Organic Vegetable Gardening

Organic vegetable gardening is a healthy way to grow your own organic food. Make your own organic garden fertilizer, or buy it and other organic garden products, at your organic garden supply store.

This guide to organic vegetable gardening can be followed step-by-step by following the links at the bottom of this page. Alternatively, please feel free to jump straight to specific topics by using the links below.

Have you ever seriously thought about the food you eat? And about the impact that food has on your health, your family's health and the health of our planet?

In recent years it seems that there are more and more people reporting cancers, stomach problems, allergies, and other serious health issues.

Our world is becoming a more crowded place and with a quickly growing population comes the industrialization of many countries, along with the industrialization and commercialization of foods and farming. The impact of that commercialization appears to be negative on people, wildlife, vegetation and the planet.

It is in this environment of pollution, pesticides, intensive farming, that we need to look at, and seriously commit to, organic foods and organic food production.

That classic saying - we are what we eat - takes on real meaning for us all in this environment. Media stories relating to conventional food and the chemicals in them from toxic pesticides and fertilizers, should ring loud alarm bells in all of us.

Start by considering the advantages of organic food. Learn exactly how our conventional, intensively farmed food is produced. It is a wake-up call for most people; when I started to look into it, my family immediately 'went organic'. And organic vegetable gardening has become a family affair!

The taste of your first fully organic meal will be incredible. It reminded me of discovering new tastes (the nice ones) when I was a child. It was like having new taste buds. What made eating organic food even more enjoyable was the fact that I wasn't poisoning myself and I was even contributing to improving the health of the environment.

I recommend you try it. It will be one of the most rewarding steps you ever take.

Today, organically produced food is fairly easy to find. But it can be more pricey than conventionally produced food because growing organic food means using organic garden fertilizers, organic pesticides and organic soil that may cost more (if not in dollars, than in time to grow, and yield of harvest). To offset those costs you can do your own organic vegetable gardening; and you can get your organic garden products from your local organic garden supply store.

Organic gardening and farming ensure that crops are grown free from artificial means e.g., synthetic chemical pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers. Natural, organic methods are used instead. This not only produces healthier and more nutritious foods but also helps the whole environment around the growing area e.g. soil, rivers, animal and plant life.

This guide shows you how to grow your own organic garden and produce vegetables that will enhance your life and that of your environment, as well as saving you money.

The first thing you need to do in organic vegetable gardening is to get to know your soil. Identifying the type of soil you will be working with will tell you what crops can be grown best in it. You will also need to test it for acidity and alkalinity. With the right soil, you need to understand how to layout your garden to take advantage of the best sunlight for growing vegetables.

Some people decide on raised beds for their organic growing. You can buy or build a raised bed. In this way you can start off with really healthy soil, and will not have the task of weeding and turning over existing land that may not come up to the quality you need for a productive garden.

You need to also look at organic soil, fertilizers and additives. In order to ensure that your soil is composed of the right balance of nutrients - especially the main ones; Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium, you need to choose the right fertilizer types for your soil type.

Without the right balance your plants will not grow, or will not grow to their full potential. Fertilizer and soil additives, including two of the more environmentally popular ones - compost fertilizer and worms (miracle helpers) - are important to your organic vegetable garden.

One of the main principles of organic gardening and farming is sustainability. In other words the ability to use land continuously for growing while improving it, rather than rendering land infertile and moving on to plant somewhere else.

Crop rotation is a fundamental way of maintaining sustainability, and it is also effective against disease and pest control

A great method of crop rotation is square foot gardening - use it in deciding which vegetables to plant and when to plant them.

Don't forget that you need bees to pollinate your flowering plants and crops. Build an environment that supports bee pollination and healthy bees.

Ensure that you have water sources, areas such as brush and trees for bee hives, and that you don't use pesticides in your garden (of course not, you're growing organically aren't you?). You need to understand the importance of bees and why missing bees are an international food supply issue.

Right then, ready to do some organic vegetable gardening? Roll your sleeves up and get started by looking at soil.

Read More:

Return from Organic Vegetable Gardening to the Organic Food Site-Map.

Visit Disappearing Bees - and find out what you can do.

Visit Types of Bees - the Honey Bee is a favorite.

Visit Organic Food For Everyone.