Organic gardening is all the rage and for good reason. Risks to pets, people and the environment are just beginning to be understood. Becoming an organic farmer takes a little planning. Typical garden problems need to be proactively managed as opposed to correcting them after they happen.

Pesticides and toxic chemicals can build up in your system or have long-term effects on your health. Pesticide exposure has been linked to nerve damage, cancer and birth defects.

Children and infants are at a dramatically increased risk for damage done by chemicals and pesticides. Children have excretory systems that are still developing. This means that they are less able to rid their bodies of chemicals consumed. Chemical damage can alter the biology of their bodies permanently, causing all sorts of problems. Developing organs and tissues can suffer when chemicals block absorption of nutrients.

Needless to say, avoiding chemicals and pesticides in your garden is a good step towards protecting the health and well being of yourself and your family.

To grow an organic garden, you need to anticipate problems that you may encounter. Keep a garden diary to document problems that you encounter and treatments that were effective for you. This way, you can adjust your planting patterns and types of plants each year. Many people find that it takes a bit of research to really have a successful organic garden.

If you have had a garden in your area before, you probably already know what to expect. For example, you may be able to predict that your garden will get fire ants and rabbits will make themselves at home. If you already know what you will be up against, preventing problems will be easier. Talk to your neighbors if you are not sure.

Prevention is key. You really do not have to worry about many bugs. Nature has a good balance of its own and over ninety percent of bugs will not harm your plants. Simple organic solutions can help you keep bugs and animals that you do not want out of your garden.

For example, human hair spread around the garden will keep out rabbits. Lavender and basil deter ants. Rosemary will repel mosquitoes. The way that you arrange your plants can help protect certain vegetables, too. Garlic and peppers planted around tomatoes and squash will help protect them from harmful insects and rodents.

Finding the right balance of beneficial bugs and plants may take a little time and effort, but the fruits of your labor will be well worth it. Once you have the right combination of plants, caring for your organic garden is as simple as watering. Keep your garden hose on a hose reel for quick and easy access. You will love your organic garden and how easy it is to take care of.

If you’re not a big fan of getting dirty in the outside garden, then fear not. Most of the vegetables grown at home can be grown equally well in containers. By finding the right container and filling it with the right potting mixture, you will be able to grow anything you want in it, even tomatoes.

First you need to find the right size container for your plants. If you want the little cherry tomatoes (which are excellent in salads) then you can use the regular size hanging baskets, but if you prefer the larger tomatoes you’d do best to purchase five gallon buckets, because your plants need plenty of room to grow, you don’t want them to be cramped. Next you need to go to a nursery and purchase your tomato plants. You don’t want to get too large of a plant, you can buy a determinate tomato plant, that stops growing after they reach a certain size, or indeterminate that will continue to grow and produce larger tomato plants. Two very popular indeterminate tomato plants are Big Beef and Better Boy, which are also very resistant to plant disease and will give you tomatoes for a longer period of time.

Now you’re ready to begin planting, make sure you put some holes in the bottom of your container for proper drainage. You don’t want your plant to become overwhelmed with excess water. Carefully remove the bottom few sets of leaves and place the plant in the container. Make sure you don’t use a flimsy, light weight container, because when your tomatoes are in bloom they may be top heavy and could cause the plant to topple. Tomatoes should be staked as early as possible, to prevent root disturbances caused by setting in the stake. Use a well mixed potting soil supplemented with plenty of organic matter to enrich the taste of your tomatoes. Ask at your neighborhood nursery for help in picking out the proper soil and fertilizer for in home planting.

Plants need plenty of sunlight, at least 6 to 8 hours a day. A grow light can be very beneficial in growing young plants, especially on cloudy days with limited sunlight. Be sure to water them daily, forgetting to water them for a couple of days and then starting to water them again, and then you once again forgetting; this rigorous process could delay the growth of your tomato plants. So please, be consistent with your care for them.

Planning your organic vegetable garden isn’t a difficult step, but it is important.  If you start without a good plan, your garden could fail miserably.  A good organic vegetable garden can provide a cost savings versus purchasing at the supermarket.  When you cut out the profit to the farmer and the middle man, you save a lot more than you can imagine.  It takes a little time, but with some effort you could end up selling your very own vegetables to help subsidise your own income.  

So, the first thing you want to do is decide what to plant.  That is an article in itself and I assume you already have an idea.  If not, as soon as you are done reading this article, look up different vegetables to plant.

The worst thing you could do is rush into your yard and start plugging holes into the ground without a plan.  There are some things to consider when it comes to your garden location that could cost you time and money if you aren’t careful.  So, once you have all of your supplies and you have decided what vegetables you are going to grow, it is time to plan out your garden.

Start with a sketch of what you would like your garden to look like.  Get a piece of paper and a pencil and draw out your plan.  Plan out exactly where you would like your garden to be, but be sure to pick a spot that will get plenty of sunshine.  Your best bet is to watch your yard for about a week prior to digging up your garden.  This will give you a great idea on what section of your yard is bathed in sunlight.  

There are other things that you should be mindful of when selecting your site. Don’t use areas that have recently been repaired or that are near metal fences. The chemicals you recently used and the metal from the fence could be infecting the area and would contaminate your crops.  Another pitfall to avoid is divets in the ground.  If there is a large enough area that is low, it could cause water to pool after watering or a rain.  That stagnant water will drown your garden before it gets to start.  

When you think you have the perfect spot, immediately stop using any chemicals in the area. When planting your seeds, aim for an efficient layout.  Beans or peas can be grown near corn.  This would allow you to use the corn stalk as a stake and save you the money and hassle in buying stakes.  A quick pest control tip is to plant onions, garlic, or basil.  The odor from these plants is a natural insect repellant.  Use them as a barrier on the outside of your garden to help control the pests.

So, there you have the simple steps of planning your organic garden.  Happy planting and feel free to offer me the first tomatoes.  

Picture three ripe red tomatoes arranged on a wooden cutting board awaiting your pleasure. They’ve each come from a different source: can you tell which one was grown organically?
Two of the tomatoes were lovingly tended in backyards – one in a conventional garden and the other in an organic garden. The third tomato came from the supermarket, and it’s easy to eliminate from the guessing game.
The supermarket tomato is the pale red one the size and shape of a tennis ball. Bred for packing, shipping, and storing, (not flavor), this tomato was picked green, has traveled more than a thousand miles from farm to store, and has sat on the shelf for weeks — looking none the worse for wear.
Set this one aside. It was definitely not grown organically.
Two remain. For the sake of the game, they are the same tomato variety, let’s say Big Beef slicers. Bright red, they were just picked and are still warm to the touch from afternoon sun.
It’s not so easy to tell the difference in these; we have to look beyond the surface… literally. The quality of the soil from which they grew is the key element to naming the winner of this game: conventional tomato vs. organic tomato.
The chemicals in the fertilizers used in conventional gardens actually break down the health of the soil. Microbes that are necessary for making soil nutrients available to the plants are killed off.
The dead soil requires increasing doses of conventional fertilizer, and still the plants are malnourished, falling prey to insects and disease. Enter the deadly pesticides, sprayed liberally on the plant.
Now, the game is getting serious. One of the two remaining contestants in our tomato contest had better be carefully washed before being eaten; it’s been dusted with poison.
On the other hand, the organically grown tomato also had fertilizer applied to it, but this fertilizer was made from naturally occurring substances like bone meal, fish emulsion, and rock phosphate. These additions fed the soil and did no harm to the beneficial microbes that make nutrients available for use by plants.
Pesticides probably weren’t necessary because a healthy plant produces its own pest-resistant chemicals. But if there were pests, the organic gardener might have used a home-mixed spray of hot pepper and garlic, or something similarly non-toxic to humans.
There are a few additional techniques the organic gardener probably used, such as tilling in a cover crop to add organic material for the microbes and earthworms to decompose. This process results in a crumbly textured soil that holds moisture and allows the roots to breathe.
But even without the soil improvement from a cover crop, it’s fairly clear which tomato is better for health: the only nutrients that can be found in the fruit had to come from what was available in the soil. The organically grown tomato provides better nutrition.
What is not so clear is which tomato is better for flavor. A test of the ratio of sugar to acid might be made, but that isn’t a big issue. Both the conventionally grown and organically grown tomato are vastly superior in flavor to the poor tomato found in most supermarkets.
The original question in this tomato guessing game was whether you could tell which one of those ripe, juicy tomatoes on the cutting board was organic. Turns out that it’s hard to tell just by looking, or even just by tasting.
So, what’s the big issue? Mainly this: sustainability. Conventional growing depletes and eventually destroys the soil. Whereas organic growing techniques actually build and improve the soil.
In the end, the nutritious organic tomato contributes more to your health, and it is certainly better for the health of the soil from which all future crops will come.