Organic gardening has so many benefits
The goal of an organic garden is to reap the benefits of knowing what was in your soil, where you bought your seeds and reduce the cost and environmental impact of food being shipped from far away.
Organic gardening might seem like a challenge, especially with pest control, but one of the best things you can do is to create balance.
Garden balance will not be perfect every year, often when things are done large-scale, that balance is harder to achieve.
The great thing about backyard organic gardening is that it’s on a smaller scale, which means organic gardening is easier to achieve.
One goal of the organic garden is to attract beneficials to eat bad bugs.
Below you can see ladybugs love frilly leaves and help get rid of aphids for you.
Grow plants that attract beneficials, or deter pests from your crops, is great organic pest management.
- Vegetable garden companion planting examples
- Naturally repel and prevent aphids
- Companion planting flowers and herbs
- Organic pest control in your garden
- Using Ladybugs for Aphids
Build a bug hotel to attract those beneficials! The builders network shows you how to build one.
The organic garden also wants to help promote wild pollinators and increase biodiversity
- Garden better with biodiversity and wild pollinators
- What plants need pollinators to produce?
- Herb gardening with permaculture zones
- Grow a Permaculture Garden (Less Work + More Yields)
- Home-scale Backyard Permaculture Design
Choosing where you source your seeds and soil is important.
Make sure that your seeds are organic or at least not affiliated with a GMO company (that doesn’t mean the seeds are GMO as most garden seeds aren’t. However, big GMO seed companies are buying out small companies therefore affiliated with them). Here’s a list of organic or heirloom seed companies that I recommend.
Building organic soil
The great thing is that you can buy organic seed starter soil (I love Myke products that has MYCORRHIZAE it in it).
MYCORRHIZAE form a network of fine filaments that associate with plant roots and draw nutrients and water from the soil that the root system would not be able to access otherwise.
There’s a whole world of fungi and microorganisms that are beneficial to the organic home garden
- It’s important to focus on increasing soil microbes in your organic soil.
- Build better soil with Azomite trace minerals
- Azos Nitrogen Fixing Bacteria + Plants to Restore Nitrogen
Weed control can be challenging with the organic garden
- What to do When Weeds Have Taken Over Your Garden
- Natural weed killer recipe
- Choose the best garden mulch for your paths and garden beds for natural weed control and building soil.
- Permaculture chicken run designs
- Home-scale Backyard Permaculture Design
