I want to have my very own organic vegetable and herb garden for my family and my consumption. Please share with me how to do so. Thank you in advance.
To get a good organic garden going takes years of soil building. start small as a big garden will get overwhelming come the hot part of summer. I would say a garden no bigger than 10 feet by 20 feet the first growing season.
Now is the time to start garden prep by choosing where you want the garden and opening up the sod. smothering the area where you will have the garden is a good first step or you can plow the sod open and till it in next spring. plowing is a lot more effective than tilling for killing grass.
You will also need some tools. Get a couple of hoes, my favourite is the shuffle or stirrup hoe. You can find these at any box store. they are lighter and easier to use than the standard concrete hoe most people think of when they think about hoes. You will also need a wheel barrow or garden cart, a potato fork (looks somewhat like a pitch fork but fatter), a shovel, a spade, a couple of trowels.
You will need seeds. My favourite place to get seeds is Johnny's Selected Seeds in Maine. http://johnnysseeds.com
Start with easy things to grow and pay attention to the fact not everything grows in every season. Lettuce for example is best planted in the spring, it likes cool damp conditions. Tomatoes and peppers like it hot. A good seed catalogue will tell you such information. You will likely want to use seedlings for a lot of things such as tomatoes. Do not buy these at places like Wal-Mart. Go to a local nursery and tell them you are just starting out and you will get a lot of advice. One caveat, most nurseries (and box stores) are NOT organic and do not know much about organic growing so ignore all advice to use chemicals. But you will find healthier seedlings at most local places than box stores.
Good luck
1) Choose your site. You'll want it to have as mush full sun as possible, you also will want it semi-private (less tomato thieves), and far from a septic tank if you have one. How you prepare the site has a lot to do with your region. If you are in the midwest or northern us, you might want to use the smother technique. That is put a heavy layer of newspaper, and leaves on the area, and let them rot down the sod. If you get a tiller on sale, you might want to break ground now.
2) Prepare a compost area. If you don't use chemicals on your lawn, and bag your grass this can create valuable compost for your garden. Also getting rid of veggie waste from the kitchen rather than putting it in a landfill is great!
3) Look for seeds/Start considering what to plant. Right now you could put in a set of winter garlic, or strawberrie plants.
4) Read a book or two on gardening. The easiest way to organic is simply skipping chemicals, there are beneficial plant theories that suggest surrounding your garden with marigolds to deter some pests. For herbs it is important to know your zone, so you'll know what will be perennial.
5) Only plant mints in pots!
Great source for Gardening Advice
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/organic/
References :
To get a good organic garden going takes years of soil building. start small as a big garden will get overwhelming come the hot part of summer. I would say a garden no bigger than 10 feet by 20 feet the first growing season.
Now is the time to start garden prep by choosing where you want the garden and opening up the sod. smothering the area where you will have the garden is a good first step or you can plow the sod open and till it in next spring. plowing is a lot more effective than tilling for killing grass.
You will also need some tools. Get a couple of hoes, my favourite is the shuffle or stirrup hoe. You can find these at any box store. they are lighter and easier to use than the standard concrete hoe most people think of when they think about hoes. You will also need a wheel barrow or garden cart, a potato fork (looks somewhat like a pitch fork but fatter), a shovel, a spade, a couple of trowels.
You will need seeds. My favourite place to get seeds is Johnny's Selected Seeds in Maine. http://johnnysseeds.com
Start with easy things to grow and pay attention to the fact not everything grows in every season. Lettuce for example is best planted in the spring, it likes cool damp conditions. Tomatoes and peppers like it hot. A good seed catalogue will tell you such information. You will likely want to use seedlings for a lot of things such as tomatoes. Do not buy these at places like Wal-Mart. Go to a local nursery and tell them you are just starting out and you will get a lot of advice. One caveat, most nurseries (and box stores) are NOT organic and do not know much about organic growing so ignore all advice to use chemicals. But you will find healthier seedlings at most local places than box stores.
Good luck
References :
I have made my living doing an organic market garden, I was certified organic for 8 years
http://www.boulderbeltfarm.com
any garden area will do simply do not use chemicals
mark out your area and divide into 3 areas use garden manure ,horse manure anything that is not chemical based as fertiliser in the first area and plant potatoes, broad beans and runner beans in that area
the 2nd area use for cabbages cauliflower and other similar plants and
the 3rd area for root veg such as carrots parsnips etc
change the areas round yearly where 1 becomes 2 and so on
there is plenty of digging and weeding involved but the fresh veg is worth it and it tastes great
References :