organic gardeners, this article includes several important points you need to know about organic vegetable gardening.
Before WWII, agriculture and farming practices were mostly organic; that is, chemical fertilizers and pesticides were not widely used at all. This only proves that organic gardening and farming can be employed successfully, so that you and your family can be sure that you are eating only chemical-free products. In organic vegetable gardening, self-sufficiency is achieved by improving the quality of the soil solely through the use of decomposted natural materials.
Organic Vegetable Gardening Tips
The quality of vegetables grown is dependent on the quality of the soil where it is raised. In organic vegetable farming, soil quality is achieved by adding mature compost and other plant-based materials such as mulch; thus, the soil is enriched without the need to resort to commercial fertilizers. To get rid of pests, techniques for companion planting, healthy soil, and crop rotation are used. For example, rather than spray plants with chemicals that repel cutter ants, leafy crops such as lettuce or spinach are placed alongside with mint. Mint leaves have a pungent and distinct odor that is pleasant to humans but irritating to ants.
If you examine the soil of an established organic garden, you would observe that it is nearly black and more granular than the soil in a chemically-amended garden. Organic garden soil also has a healthy population of worms and other microscopic organisms that aid in nitrification with vegetable gardening.
Nitrification is the process of converting the nitrogen in soil into a form that the plants can use especially vegetable gardening. The use of chemical fertilizers typically eradicates these worms and microscopic organisms, which is why chemically-amended soil tends to give out more quickly.
Organic gardening keeps the soil healthy for longer periods through the practice of composting, crop rotation and fallowing. Understanding these concepts is key to starting and maintaining successful organic vegetable gardens.
