How to Grow Organic Vegetables From Seed

Feel healthier about what you eat by growing an organic vegetable garden.

While vegetables add healthy nutrition to every meal, vegetables grown organically provide even more healthy features than those grown by nonorganic methods. Organically grown gardens do not contain any types of chemicals used in most commercial vegetable gardens, making organic vegetables healthier for consumption. To grow an organic vegetable garden, you must use all natural products to fertilize and protect vegetation.

Things You'll Need

• Garden tiller
• Manure
• Compost
• Vegetable seeds
• Water
• Mulch
• Gardening lime (optional)

Instructions

1. Till up a garden site. Tilling the garden loosens the soil for planting and introduces oxygen to the soil. For this you may use a mechanical garden tiller, or till the land with a manual tiller.

2. Apply manure and compost to the garden site. Till the garden again to mix the manure and compost into the soil. These materials fertilize and add nutrients to the soil.

3. Distribute or plant organically prepared seeds. Follow the directions of the vegetable seed packaging to plant the seeds correctly and at the right time of the year. The package directions will guide you on whether you need to distribute the seeds onto the surface of the garden or if you need to plant the seeds below the ground. Additionally, use organically prepared seeds that have not been coated in chemical fertilizers.

4. Water the seeds after planting. Follow watering directions on seed packaging for watering the area immediately after sowing or planting the seeds. Some vegetables need immediate watering while others can wait a day for water.

5. Apply mulch to the garden site as soon as vegetable seedlings appear. Use only organic mulches, such as wood chips and yard clippings, and cover the entire garden area, except for a 2- to 3-inch diameter space around each vegetable seedling. The mulch holds nutrients in the soil, adds nutrients and prevents the growth of weeds.

6. Continue to water the garden as necessary to keep the soil moist while the plants grow, flower and produce edible vegetation. You may discontinue watering after the plants stop yielding vegetables.

7. Fertilize the vegetable garden once a week or as necessary. To fertilize an organic garden you must apply additional manure and compost. To do this easily, create a compost tea by mixing water with compost and use this to water the plants on days when you need to add fertilizer.

Tips & Warnings

• You may also fertilize your plants and protect them from harmful pests by applying lime, a powder derived from ground rocks that hinders garden pests and raises the alkalinity of garden soil.

References

• Countryfarm Lifestyles: How to Grow Vegetables Organically
• Vegetable Gardening Online: Organic Vegetable Garden-Basic Information for Preparing and Planning
• Gardening Know How: How to Grow an Organic Garden

Resources

• Gardenzone.info: Why Grow Organic?