Organic Gardening and Farming

Organic gardening and farming is the process of growing fruits, vegetables, plants and flowers through all natural, organic means. There is no use of chemical fertilizers or pesticides, so organic vegetable gardening and farming is considered to be a much healthier and safer food source.

One of the first steps needed to get started with organic gardening and farming begins before you plant your very first seed, or place your first plant into the ground. This preparation period is important for the success of your organic gardening and farming efforts.

First you'll need to know where you plan to create your organic garden. If you're starting an organic farming venture, you'll have already chosen the land that will be planted. The next step is preparing the farm or garden soil. Now preparing planting areas for organic gardening requires the use of compost and organic soil materials. Compost is often started months in advance, but if you haven't started a compost pile of your own you might be able to buy some from another organic gardener, or an organic gardening supply center.

Alternatively, you can add organic materials to your soil as you prepare the planting beds and spaces. If you add non-composted organic materials while preparing your gardening beds though, you'll need to wait at least three weeks before putting your seeds or plants into the ground.

Adding organic materials is fairly easy. As you're turning the soil, mix in some used coffee or tea grounds, fireplace ash, grass clippings and organic kitchen waste such as chopped fruit and vegetable matter. Continue watering and turning your garden soil every few days for at least three weeks before putting the new garden seeds or plants into the ground.

Once you've started planting your organic garden or farm, you'll want to be sure you do everything possible to help keep weeds and pests at bay. Keeping weeds under control will also help keep pests from attacking your fruits, vegetables, trees or flowers.

Keeping weeds under control is easiest if you place your plants with plenty of room between them, and put down a natural mulch such as dried grass clippings, wood shavings, or bark. The thicker your mulch is, the better it will be at keeping weeds from being able to grow.

Pest control is considered to be one of the most difficult parts of organic gardening and farming, but there are several methods and techniques that can be used to help with this. Cut out a cardboard ring and cover it with tinfoil for instance, to place around the stems of plants. This will often help keep cutworms away. Spraying your plants with a liquid seaweed solution such as kelp tea will often feed the plants as well as keeping pests off them too.

Clearing out dead, dying or diseased plants as soon as you find them will help control pests too. And a tried and true method of keeping pests out of organic gardens and farms is to simply hand pick the bugs off as you come across them.

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