Growing an organic garden can offer you several benefits. For example, the produce you grow will have a higher nutritional value that’s rich in vitamins and minerals.
You will know exactly what you are feeding your family. You will eliminate chemical exposure to your food – and your food will taste better!
Furthermore, you will save money on your grocery bill.
Plus, organic gardening is a fun way to spend time with your family outside while getting plenty of exercise. Following these essential steps will help you plant and grow a successful organic garden.
1. Plan Your Garden
The first step to a successful organic garden is to create a plan. Here are some tips for creating a good gardening plan:
• Research different garden designs online.
• Consider the organic food that your family likes to eat.
• Decide on how many different plants you want to grow, as well as the quantity of each plant.
• Pick a block of time to spend each day preparing and working your garden.
Even with the very best planning, it’s still impossible to plan for unforeseen events. Therefore, you need to include a lot of flexibility in your gardening plan. For instance, you might not be able to grow every plant that you want.
Therefore, you would need to find a substitute to grow in its place.
2. Use the Right Tools
A successful organic garden requires that you have the right tools to use. Here is an overview of what you need:
• Digging fork for loosening soil.
• Digger or hoe for digging out weeds.
• Rake for cleaning your garden.
• Hand cultivator to prepare the soil for planting seeds.
• Hand trowel to combine potting soil mixes.
• Gloves to protect your hands.
You can learn more about each of these tools online. You can typically buy them in most gardening centers such a Walmart or Lowe’s.
3. Add Mulch to Your Garden
Using mulch in your organic garden will make your it look more attractive, as well as offer some important benefits for your soil. For example, mulch will retain moisture, prevent erosion and soil loss, and suppress the growth of weeds.
You can buy mulch from most garden centers and home improvement stores. However, you can also learn how to make your own by watching YouTube videos on the process.
4. Use Natural Pest Control
Since you are planting an organic garden, you must avoid using potentially harmful chemicals – even to eliminate unwanted pests. Luckily, you can use natural pest control to protect your garden. For instance, neem oil is a natural pesticide that comes from neem tree seeds.
You can buy it at Walmart and most garden centers. Spraying garlic or lavender oils around your garden will keep many insects away too. You can also use the Internet to learn how to make your own natural pesticides.
5. Use Organic Fertilizer
Growing a successful organic garden also depends on using fertilizer to maximize the nutrients in the soil. However, you should use chemical-free organic fertilizer. Organic fertilizer typically comes from animals, minerals, or plants.
Unfortunately, it takes a lot longer to break down and release nutrients into the soil than traditional, chemical-based fertilizer does. Therefore, you will need to spread organic fertilizer around your garden area at least six months before you start planting.
If you have never spread fertilizer over a garden before, you should watch some YouTube videos to see how to do it correctly.
6. Planting Time
When it comes to planting your organic garden, you will want to find a gardening zone chart online that will show you the best time in the spring to plant your garden based on where you live.
That’s because the last thing you want to do is to plant your garden too early – and have everything get killed by a frost. Furthermore, if you plant it too late in the season, your plants won’t be able to grow well in the summer heat.
If you have friends and/or family members locally who do a lot of gardening, ask them for their recommendation on the best time to plant your garden.
7. Harvesting Your Produce
You have spent months working hard to prepare, plant, and take care of your organic garden. However, before you start to harvest the fruits of your labor, you need to make sure that your plants are ready for harvesting.
Remember, each plant will grow to maturity differently – some taking longer than others. Therefore, you don’t want to start picking all of your produce just because some of it is ready for harvesting.
8. Avoid These Common Mistakes
Lastly, if you want a successful organic garden, then you need to avoid these common mistakes:
• Not spacing your plants far enough apart based on their recommended planting guidelines.
• Not watering your harden enough in hot, dry conditions.
• Watering your garden too much.
• Watering incorrectly – which can lead to the growth and spread of diseases on your plants.
• Allowing weeds to grow out of control, choking your plants.
You can learn more about these common problems by researching them further online.
In short, growing a successful organic garden starts by making a good plan.
Of course, you will need the right gardening tools. Make sure you use mulch to limit the growth of weeds and keep your soil cooler throughout the hot summer.
Furthermore, you should use an organic fertilizer to enrich your soil. You can control pests by using a natural pesticide.
Plant and harvest your produce at the correct times. Avoid common problems that can damage or even kill your organic garden.
