Organic Vegetable Gardening

Tap to Read ➤ Rujuta Borkar

Here, we take you through some of the best ways in which organic gardening can be carried through and why it might just be the best way to grow your veggies.

Organic vegetable gardening is turning out to be one of the best options that are available in gardening. Organic gardening is the planting and growing of plants and vegetables without the use of any chemical fertilizers and depending solely on natural means of growing them.

The advantages are that the food is natural, tastes better, gives better nutrition, and is environment-friendly. Also, it is not taken through processing and therefore there are no additional additives and the like to mar the taste and take away from the nutrition. All these organic food benefits makes this form of gardening a great option to look into.

This form is not difficult and there are several forms to do it. They involve regular gardening and organic container vegetable gardening. To ensure growth of the garden and healthy produce, remember some things and follow some ways to benefit your cause.

Soil and Sun

The main thing that you need to do before anything else is to ensure that the soil conditions are perfect. Make sure that the soil is made extremely fertile by addition of mulch and organic fertilizers like compost, or by adding earthworms to the soil.

This will ensure that the vegetables will turn out to be healthy. Along with that, ensure that the plants get at least 6-8 hours of sunlight for better growth.

Choosing Plants

If you're starting out for the first time, then you should opt for plants that are not prone to easy disease or attack from pests. This will help you ease into the whole process and you'll learn better along the way.

Ask your local vegetable shop from where you buy organic vegetable seeds (which might be specialized seeds) about the plants that need comparatively less care. There are certain varieties that are disease-resistant. Choose them for your organic vegetables.

Planting Techniques

Depending on the variety you are planting, the method of planting will change. While the instructions will be provided at the back of every individual packet, there are some things you need to remember―plan beforehand the kind of space the plants will require to thrive when they have grown to their full size.

Provide for this space while planting the seeds. The seeds can be planted in pots and then transferred into the soil or they can be planted directly into the ground. Be very careful about pests that like to feast on seeds and young saplings.

Aftercare

The soil should be kept fertile and rich while plants are growing and this can be done by adding compost and mulching to the soil. Add about 2 inches of this to the top layer. This also prevents any fungal disease from infecting the roots and causing rotting. You can add organic garden pesticides so that the plants are free of disease.

The watering techniques will change according to the variety of plant, though there is a general rule that you should not let the soil dry out. The best way to water the plants is to water directly at the roots and avoid wetting the leaves so that it does not attract pests.

To keep the plants and soil healthy, you can use the method of rotating crops and switch the plants, not allowing infestation of diseases to occur. Make sure that you clear out the foliage of drying leaves and clear out the weeds from the roots.

Organic vegetable gardening is not much different from any other form of gardening and can be easily undertaken by anyone. For the benefits that it offers, it is definitely one of the best options to look into.