One of the latest crazes that has caught on all over the world, especially in light of global warming and its all of the food contaminations that people have experienced is the hobby of organic gardening. Not even considering the cost of vegetables that you have to pay at the local grocery store, the organic growth of food provides an alternative for those not wishing to pay supermarket prices, and also avoid all of the chemical contaminants that may appear in our daily food regiments. Here are a few tips on how you can prepare the way for a successful and fast-growing organic garden.
Before you start your organic garden, there are a few things you should consider before doing so and a lot of it has to do with your frame of mind. For instance, when you buy food at a grocery store that is not organically grown, many synthetic fertilizers are used, as well as pesticides, in order to keep many of the natural predators away from crops including disease, common weeds, and insects that love to devour freshly grown vegetables. By eliminating all of these additives, you can see yourself in the future being a more healthy person because you took the time to create a garden that is organically grown that will provide you and your family with healthier fresher food each and every day.
With this in mind, you should think of where you would like to grow your garden. If you live in the city, more than likely you will not have a large enough area in order to grow a garden in a size that would allow you to feed your family except for perhaps a few snacks on a weekly basis. If you do live in a rural area, and you do have some extra space with some decent soil, then you can probably be self-assured that your efforts to grow organic food will be ascertainable because you have the area to work with. Now you must consider your time and what you will need in order to make this work for you.
One of the first things you will need is a constant supply of compostable material such as grass clippings, leftover vegetables and scraps that you are not going to finish, and any kind of dead matter such as leaves in your yard that you have raked up. These will be composted and then mixed in with your soil in order to add nutrients for the crops that you are about to grow.
When looking at your soil, one of the first signs that you will be successful is the color of the soil. Rich dark soil, hopefully full of earthworms, will be a clear sign that your soil is ripe and ready for planting. You should also consider testing the pH balance of your soil to make sure that it is not too acidic or basic for the plants you are about to grow. Vegetables prefer a slightly acidic soil.
Make sure that you also have an ample supply of water that is readily available for your plants. Make sure that you do not overwater or underwater which means you may have to put in a sprinkler system on a timer or put yourself on a regimen that allows you to keep moisture levels just right. Having excessive wet or dry conditions will lead to possible infestations of insects and other creatures that may move in and destroy your crops before they are even harvestable.
Before the age of pesticides, people used natural solutions such as the common ladybug which can be used to prevent certain insects from moving in. Certain spices are also used such as garlic or any spice that has a pungent odor which will repel many types of invaders that will want to eat your crops.
If you are truly going to be an organic gardener, you will no doubt encounter another type of invader called weeds. These will grow very rapidly and unless you are on top of your game, and under root seeing them as they show up, they will multiply ferociously and began to crowd your crop causing them to possibly fail in the long run. Without pesticides, mulching is probably the best solution to maintaining a healthy crop from the invasion of the common weed.
The last thing you should consider is the amount of time that you have in order to maintain your organic garden. Gardening organically can be a very time-consuming process depending upon how much of a garden you would like to maintain. It would probably be a good idea to start small, make sure that your soil and preparations are ready for possible invaders, and then set out to make the organic garden of your dreams.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/gardening-articles/organic-gardens-how-to-start-an-organic-garden-fast-359887.html
About the Author: Chris Dailey is the owner of Super Organic Gardening Secrets, a free online service that provides valuable information on organic gardening and organic gardens. To download his 7 free organic gardening reports, go to http://www.superorganicgardeningsecrets.com/