New Interest in Gardening with out chemicals

There has been a new movement in gardening and more specifically, “organic gardening.” The use of chemicals has become a four-letter word and the hunger for information on how to garden naturally or to have a “Green Garden” is obvious with all the activity on the Internet, and the scores of books on gardening. With this movement, back yards are tuning into green gardens everywhere.

The Green Gardener Knows Best

Naturally grown food is considerably higher in essential Vitamins and minerals, minus the chemical additives, the nonexistent artificial pesticide, fertilizers and other stuff we don’t know about, makes growing your own food very appealing.

Green gardening is the healthiest and most down-to-earth method for home gardeners. Besides the nutritional value, the taste and smells from heirloom varieties is more than palatable, they’re delicious. Most grocery store produce has been modified to grow more uniformly and to conform to the needs of the marketers and not the consumers. Not paying much attention to nutritional values or flavor.

Green Gardening Techniques

New terms have popped up from this movement such as, composting, companion gardening, lasagna gardening, intensive gardening, raised garden beds, layered gardening and one of my favorite, square foot gardening just to mention a few. Not that any of these ideas are new but old technics that are making a big comeback.

Start with easy to grow varieties and of course grow plants that are going to grow well in your zone and soil type. Your local extension agency can help you with what will grow best for you.

Start With a Raised Garden Bed

A raised garden bed is a good way to start, it is easy to maintain, and if you use plenty of compost, leaf mold, or well-rotted manure in your raised bed, you can grow most any garden vegetable that grows well in your zone.

A raised garden bed can be as simple as four planks nailed together or as ornate as your imagination can muster up. Make your raised bed no wider than three feet so you can reach into the garden from both sides without steeping into it.

To start a raised bed, I think the easiest way is to assemble your bed in an area that will get the most sun away from buildings and trees etc. After you have your raised bed together arrange inside of the bed a heavy layer of newspaper,”12 layers will work fine”, making sure the paper is tight to the edges. Next fill the bed full with your prepared soil, compost, rotted manure, leaf mold or a combination of all. The newspaper will kill all the sod; grass or weeds under it and if you have no weed seeds in the soil you added you should have a good clean start. Weeding is always a garden chore.

If you don’t have a back yard to garden, see if there is a community garden in your area. They are becoming very popular and usually offer a good size plot for the beginner or small time gardener.

The Green Gardeners Easiest Vegetables to Grow

Some of the easiest and fast growing vegetables are the greens.

Lettuce for example, growing from seed germinates quickly and can be harvested in just a few weeks. There are so many varieties that you can have different greens or greens for you salad every day, well almost. You can plant radishes sparingly in the same row as the lettuce to mark the line. Radish will germinate in a few days.

Summer Squash is a fast growing plant and if you plant just two plants you will have all the summer squash one family needs.

Carrots take a long time to come up but if you keep the soil moist you will be delighted with the flavor of a freshly harvested root crop.

Green Beans have been one of my choice plants to grow. The varieties are many and you can harvest them green or allow them to fully mature and harvest as a baking bean. There are basically to types of plants, one being the pole bean that will need a tall trellis to grow on but will produce more beans per plant. The other type is the bush bean, grows low and does not need support.

Tomatoes can be purchased as a plant or started from seed early in a green house or south facing window and set out after the danger of frost.

Rewarding and Relaxing

I think gardening is a natural instinct for man. We all need to eat and most all of us love to. When you eat something that you grow and harvest from your garden, its the most rewarding sensation, you will know what I am talking about when you start your own Green Garden. Once it’s in your system, your life will change. The time I spend in the garden is never work but rewarding and a great place to unwind.