What Are The Principles Of Organic Vegetable Gardening

It's a fact that organic vegetable gardening is becoming a favourite with farmers as they can grow the same amount of crop with less money. You must become familiar with the rules of organic vegetable gardening, before you try this at home. Foremost, organic vegetable gardening does not use any manmade fertilizers, nutrients or pesticides. Nature is your friend here because you will be using two things to make it all work, chiefly sunlight and water. Unfortunately these can never be made artificially, you have to find the perfect place for it and provide right kind of drainage facilities.

Apart from sunlight and water, you can help the crops grow by using compost heap from leftover food, chipped bark, garden compost, leaf moulds and manure. You can combine these all together and then spread this around your garden. A lot of people are scared off by natural fertilizer but you don't have to scoop this from the toilet because this is sold in stores. Chickens are a good idea; simply let them free to walk all over your garden. Some individuals prefer to use dead carcasses of animals or meat products - for this, leave them in the trash can, till maggots come out and then use it as a fertilizer.

Earthworms are great helpers in the garden as they help to bring out several nutrients from the soil by digging deep thereby oxygenating it, which act as good water drainage also. Earthworms are also beneficial as they leave their droppings all over the garden, which are rich generators of nitrogen phosphorus and potassium. Organic vegetable gardening is no mean task as you have to effectively combat several enemies in the process and these include armyworms, crickets, gypsy moth caterpillars, slugs and squash bugs. Earlier fertilizers were employed to get your garden free from such pests, but when you go organic, you can keep some toads in the garden, which are anticipated to eat up all these and more. When it comes to battling spiders or caterpillars, get a few birds to do the necessary, as they are found unsavoury by toads.

In some cases, you don't have to buy a toad or a bird from the pet store because they may come in to your dwelling as long as you set the ideal environment for them. Just build a birdhouse or dig a pond and you would be soon welcoming these Samaritans. Different insect killers which you can get to do the job include the praying mantis and the ladybug because they mark their territory and eat anything that dares enter their domain.

Vegetables can also be guarded by plants. For instance, the rosemary, sage or thyme are effective deterrents against butterflies and Marigolds are effective against nematode worms. But despite all the plants and fauna that nature has to offer, crop rotation is seen as the foremost way to keep the soil productive when you have an organic vegetable garden. Carry on rotating the kind of vegetable you have harvested in one season with another and then come back to the initial vegetable. Actually the rules concerning organic gardening are pretty simple to follow and after practicing for some time, you will get used to it.