1. Start with the basics. Don’t be tempted to spend an enormous amount of money on your first supplies, materials, and tools. There’s no such thing as a magic bullet, and you’ll only end up with very expensive vegetables. Organic gardening can actually be done much less expensively than conventional gardening. Compost, manure, and other soil additives replace expensive fertilizer, and natural control methods keep pest levels down.

2. Grow your plants in the right spot. Take the time to plan which vegetables you’ll be growing and find out what kind of sunlight requirements they have. Take the time to find an area of your yard that will provide the amount of light and the soil qualities that these plants need. The right conditions can help you avoid many problems before they even begin.

3. Prepare the soil correctly. Check the pH, moistness, and type of soil you have available, then add amendments to make it what you need. You might need to add in compost, animal manures, grass clippings, ashes, or other substances to improve the condition of your soil. This might seem like a lot of work to start with, but it will help your garden grow, and will keep on working for you down the line. Setup of an organic garden is the hardest part.

4. Start your own compost pile. Compost can be purchased cheaply, but you don’t know what goes into it. Composting your own kitchen scraps and yard waste can help you dispose of these substances cheaply and in an ecologically friendly way, plus you’ll get great free fertilizer that you know is organic. You’ll be amazed at the difference that a good compost pile can make for your garden. Composting might seem like it’s a complicated process, but it really isn’t. Almost anyone can do it.

5. Don’t ignore your garden. Once you’ve tilled and planted your organic garden, it can be extremely tempting to ignore it. This isn’t a good idea in conventional gardens, either, but it can be disastrous if you’re growing organic. A little daily weeding and pest removal, a careful check over all plants, and some regular attention will do more to help your garden than any product you can buy. If you take the time to love your garden, you’ll be rewarded with wonderful results.

By Whitney Segura

Whitney Segura is an expert in agriculture and specializes in greenhouses, hydroponics, and organic gardening. Whitney writes many home and garden articles which have been published all over the web.

Thank you for visiting NewGardener.com. Our goal is to provide you with helpful tips and information that will make your garden a great one. Whether you are a new gardener getting ready to start your first garden, or an veteran gardener starting a new garden and hoping to learn something new, we think gardening should be fun and personally rewarding.

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Tim Lundie, Editor

Attitudes change. Now people are proud that they recycle organic waste instead of filling garbage cans, stuffing kitchen disposers, and calling for extra trash pickups whenever they trim a bush or two. And since smog-control laws prohibit the burning of garden trash in many areas, composting has become a convenient disposal method.

Without much preparation or expense, you can try composting to see how you like it. If you decide that it’s going to be a worthwhile practice, then you’ll want to construct one of the simple or complex compost bins shown on these pages. You might also consider a compost grinder. It makes the job go faster.

The article on soil improvement describes “humus,” the brown or black material that forms in the ground as amendments rot. In composting, you allow this humus to form above ground, since the varied organic materials of a compost pile are easier to use once they have rotted to a uniform substance. You can compost kitchen waste, animal litter, lawn clippings, leaves, dead plants, or chopped up clippings or pruned material (avoid adding any diseased material). Anything that was once alive will do. Just pile it up in a back corner of the yard, add a handful of nitrogen fertilizer, and keep it barely moist, never wet. To add air, toss and turn the pile with a fork. Do this stirring at least once a week if you can. In varying periods of time—perhaps three weeks, perhaps twice as long—the material will rot away, becoming a dark, clean-smelling, earthy mass. The more you stir, the quicker the material will rot.

The organic process that occurs in a compost pile is simple to understand. As the material decays, fungus and bacteria grow. As they “eat” the piled waste, they produce heat, making the center of the pile very hot. If the pile is not tossed and turned to keep the heat down and let bacterial action and fungus growth continue working at high speed, many of these organisms will die, slowing down the process.

Frequent tossing and turning of the compost pile will also prevent any unpleasant odor that can result from certain bacteria working when no oxygen is present. In addition, it helps to keep down the maggots and larvae that may appear on the surface of the pile. This is especially important in warm weather when their number increases along with the number of flies.

Composting is much quicker if you only add small bits and pieces of material to the pile. Depending on the size,  a whole branch might take months or years to rot away; even a big leaf takes longer to rot than a few leaf fragments. The bacteria and fungus just can’t digest hunks of material as fast as smaller pieces. You can buy machines, both gasoline and electric-powered, that chop big pieces of organic matter into bits. Some models can also be rented. And, for the rare occasion when you’ll need one, city maintenance departments and tree trimming firms often have heavy duty choppers available for rental by the hour.

When your compost pile has stopped producing heat in the center and looks and smells ready for use, fork it through a frame of fine hardware cloth to sift out the big pieces. Use only the fine siftings for amending your soil and pile up the unrotted material for a second go round.

Welded wire cylinder holds compost;
lift it off and set aside for easy turning, then fork mixture back in.