"Organic Gardening"
Organic gardening was the way of the past and hopefully it will be the way of the future, as we learn mor about the damage we are causing to our environment.
  Organic fruit and vegetables are often still at least twice the
price of unorganic produce, and it pays therefore to be producing our own food as much as we possibly can. Unless you have a large area of land, including polytunnels and greenhouses, and perhaps an army of gardeners to do a lot of the work for you, it's unlikely you will be able to grow the variety of fruit and veg you are used to buying.
However, there are many different fruits, vegetables, herbs and even edible flowers we can grow in an average sized garden, and in a few hours every week, organic food can be included in the diet of all the family, however addicted to burgers, fries and chocolate buttons they are! Plan your garden and buy the seeds you want from a reputable seed supplier.
Thompson and Morgan are online worldwide suppliers of seeds and
other products and they have some great pictures to drool over!
Keep your fruit and veggies free from weeds, and water well, especially during long dry periods during the summer. Keep an eye on the slug and snail population when the plants are small. A slug attack can wipe out a whole row of carefully planted lettuces in a matter of hours. Organic gardening worked for our ancestors so try using old fashioned ways of dealing with slugs rather than buying
chemical slug pellets. For example, crushed eggshells placed around the plants, making sure there are no gaps, will prevent slugs from eating your young plants. Many gardeners swear by a glass of beer! - Maybe to drink, but also to sink into the ground next to a new line of plants. Apparantly slugs prefer the smell of beer and will happily drown themselves in alcohol and leave your baby lettuces to fight another day!
Other pests can get into the garden and enjoy the free food you are providing, and they will particularly love your organic gardening methods :-) but with a little vigilance and a regular potter around the veggie patch, you should be able to keep on top of most of the problems that could turn up. The cabbage white butterfly will attack your brassicas - and they WILL attack so watch out for them. They lay their eggs on the underside of the leaves and within a couple of days the hungriest caterpillars in the world will munch through your entire crop of cabbages, or any other brassicas.
Remove them at the egg stage and burn or throw them to the chickens. If you miss the egg stage, simply take off the leaves the caterpillars are eating and throw them on the fire, or again to the chickens. This may seem very un-zen like but unless you are intending to buy your cabbages and are just planting them for the fun of attracting caterpillars and increasing the butterfly population, there is little choice. Always look out for natural products or advice from local gardeners. Some will use chemicals, but many gardeners dislike un-natural products. If you put chemicals onto your plants , the chemicals will find their way into the soil and the soil wont be as fertile next
year, so its really worthwhile avoiding any un-natural products.
Stick with organic gardening, and the wonderful organic food you produce will feed your family for many years to come from the same patch of land. Find out more about healthy eating on this page... Healthy Eating
Happy Gardening! Grow Your Own Groceries: Producing your own food is not only rewarding but - in times of economic and environmental changes - increasingly a must! Nature provides everything the human body requires to thrive, and organic gardening in your own back garden will not only produce the best food on the planet for you and your loved ones, it is also economical, environmentally friendly and more fun than shopping.
 Gardening is more than a hobby; it's a way of life. Even without a garden, many plants can be grown in containers, on a balcony, and indoors. Order it now direct from the publisher... Grow Your Own Groceries Herb Gardening: Herbs are becoming recognised more and more as superfoods, as if we didn't know that really! 'Herb Gardening' has been beautifully put together by the publisher (Crowood Press) into a well presented book with full colour photos.  Along with growing instructions for forty different herbs, there are lots of great ideas, including culinary delights and medicinal alternatives. You'll also find gardening advice as well as some ideas on planning a herb garden. Order it now direct from the
publisher... Herb Gardening
Grow Your Own Pharmacy: If, like me, you want to be able to eat the best food on the planet, grow your own!  • Clear instructions on planning, planting, growing and harvesting the fruits, vegetables and herbs required for a healthy vitamin intake. • Recipes and menus to help incorporate the fruit and vegetables into your daily diet. Back to Gardening Back to Flower and Garden Tips Homepage Click here to subscribe to "Creative Gardening" - Your FREE monthly ezine! http://www.flower-and-garden-tips.com/organicgardening.html |
broad beans 
brussel sprouts 
Carrots
Chile Peppers 
Sweetcorn