Organic gardening isn’t complicated. But there were a few things I had to learn when I decided to “go organic”.

First, let me explain how organic gardening is different. No pesticides are used in organic gardening. Everything is natural. No chemicals are used to fight pests.  Organic Vegetable Garden

The reason I choose to switch to organic gardening was to ensure my family members were eating healthier, chemical free vegetables. The taste of food grown in a home garden is always a big benefit, too. But the thought of ingesting unknown pesticides was one of the reasons I first decided to grow my own vegetables. So I didn’t want to resort to spraying my home garden with chemicals. Otherwise all the effort would have been a waste. Going organic was clearly the best option.

The first steps to setting up your own organic garden include:

Choosing a good plot of land. It needs to be free of a lot of foot traffic. Don’t plant in the middle of your yard and expect your young children not to run through the middle of it on occasion. Pick a place to the side of your yard and mark it with stakes or string.

Make sure the spot you pick gets at least eight hours of sunshine a day. Don’t pick a plot of ground that gets a lot of shade. I made this mistake once. Vegetables need sun to survive and won’t do well in an overly shaded area.

Don’t use a spot where water stands after a rain. The plot needs to drain well. You do want it to be close enough that a water hose can reach it easily. Your garden will need to be watered every few days if it hasn’t rained.

For my garden I picked a sunny spot in the back corner of my yard. Then I found out what to do to cultivate the soil before planting. I dug up some of the dirt with a spade and then added compost. I watered the plot to make sure it drained and didn’t hold pockets of water. If it had, I would have added more sandy soil.

When I have questions about organic gardening I’ve found the internet to be a great resource. Type in “Organic gardening forums” and you’ll discover places where other gardeners hang out. You can ask any questions you have and find someone who knows the answer.

Like anywhere else on the internet, though, make sure the person answering the question is a regular contributor and has experience in organic gardening. There are people who hang out on forums for the sole purpose of selling you stuff. There’s nothing wrong with selling useful products or resources, but you want to know you’re purchasing from reputable, qualified sources.

If you have an organic garden you should start a compost pile where you put all your leaves, clippings, fireplace ashes, and coffee grounds. When you add water to some of this compost you create a compost tea. This tea is good thing to add to your garden periodically to keep the soil healthy since you don’t want to use any chemical fertilizers.

I also added some organic mulch to cut down on weeding time. But be sure that whatever you add to your garden is organic. If you can’t find what you need locally, you can find good organic garden stores online that can supply anything you need as well as answer questions.

By following all these steps to start my organic garden I had healthy, chemical free, tasty vegetables to harvest in a short time. It was worth the effort to know my family was eating healthier vegetables.