Now we will go on for a more explained soil preparation before you start your garden, leaning away from the composting methods we have already discussed. Ideal soil for an organic vegetable garden is deep, well draining, friable, with high organic matter content, which is usually accomplished with proper organic garden composting that you will mix in with your soil. Proper soil preparation provides a good base and is almost essential for good seed germination and of course the subsequent growth of your organic garden crops. You also want to check your pH, and make sure it will be within bounds for whichever crops you will have in your organic garden, remember to choose your inter crops wisely to keep these well within one another’s range. If your pH is not within range, lime and sulfur are common soil amendments to change the soil’s pH. The correct soil pH is essential for optimal growth in your organic garden.

Tilling your soil is a good idea, but turning over the soil can cause issues, like soil compaction, and upset the micro biological balance, we do not want that, as those are essential for a great healthy organic garden. If you are having a hard time getting the right consistency after mixing your soil and compost, things like perlite and sand are options, however sometimes it can take a lot to improve the conditions, proper composting for your type of soil and area should take care of any issues, which is why you should always do your research and properly compost, and soil mix for your organic garden.

Well, in the USA fall is here and the temperatures are lowering, winter is on its way. This is the best time to investigate next years organic garden crop, what other techniques you may want to use, what and where you want to get your seeds, or if you are a beginner, all of the above plus the basics of organic gardening. Of course a lot of you have your methods down, and know what you want and or like to grow in your organic garden, but it is always good to learn new things, and tricks others come up with year after year for organic gardens. As for organic gardening seeds, most of the seeds in popular stores are breed for commercial growing, which sacrifices taste and diversity. You will be better off finding a good organic garden seed source by searching the web. Soil preparation is big one in organic gardening, there are lots of sources out there, and many here about soil preparation and what you want in the quality of your soil in your organic garden, winter is the time to do you research and see what is best for your crop, and your area. Being that it is fall, it’s a great time to start your compost piles, with all the dead leaves your raking, the grass clippings you have accumulated from the year and the precious last few lawn cuts before that cold weather stops grass growth.

A good tip for some of those last few lawn cuttings is covering your organic garden bed with it, this will help to prevent weeds early spring, before planting, not to mention help enrich the soil also. There are articles here about organic garden composting and we will also have an article coming up about smaller scale organic garden composting for those of us that do not need much, reference them along with your research to see what type of compost you want for your organic garden, and what kind of consistency you want. As for a summary, use your winter to plan your organic garden to be the best it can be, so you can enjoy your lovely and very tasty organic vegetables!

This is a debate like many others: Whether organic gardening is better than using chemicals. There is much debate about taste, and quality when it comes to synthetic or organic gardening, the debate will probably continue forever, but there is a few things to look at. Synthetic gardening, you could say makes things “easier”, but in the long run you have to weigh two things “risk and benefit”, does the benefits of using synthetics outweigh the risks? When I say risks, I include possible pesticide poisoning, the taste of your foods which is very important of course, natural ability to fight off pests and other harmful things like bacteria, among other things. There are studies done by people like yourselves to test these theories. To test the benefits of organic gardening, an organic gardening lover did an experiment, a side by side comparison. Two beds, completely identical to start, one for organic garden fertilizers, and one for synthetic fertilizers. Now for this experiment no pesticides were used in either the organic garden of the synthetic garden, to keep some simplicity. Instead pest were controlled by hand, or with a hose. Spraying down plants with a hose helps by washing the pests of the plants in your organic garden, or any garden, be sure to try and spray under the leaves also, but not with such a blast you will damage your organic garden, or other gardens. So, in the organic garden, only organic fertilizers were used, of course, and in the synthetic garden, a popular known blue synthetic fertilizer was used. Both were planted from the seed of the same stock and quality. It was reported the the non organic garden had an initial burst of growth, but seemed to attract aphids, and ants. The organic garden however, soon caught up and and surpassed the synthetic garden, and seemed to have fewer pest problems! Going back to what I said earlier about having a stronger resistance to pests. Another issue that arose is, the pH in the synthetic bed increased, and had to be adjusted. In the end, the organic garden harvested more quantity, and quality vegetables than the synthetic.

Usually in well prepared organic gardens, with some of the mentioned organic gardening techniques in the articles on this site, you wont run into problems with nutrient deficiencies. But sometimes things just happen, so let’s take at some deficiencies and solutions for your organic gardening needs. Boron deficiencies can include dying growth tips, or short stubby growth, boron is believed to help with stem productivity among other things, this can be prevented with the proper organic gardening fertilizer mixes, and ensuring your pH is below seven. Borax may also be raked into the soil. Boron deficiencies are rare, and usually are because of very poor soil conditioning or abnormal pH. Calcium deficiencies can be caused by poor environment in your organic garden also, but it is most commonly because the plant is having trouble transporting it, caused by lack of water. Another more common reason is pH, so check your levels and correct them. Common symptoms include stunted growth, effecting the growth tips first, of course, but also looks like many other things. Damage is hard to reverse, so fix this problem immediately. Iron deficiencies in your organic garden is usually rare, except for acidic loving plants, are much more susceptible, because iron deficiencies are usually caused by more acidic soils. Iron deficiencies can be confused with manganese deficiencies. Common symptoms include yellowing and browning between the veins in the leafs, and the veins remain green. Avoid growing acidic loving plants in soils with lime, and you will most likely avoid this deficiency in your organic gardening endeavors.

There are a few different types of inter cropping in organic gardening. Mixed inter cropping is is basically a total mix of your crop in the available space you have for your organic gardening project. Row, or ally cropping are different crops placed in separate rows, and is a very common and neat way to do your organic gardening. It can also be called strip cropping, when you alternate one crow with one or multiple rows of another crop. Either of these methods are great for organic gardening, and I am sure there are more methods, but no need to name the all. Benefits of this for smaller organic gardening is not too have too many of the same produce or plant bunched in the same area, therefore not creating too large of a target for pests that like that certain crop or plant in your organic garden. This also allows for the use of more of the nutrients in your organic garden by two different crops that otherwise would not be utilized by other plants. Combinations of two plants that help each other in other ways are also another reason to inter crop your organic garden. For example, a plant that falls over easy in the wind and has weaker stems, could be held up by other plants in your organic garden mixed inter crop, which means you can allow them to grow and take a break from gardening to go to work or play FoxyBingo without worrying about strong winds being the end of your crops. Another even better reason is pest control, by increasing the diversity or amount of natural enemies to these pests, such as spiders, which are always great to have in your organic garden. Inter cropping in your organic garden can also limit the places where pests find optimal conditions for themselves.

Weeds, another “pest”, that can compete with your plants and can harbor other pests in your organic gardening endeavor. This of course differs from plant to plant, however some types of produce from your organic vegetable garden will be bothered less or more, the onion for instance, is slow to germinate, and have slender stems. In this case those faster, broad leaf weeds can ruin your organic vegetable garden, unless you remove or control these weeds, anyway that is just one example. There are a few methods to weed control for your organic gardening and organic vegetable garden. These methods can be done before or after planting, easier done before planting in your organic vegetable garden. This is a common method used in organic gardening, covering the ground with wet newspaper will deprive the weeds of sunlight, if you have plants there already you will have to work around their base stems. Keeping the newspaper wet is a good idea, as it speeds the decomposition of the weeds and also allows for other weed seeds to germinate, and then die. Newspaper is one of the better organic gardening techniques for this, because it allows water to pass through into the ground, something like the plastic alternatives some try, will not, which is mostly used before planting.

Organic compost is like an artificial manure, which can be mixed with manures, or not, for another great organic fertilizer for your organic garden. Compost is made with dead plant materials, table scraps, leaves, topsoil, lime, manures, water, air, and other organic materials. It should be combined, and layered in such a way that it decomposes, and combines and yields a very great organic fertilizer, or artificial manure. You do not want to create a large organic fertilizer compost pile, around one hundred square feet, and three to five feet high, with a slight dip in the middle to catch rain water is advisable. One common layering method for your organic fertilizer compost pile is first, a one foot layer of leaves, grass clipping straw, and other organic material, wet and packed down. Then spread a layer of organic fertilizer manures, four to six inches deep. Continue by adding found pounds of rock phosphates, or one quart of bone meal, and about one pound of ground limestone. Sometimes a layer of topsoil is used. Continue this process until you have reached a pile three to five feet high. Keep your organic fertilizer compost pile moist, but not too wet, and leave it be for a while. After about one month, fork it over and mix the parts to obtain a good consistency. Compost piles can take anywhere from two months to one year to be “complete” and ready as a great organic fertilizer for your organic garden. When the compost is broken down into a very consistent mixture, and no decomposed leaves or other parts can be seen, it is ready for use.

The use of manures is always a good source of organic fertilizer, there are just a couple things you must follow and pay attention to. Use manures that have been aged for 30 days, or composted, as we spoke of before so that microbiology has a chance to break things down. Organic gardening fertilizer manures vary a lot in nutrient content based on a few things: type of animal the manures come from, the age of the animal, and also the condition of the animal. Another factor is of course what they eat, a very main guideline is not to use animals that mainly eat meats. Some types of animals we look for are: cows, horses, hogs, rabbits, goats, and other exotic grass eaters. Notice all of the plants eat mainly plant matter. The best way to use manure, or organic fertilizer in your organic garden is to mix it with the soil three weeks ahead of time, however you can also mix smaller amounts with compost and work it into the top of your garden beds from the edge of the root zone in, being careful not to use too much, especially if your soil is already rich in compost and manures. Manures, or organic fertilizers are a good source of micro nutrients, but is not always a completely balanced organic fertilizer. Some very good additives for manure are potash or ground rock phosphates.

Soil conditioning and preparation is vital to very successful organic gardens. Organic fertilizers and soil conditioning materials are usually slow working in general, you should always mix your soil and organic gardening fertilizers three to four weeks ahead of time. Parts or “clumps”of unrotted organic materials can harm the seedling process, promote soil-borne diseases, and cause damping off to younger plants. Successful organic gardens usually start with an abundant amount of organic matter, and organic fertilizers, including animal manures, plant manures, mixed organic fertilizers and compost. Compost is basically a mix of dead plant material, dead leaves, grass clippings. All of these things provide a great amount of organic nutrients for organic gardening. Not only does adding organic fertilizers to your soil help condition it, it will improve its ability to hold water, and nutrients. Another benefit is to increase the microbiological activity, which in many ways can be very beneficial to plants by breaking down nutrients into more usable forms, and even create nutrients from things otherwise unusable by the plants or vegetables in your organic garden. This is the large reason we want to mix our soil and compost and organic fertilizers for our organic garden weeks early, as it gives time for the microbiological activity to break things down.

Regardless of what some may think, there are organic pesticides on the market, such as Neem oil. Neem oil is pressed out of seeds obtained from Neem trees. Neem oil disrupts insects’ hormone balance, so they die before they reach the next stage of life. Garlic oil spray can kill aphids, and other softer bodied pests. Insecticidal soap, a common formula for this is 1-2 tablespoons of dish detergent like dawn per gallon of water, you want to heavily spray affected plants with water before spraying with this solution, and never on a sizzling hot day. It can burn some plants with dull leaf surfaces, so always test on a non-visible area first. The fatty acids in the soap penetrate the insects causing the cells to collapse. Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis), basically bacteria, there are many types available as powders that you sprinkle on a plant, and must be eaten by the insect. This acts as a stomach poison which cause them to stop eating, and starve to death. However, Bt strains are very host specific, and are most always harmless to humans, birds, or other animals, and usually takes time to effect insects, as sometimes it takes days to stop them from eating to your plants. All these can help with natural insect control, but there are very many other methods, too many to list here, but be sure we will come back to this subject with more methods and explanations of them.