Organic vegetable gardening is not only an engaging hobby, but it is also healthy and totally rewarding. If you plan carefully and get all necessary supplies, your jaunt into the world of organic vegetable gardening can be all that you are dreaming it to be. Just remember, that you will not have a successful garden on accident. Your organic vegetable garden will require some preparation and efforts, but you will see - it is worth it all!



Organic vegetable gardening is unlike from conventional gardening in two major ways. They differ from the utilization of fertilizers and pest control. The fertility of the soil depends on three components: nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.

Consider planting your own vegetables the organic way - either in your back yard or even at home. Indoors organic vegetable gardening can be as successful as outdoors; in fact indoors you will have even more control as you can adjust the heat and light as per your requirements.

Composting is a very effective organic way of enriching the soil. Compost can be made easily in pots from your backyard with garden and kitchen food waste. Materials like leaves, lawn cutting, pine needles, weeds, carrot tops, spoiled fruit and vegetable, animal manure and the like, can be used to attain good compost. The decomposition reaction of the organic material forms bacteria and fungi in the soil. This aids in changing over unavailable nutrients like nitrogen to ammonia and nitrates making it usable for the plants. This process is known as nitrification. Rock phosphates, natural occurring deposits of phosphorus in combination with calcium, can be mixed with the compost. Natural potassium occurs in substances like wood ashes, tobacco stems, seaweed, potash salts and ground rock potash. They can be also mixed for organic vegetable gardening.

The organic material takes longer to break down and affect the soil. Therefore it should be added at least two weeks before planting the vegetables. The pH scale extends from 0 to 14. 0 indicates extreme acidic conditions. 14 is extreme alkaline and 7 suggests a neutral soil. The most inexpensive and effective material for elevating the pH is ground limestone. Dolomite limestone has an extra ingredient, magnesium, which many soils lack. If the pH of the soil is alkaline, finely ground sulphur is used to lower it.

Be careful not to use toxic fertilizers - if you can't make your own fertilizer, purchase one from an organic store and be sure that it doesn't contain any chemicals. Actually, there are many natural things that you can use directly from your own kitchen to help the growth of your vegetables.