Organic Gardening Tips

Organic Gardening Advice to Get You Started

You need organic gardening advice if you want to succeed.

Luckily, that's what this page is all about! The produce from organic gardens is healthier for you. But it's difficult and/or expensive to buy fruits and vegetables that were grown organically. So a better option is to have your own organic garden.

Organic gardening is a way of growing vegetables and fruits with the use of things found only in nature.

One reason for organic gardening is because it can save you money AND protect the environment. You can easily make rich compost from garden and kitchen waste. Though this is a bit more time-consuming than buying prepared chemical pesticides and fertilizers, the benefits are certainly worth it.

Also, organic gardening does not use chemicals that may have an adverse effect on your health. This is especially important when growing vegetables. Chemical companies tell us that the chemicals we use are safe if used according to directions, but research shows that even tiny amounts of poisons absorbed through the skin can cause such things as cancer, especially in children.

On the average, a child ingests 4 to 5 times more cancer-causing pesticides from foods than an adult. This can lead to various diseases later on in the child's life. With organic gardening, these incidents are lessened.

Remember, pesticides contain toxins that have only one purpose - to kill living things.

Organic gardening means less harm to the environment. Poisons from pesticides are often washed into our waterways, causing death to the native fish and polluting their habitat.

Organic gardening practices help prevent the loss of topsoil through erosion. The Soil Conservation Service says that an estimated 30 to 32 billion tons of soil erodes from United States farmlands every year.

Organic gardening results in other cost savings too. One does not need to buy costly chemical fertilizers and pesticides with organic gardening. Many organic recipes for the control of pest and disease come straight from the kitchen cupboard. Sometimes other plants can be grown as companions to the main crop. An example of this is the marigold, which helps to repel aphids from vegetables.

Mixing 1 tablespoon of liquid dishwashing soap and 1 cup of cooking oil can make a cheap garden pest spray. Put 3 tablespoons of this mixture in 1 quart of water and spray on plants.

A simple mulch of pine needles will help to suppress the growth of weeds as well as keeping the moisture in.

So, the bottom line is that organic gardening practices help to keep the environment safe for future generations.

Top of Organic Gardening page