What Is Organic Gardening?

• Organic Gardening For Beginners
• Companion Planting Guide
• Seed Saving Tips & Techniques

Organic Gardening uses naturally occurring materials for soil building, fertilization and pest control. With growing concerns about the safety of chemical pesticides and fertilizers, more and more commercial farmers and home gardeners are choosing this method. Instead of using weed killers, weeds are pulled. Instead of using chemical pesticides, gardeners use deterrents like ladybugs and praying mantises. As a result, the foods grown are more nutritious and the entire gardening experience is more beneficial for the earth.

Advocates for growing food organically argue that this method is better for several main reasons. First, gardening organically reduces your exposure to pesticides, which have been linked to everything from skin rashes, eye irritations and neurotoxicity to cancer, birth defects and hormone disruption. Secondly, organic food contains a higher concentration of nutrients like chromium, selenium, calcium, boron, lithium, magnesium, vitamin C, carotene and vitamin B. Thirdly, organic gardeners work with manual garden supplies and tools, so they avoid gasoline-powered machines that leave emissions. At the same time, the organic gardener is getting a great workout in! Lastly, this method for growing plants prevents chemicals and contaminants from leaching into the soil and down to our water table, so this style of gardening is much better for the planet overall.

Composting is an essential part of organic gardening because it ensures that your soil will be healthy and fruitful. You can add compost, aged animal manure, green manure (like cover crops), mulches, peat moss and kitchen scraps. Be cautious about adding high-carbon material like straw, leaves, wood chips and sawdust because microorganisms will consume a lot of nitrogen to digest these materials, which could deplete your soil. You can add natural nitrogen with hoof/horn/fish meal, natural potassium with granite dust/potash rock, and natural phosphorus with bone meal/finely ground phosphate rock. For more information and gardening advice on building healthy soil and improving existing soil naturally, visit www.gardeners.com/Building-Healthy-Soil/5060,default,pg.html, where you can read about the organic style of gardening in more detail.

In organic gardening, weeds are pulled rather than stripped by chemicals. Growing plants surrounded by mulch, straw or hay can keep weeds from poking through as well. Organic gardeners rely on birds, ladybugs, dragonflies, spiders and praying mantises to kill the pests that feast on their precious plants. To attract these natural born killers, plant Angelica, caraway, cilantro, coreopsis, white cosmos, dandelions, dill, fennel, geraniums, tansy and yarrow for them to sample while they look for bigger prey like aphids and beetles. You can purchase ladybugs at some garden shops and dragonflies at certain bait shops. In the end, you’ll be glad you cultivated a healthy and hardy garden, without destroying nature in the process.

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