If you’re looking for a good way of getting fresh food and cutting your grocery bill, starting an organic garden could be the thing to do! This post will take you through all the steps involved in starting an organic garden from scratch – without having to worry about chemicals or fertilizers that would otherwise be found in traditional gardening.
- Pick a site
The first step is to decide on the place where you want to start your organic garden. You would want to pick a site that’s close to large trees, but not too near the ground. It would be advisable that you choose a spot where you could still put up some temporary fencing around your garden. Solid fencing will make it easier for you to keep pests away and provide better growth for your plants. - Remove all weeds from the site
The next thing that needs to be done is for you to remove all traces of weeds from the site where you plan for growing your plants. This means that you have to ensure that the site is completely clean of all weeds, both in the surface soil and in the sub soil. - Preparation of the soil
The most important step in getting an organic garden for beginners to start thriving is to make sure that you prepare the soil well. The best thing to do when preparing your soil is to ensure that it’s moist, just like a sponge. You need to take such care because bad growth results from having dry soils, which might result in diseases and pests affecting the plants that you grow there. - Getting the plants
Now that you have prepared the soil well, the next thing you need to do is to choose your plants. The best way of getting your plants would be to either buy them or ask a kindly neighbor to give you some. Better still would be to ask people who have gardens if they wouldn’t mind giving you some plants. You should also consider a number of factors when choosing which ones are the best for growing in your garden.
a) Choose species suitable for your area and soil type
When choosing plants, it’s always best for you to make sure that you choose species which are appropriate for your spot and soil type. What this means is that if the soil type in your area is acidic or if you live in an area where the ground freezes a lot during the winter, then you should go for plants that can endure these conditions.
b) Choose species that aren’t prone to pests
Some species of plants are more susceptible to getting attacked by pests and diseases than others. If you’re worried about getting attacked by pests and diseases, then don’t choose plants like tomato, eggplant, bell peppers, and cabbage. These are susceptible to infestations by whiteflies (tiny insects), aphids (small insects with soft bodies), thrips (small bugs with needle-like mouth parts used for sucking sap), and mites (tiny bugs without wings).
- Putting in the plants
Once you have chosen the plants that you want to put into your garden, then the next thing to do is to put them into the soil. Make sure that your soil conditions are good because if it’s not, then it would be a waste of time putting in the plants because they wouldn’t grow well or even worse, die due to bad soils. - Watering your garden
When watering your garden, always make sure that you don’t use too much water as this could kill the plants or cause fungal diseases to grow on your plants. The ideal amount of water to use is around 1-3 inches of rainwater per watering. - Compost
Another thing that you need to do for your organic garden for beginners is to take care of the compost that is used in your garden. Make sure that you read up on how you should maintain it and also, choose plants that are easier to compost so that you don’t have any problems in tossing them in there after they are done being used. - Use mulch to maintain moisture
Another important thing that you need to do for growing plants in your organic garden is to use mulch. There are different types of mulches such as straw, wood pieces, crushed brick, sawdust and sand and so on. There’s no doubt that it’s important that you keep all these things aside because they help in maintaining your garden as well as the moisture levels in it. - Using the right tools
The last thing that you need to do for your organic garden is to use the right tools. Some of these include trowels, shovels, and rakes as well as some others which are most suitable for organic gardening. A trowel is an indispensable tool especially if you’re planning on planting seeds or bulbs in your garden. These come in different shapes and different sizes so that you can choose one that suits your needs most. - Removing weeds manually
Sometimes weeds will grow even when your organic garden for beginners is well maintained and has no pests and diseases affecting it. If this is the case, then you can take out the weeds manually by using hand tools such as hand rakes and digging spades or even by pulling them up. - Fighting pests with natural remedies
Sometimes a problem can also be attributed to pests so you can take help of certain natural remedies such as using garlic, neem, bee hives, and even lime. The best way of choosing which one you want to use would be to go for those which are found in your locality and don’t cause any harm to other living things around it. All these methods should be implemented at night when most herbivores are sleeping so that they won’t get affected negatively. - Making compost
If you have a composting system, then you can also use it to help your organic garden for beginners grow better. One of the things that you need to make sure of is that firstly, the soil there must be well-drained and secondly, it must be well aerated with hay and other materials for decomposition. - Harvesting your fruits and vegetables
Another part of your organic garden for beginners is to harvest the fruits and vegetables that have grown so that you can eat them or use them for different purposes. The best way of doing this is to make sure that they are ripe before you harvest them so that they don’t damage the plant. Again, if you’re harvesting during winter season, then it would be a good idea to wear gloves so that your hands don’t get numb from the cold.
There are many benefits of growing in an organic garden for beginners but the biggest one is that it helps in eliminating all those extra pesticides and toxins which could be present in your regular food and fruits.