How to Grow Your Own Organic Vegetables in Florida
Lots of people enjoy gardening. Many enjoy the health benefits from being outdoors, and more appreciate the health benefits from eating food grown without the use of chemicals and pesticides. Growing an organic vegetable garden is easy and no more time-consuming than any other type of garden. Florida is a great state to have a garden in because of the long growing season. Does this Spark an idea?
Things You'll Need
- Rototiller
- Organic manure
- Vegetable seeds
- Cardboard boxes
- Garden hose
- Compost pile
- Pitchfork
Instructions
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Turn the soil in your garden plot using a rototiller. Rent one from a hardware store or garden shop if you do not already own one, as they make preparing the soil so much easier.
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Spread some organic manure on top of the tilled soil for fertilization. Get this from a local farm that gives away or sells cow, horse or chicken manure. Make sure the farmers feed their animals only organic foods, since the animals' manure will contain chemicals if they eat chemicals. Till the soil again, adding in the manure.
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Purchase vegetable seeds that say they are organic, since even seeds are sometimes prepared using chemicals to clean and dry them.
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Use paper and pen to plan out your garden. Measure how much space you have and take note of how much space each variety of vegetable you want to grow needs. Lay out your garden accordingly.
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Plant the seeds at the appropriate time, according to the package directions. Do not sew most seeds until after the last frost, which in Florida is January to March, depending on the part of the state you live in.
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Conserve water and control weeds organically by recycling cardboard boxes. Watch for the seedlings to pop up above the soil. Lay sheets of cardboard down in between the rows of plants. Soak the cardboard well with a garden hose.
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Create your own organic compost. Purchase or make your own compost bin. Start the process by adding some soil, shredded newspaper and some kitchen garbage such as coffee grounds, eggshells or fruit and vegetable peels. Mix this up and add water until it is all moist, but not soaked. Mix once a week and add more water when it is dry if it does not get rained on. Add the compost to your garden to add necessary nutrients back to the soil organically.
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Weed and water your garden when necessary. Pick your organic vegetables when ripe.
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Tips & Warnings
You can also use newspaper in between the rows of plants to help contain moisture. Cardboard boxes work better for a longer period of time simply because they are heavier, but use whatever you have. Both are biodegradable.
Other items you can add to your compost pile are grass clippings and other yard waste, more organic manure and fireplace ashes. Do not put too much of any one thing into your compost pile. A variety provides you with better results. Add worms if your pile does not seem to be composting fast enough.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit pea sprouts image by Andrew Orlemann from Fotolia.com
