The Ultimate Guide for Starting an Organic Garden

If you’ve ever wondered about starting an organic garden but didn’t know where to begin, this guide is for you. Starting an organic garden is probably much easier than you think. Forget all the rules and regulations that commercial gardeners must follow to achieve an “organic” label. For a home garden to be considered organic, all you need to do is forgo unnatural chemicals, like pesticides and synthetic fertilizers, in favor of healthier choices. Read on to find out how you can start your organic garden today.

Benefits of Organic Gardening

Organic gardening can be more labor-intensive than non-organic gardening, especially at the start, so keep your motivation in mind when beginning an organic garden from scratch:

• Organic gardens provide safer food for you when you grow fruits, vegetables, and herbs.
• No exposure to pesticides and toxic chemicals is better for your health as a gardener.
• Organic gardens attract more birds, butterflies, bees, dragonflies, and other natural elements you’d want in your yard.
• Children and pets are safer playing in or around an organic garden, and wildlife will also not be endangered.
• Organic gardening can save you money at the grocery store, since organic food is often expensive, and at the garden center, where you’ll buy fewer products for weeding and pest control.

Testing Your Soil

The first thing you need to do when starting organic gardening is to assess your soil. You need to test several different factors. First, evaluate the soil’s quality and texture. If the soil is too sandy, you can add compost or organic topsoil to increase fertility (see below). If the soil is too clay-heavy, sand or organic material can be added to provide more space for oxygen and water circulation.

If water drains through the soil very quickly and you can see many small mineral particles in it, the soil is likely very sandy. If the soil clumps when wet and puddles when it rains, it’s clay. Another sign of high clay content is that when the soil is very dry, it hardens like pottery and is difficult to penetrate.

You should also test your soil’s acidity. Some plants prefer a highly acidic environment (below 7), while others prefer alkaline soil (above 7). Soil pH is one of the simplest factors to test yourself with a kit purchased online or from a local nursery.

There is a limited number of accurate at-home tests for heavy metals and toxic chemicals in your garden soil. Therefore, you may want to hire a professional landscaping company or a local university extension program to conduct further tests for you. Of course, if you know the garden has never been treated with pesticides and is unlikely to contain dangerous chemicals or elements, you can assume it’s suitable for your home organic gardening purposes.

You might consider planting several beds with different pH levels and soil types to match the growing preferences of different species. For example, carrots prefer sandy soil, while tomatoes favor richer, loamy soil. If you plan to grow organic flowers (a great idea, and there are many varieties you can actually eat), plants like hydrangeas will change flower color depending on soil acidity, turning a deeper violet-blue in acidic soil and pink in alkaline soil.

Amending Soil with Compost

Even if your soil has the right consistency and acidity and is free of chemicals, you may still want to improve its nutrient content. You should do this before planting and throughout the garden’s growth, as plants will draw nutrients from the soil and absorb them into their bodies. That’s why they are so healthy!

Amending soil is easy when you think of it as simply adding decomposed natural materials. You can do this quite simply and effectively with a compost bin or compost pile. A compost pile creates quality soil from biodegradable items you would otherwise discard:

• fruit and vegetable peels and cores
• eggshells
• coffee grounds
• leaves
• grass clippings
• other garden waste
• pet or human hair
• unbleached shredded paper

You can buy a small bucket to keep in your kitchen or on your back porch for collecting waste. Do not put bones or anything that may attract pests into the bucket. When the bucket is full, empty it into your compost bin or compost pile in the yard. (You can buy a compost bin at a garden center or make one yourself.) The heat generated from decomposing materials will help everything break down faster, as will turning the compost bin from time to time. When the compost looks like regular soil, it is ready to use in the garden.

You can also add components to the soil such as earthworm castings (worm castings are excellent fertilizer), peat moss, rotted mulch (see below), and manure. You should use manure that has been aged for at least six months rather than fresh manure. You can buy aged manure at a nursery. If you buy manure from a nearby farm, be sure to ask whether it has already been aged or if you need to age it yourself before applying it to the garden. You should avoid chemical fertilizers that are not compatible with the natural process of organic gardening.

Here is a very detailed video about leaf compost:

Other Methods of Improving Soil: Raised Beds and Container Gardening

If amending your topsoil feels overwhelming, you have some great options. You can build raised beds and fill them with organic soil that is already full of good nutrients and free of chemicals. Raised beds also reduce the need for bending and lifting, and they limit the spread of invasive plants that grow through root systems. They create a barrier for your garden to keep pets and children out, and when planned properly, they provide a clear pathway for walking through your garden space.

Other options for avoiding the labor of soil improvement include hydroponics (growing plants in a nutrient-rich solution or medium) or container gardening. Container gardening is an excellent solution if you have a small yard or only a balcony for gardening. You can move pots to match seasonal sunlight or shade, and they offer a flexible, attractive way to garden as you like. In bad weather or early frost, you can bring containers indoors, and herbs can always be brought inside to overwinter in colder climates.

You can also grow large plants in containers; it simply requires a bit more planning. Because large pots can be heavy and difficult to move, place them where they can thrive throughout the growing season or set them on plant dollies to make relocation easier. You do not need to use expensive ceramic pots. Look for containers such as half wine barrels that won’t leach chemicals into your organic plants.

If you garden in containers, you will still need to replenish nutrients in the soil regularly, just as you would with beds or plots. You can do this by making compost tea or mixing a small amount of compost or worm castings into the soil.

Planting Process

Once the soil has been prepared to your liking, it’s time to start planting. Starting seeds is much less expensive (and often more fun). Not many plants can be directly sown outdoors due to the short growing season most gardeners face.

You can easily start seeds indoors before the planting season and grow them under artificial light. When the calendar or garden center indicates that outdoor planting is safe in your area, you can transplant the seedlings into the garden.

Of course, you can also purchase seedlings at your local garden center. Just make sure they are organic so you don’t introduce chemicals or pesticides into your carefully prepared soil.

When transplanting seedlings into the garden, be careful to allow enough space for the plants once they are fully grown. You can measure and mark beforehand. Ensure the soil is moist before gently removing the plant from its pot.