Growing organic fruits and vegetables may sound like a daunting task, but in reality it’s not much harder than normal gardening. If you plan to eat foods from your garden, then organic gardening will certainly pay off in the long run. It’s much healthier for you and helps you to cut out many of the pesticides that currently plague the foods we consume. Here are five tips from the pros that even the beginning gardener can follow.
1. Prepare your soil
Pack your soil with organic material such as composted manure or yard and kitchen scrap compost. Organic materials are full of nutrients for your plants. The more organic material you add to the soil the less fertilizer you need. Here’s a tip, coffee grounds are great for mulch around acid-loving plants.
2. Consider bugs and insects
Since you’re going organic, you will need to consider the various plants that repel insects, invite them, and the plants that bugs like to eat. Many people utilize ladybugs because they provide a natural form of pest control.
3. Layout is important
When planning the layout of your garden, make sure to keep your plants fairly close to each other. If your plants are close, their leaves will block the soil from direct sunlight. By keeping the soil shaded, you will cut down on weed growth and help the soil retain water. You must leave a little space in between plants though, because you don’t want them to grow on top of each other, this will cause fungus and disease.
4. Relocate your plants
Change up your plant locations after each growing season. Relocating your plants cuts down on soil depletion and disease. Beans put nutrients back into the soil that can be used for the next crop. You will avoid disease by relocating plants because organisms that infect one plant tend not to harm others, so rotating will prevent disease from spreading.
5. Control your watering
Make sure when you water your plants that you go deep. If you do frequent, shallow watering then your plants’ roots will stay near the surface and become week or deprived of water.
Harvest Live Smart is a master-planned community in North Texas focused on healthy living and getting back to the land. Be sure to connect with us on Facebook and Twitter for even more gardening and sustainability tips!