Growing your own vegetables is healthier and more cost-effective than buying them from a grocery store.
Organic gardening is a current trend in which you don't use man-made chemicals to rid your plants of insects or fertilizer to increase your soil's efficiency.
These organic gardening tips will help you grow fresh, healthy vegetables right in your own yard.
Begin with the ground.
The healthiest plants thrive in good growing conditions, which means for most plants at least 6 hours of direct sun a day.
Poor soil should be amended with organic matter such as compost, manure, or chopped up leaves.
This matter injects depleted nutrients into the soil that your vegetables will sorely need in order to grow properly.
Choose your plants with care.
Some plants are inherently more prone to pest and disease problems than others are.
Tomatoes are one example of this.
To reduce the risk of these problems, opt for disease-resistant varieties; a plant's resistance can usually be found on seed packets, plant tags, and catalog listings.
Find natural ways to feed your plants.
Natural products help your plants thrive and give better crops.
Great sources for this include well-rotted animal manure from plant-eaters (e.
g.
horses, cows, sheep, etc.
).
If this option is not available to you, your local garden center or online stores offer prepackaged organic materials that will do the trick.
Remember though that not every garden needs fertilizing; in fact, some soil is better off without it.
Rotation, rotation, rotation.
Disease can build up if you plant the same vegetables in the same spot every year.
To keep your soil healthy and disease free, plant your crops in different parts of your garden each year.
Caution: Many closely related plants are affected by the same diseases, so avoid planting them where their relatives were the year or two before.
Two of the biggest families to watch out for are the tomato family (tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, eggplant) and squash (pumpkin, squash, cucumber, watermelon).