Grow Your Own Organic Foods

If you already have a garden, then it’s a matter of learning what you need to do to grow organic foods; if you don’t have a garden or have never gardened before, then there is a slightly steeper learning curve.

Either way, it’s entirely possible to plan and grow great organic gourmet food yourself -- and fun, too.

Here is your game plan:

A) If you already have a garden

B) If you’re starting from scratch

Here is what you will need for either situation:

1) Garden space that has been well-tilled and is well situated re: sun, wind, shade, drainage, and access to water

2) Soil preparation and amendments, including:

Organic Compost

natural soil enhancements such as kelp, seaweed, and whatever “conditioners” are appropriate (such as sand for porosity if the soil has too much clay, etc.)

seedless and weed-seed free straw or hay

organic manure

3) Heirloom seeds or seedlings, raised organically if possible

Find out where to get heirloom and organically grown seeds

4) Garden tools and implements to care for your garden properly

5) Natural mulch

6) How-to guides (books, manuals, videos or CDs/DVDs)

Here is an amazing little tool that helps you plan your garden.

Plan Your Garden Software

The most important thing you can do is to decide you are going to create an organic garden in the first place, to help feed your family the great organic gourmet meals you love.

Once you have made this decision, all you have to do is follow the steps and be willing to make mistakes -- because you will. However, you can still grow great food even if you make a LOT of mistakes (as long as you don’t kill the plants, hehehe.)

The first thing to do is to plan.

* Growing Conditions. What kind of growing conditions do you have? (You will not want to try to raise plants that require a long growing season when yours is short, for instance. Won’t work. Or raise crops requiring full sun -- most do, by the way -- if you have partial shade.) The growing conditions will help determine which plants you can grow and which you cannot. Accept it and work with what you have.

* Soil. What kind of soil do you have? Clay? Sandy? Loam? Know what you’ve got to work with, and add whatever you need to make it suitable for the kinds of crops you want to grow. One of the secrets to good organic gardening is the soil: great food grows in great soil.

It needs to be what is called “friable” which means that the soil crumbles in your hand when you pick up a handful, and it looks and smells sweet. Earthworms abound, which help to make it rich and healthy.

If your soil does not have earthworms, you can buy some -- but first be sure there is nothing in the soil that would kill them, because if the soil is not healthy, earthworms will not grow there and neither should food.

You can get an inexpensive soil testing kit, and test your soil to find out what it contains. You want a soil able to support crops, which means it will not contain any contaminants or harmful bacteria such as nematodes or fungi. A good soil testing kit will tellyou this, and it’s an investment worth making.

* Crop Choices. What are your preferences about food? Which plants are a must-have, which ones would be nice, and which ones do you not care either way if you grow or not? Make a list.

* Herbs? Will you be growing herbs along with vegetables and/or fruits? They can be planted along with some of the veggies, or in a separate area, depending on your growing conditions and garden space.

* Growing Zone. Do you know which varieties do well in the area of the country where you live? (Seed catalogs generally provide this information for you.)

* Your Gardening Style. What style of gardening do you intend? Square-foot gardening? Raised beds? Poles or other supports for vined or sprawling crops? Rows-and-hills? Containers? Hydroculture?

*Plan. Whatever your style, draw out a plan on paper, so that you can see where everything will go. If you are new to gardening, it is useful to learn about the concept of companion planting, since there really are some plants that “like” each other and those that don’t. Know what you can safely place next to each other, so that you don’t accidentally cause problems as the plants grow.

* Spacing. On a similar note, do you know how much space each grown plant requires? Novices often make the mistake of growing plants too closely together, so that the grown plant cannot get enough soil nutrients or sunlight to be healthy. Just like you, most plants hate to be crowded!

* Preparation. You need to prepare your soil and garden plot well in advance of planting. Sometimes you can till the soil in the fall and let it lie fallow over winter, then till it again in early spring and plow in the soil amendments you need to create a rich growing environment. This takes advance planning, so if you are starting late, maybe you want to find a way to grow some plants this year and plan how to “do it right” next year.

* Timing. You need to get your plants into the ground at the right time of year, into soil that has been properly prepared to receive them.

If you are growing from seeds, you can start your seedlings indoors during the late winter months, and get them ready to go into the garden after the first frost (you need to check your almanac or regional agricultural extension service to learn when that is in your area.)

If you are growing from seedlings, you need to find out when and where you can purchase the plants to be able to get them into the ground as soon as you buy them.

Often your local farmers markets will sell seedlings of various kinds of common (or even sometimes more rare specimens) of plants for home organic gardening; it’s worth asking!

* Planting. Find out how to plant or transplant your seeds or seedlings, so that they will have the best chance possible to take root and grow strong and healthy.

* Food and water. Hey, we all need to eat! Give your organic plants something to grow on -- natural fish emulsion, the right amounts of water, compost, organic fertilizer, and -- most important of all -- mulch.

* Pest control. Read up on how to do it without chemicals. There are many great solutions, from companion and trap plantings (where the pests eat your "sacrifice" crops instead of what YOU want to eat) to natural organic pest control. Whatever you do, don't give in to the urge to put synthetic chemical on your food crops.

There really are better ways to go -- and after all, the point is for everything to be healthy, not just you. There is more to consider here that just human health -- great tasting, nourishing foods start with healthy soil, and with plants that have been raised the way nature intended -- organically.

Here you can find everything you will need to grow your own organic foods:

* -Heirloom seeds and seedlings

* Tools and equipment

* Sources for organic fertilizer, compost and mulch

* Soil amendments

* Organic gardening how-to information

If you want to be in the loop about organic gardening, you need to subscribe to THE magazine:

More solutions (and guidelines for organic gardening) will follow; stay tuned!