DIY Network

Why Go Organic? Why Go Organic? From "Fresh from the Garden" episode DFFG-203

On this episode of Fresh From the Garden, we'll show you how to grow vegetables organically. You'll see how to take an old garden and convert it to an organically grown garden as well. You'll learn about crop rotation, beneficial plants and intercropping. On the Homegrown Hint, we'll show you how to use a colony of bees to make your garden more productive.

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Host Joe Lamp'l explains some of the primary reasons for gardening organically: among them, to avoid the use of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, therefore making the garden more natural; and to improve the quality of the soil by adding layers of organic material. He lays out a new organic bed in the garden, separates it into four sections and adds organic amendments so the beds are ready to be planted in.

Organic gardening has become very popular in recent years. A lot of folks think it's just gardening without pesticides and synthetic fertilizers, but it's so much more than that. There are several reasons to garden organically. First, because organic gardens use little or no synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, the garden is more natural. Second, organic gardening improves the soil in the garden by adding layers of organic material. Third, gardeners get enjoyment from the back-to-nature feel of organic gardening (figure A).

• Choose a location that gets lots of sun and access to water. Since you are not going use synthetic fertilizers in this garden, it's critical that the ground be as healthy and rich as possible (figure B). If you're considering an organic garden, you have to weigh your desire to have organic produce with the extra work that these gardens often require.

  Figure A

  Figure B

  
  

• Tilling is one way to make organic gardening a little easier and faster (figure C). When you till a garden, there are a couple of things to get done. First, the soil has to be broken up and loose so that air and water can move around the plant roots. Second, this is a chance to rake out any clods and rocks that you find. Also, you can pull out any stray weeds or grass you see -- you don't want them popping up between your vegetables.

• Another way to aerate and loosen your soil, especially if you have lots of clay, is to do what's called double digging. To do this, pull back the loose soil from the top 1' of the garden. Then use a garden fork to loosen the lower hard ground (figure D). You can add compost or manure to the hole and it'll get pushed down into the holes and cracks you're making. The open pockets you create by double digging will give plant roots a place to go to find food and water. This'll make the plant healthier and more drought-tolerant. The double-digging method is very labor-intensive, but the vegetables you grow will produce more vegetables in a shorter amount of time.

  Figure C

  Figure D

  
  

• Compost is an organic gardener's best friend (figure E). Compost is fertilizer, mulch and weed preventer, all in one. If you have a compost pile you can draw from, great; if not, then you can purchase compost by the bag or truckful. Because an organic garden won't have the benefit of synthetic fertilizers, you have to work a little harder to get compost worked deeply into your soil. The deeper you get it, the easier a plant will grow into the soil. Then it can put all its energy into producing vegetables.

• One way to get compost spread through your garden soil is to till it in (figure F). You may be wondering, why not till the compost in at the first tilling? This is because the goal of the first tilling is to break up and clean out the soil. Going through the garden a second time to work in amendment makes the soil even healthier for your vegetable plants.

  Figure E

  Figure F

  
  

• The upper soil zone, the first 6" to 10", is where most of the small feeder roots grow on vegetable plants. To make sure these roots get the food they need, spread a 2" to 4" layer of compost (more if you have it) over the whole surface of the garden (figure G). Remember, you need to be generous because this takes the place of synthetic fertilizers. Make several passes to get the compost worked in well. Continue to rake any clods and rocks between passes. Once your ground is loose and the compost is fully mixed, you are ready to divide your garden into individual beds.

• If you have a large bed or garden, divide it equally into squares, leaving a 2'-wide path between the sections (figure H). That way you can have separate deep mounds that are narrow enough to work around and to reach across. The deeper the soil is, the quicker the plants get growing.

• One way to keep stray plants and weeds out of your garden is to cover the rows with newspaper and straw. The paper cuts out light and air, and the straw makes it look neater and keeps the paths cooler. Once you have the papers down, wet them until they're heavy and set in place (to keep them from blowing away). Then apply a 2" layer of dry straw on top. Landscape fabric is another good way to prevent weeds in your garden rows (figure I). It's easy to lay out, and it can be pulled out at the end of the season, before you till for your next crop.

  Figure G

  Figure H

  Figure I

  
  

• All of the tilling and compost has stirred up weed seeds and possibly bacteria and fungus in the soil. One way to prevent problems is to solarize the soil. This means heating up the ground enough to kill weed seeds and soilborne diseases. Heavy black plastic tacked down over the beds is the most common way to do this. It's best to leave the plastic for a few weeks or months. As well as making the soil healthier, it also warms it up for the new plants you're going to put in the garden.

Garden Conversion

Many of you may have a garden that you'd like to convert to an organic garden. You don't want to start from scratch with a new garden. There are lots of theories about organic gardening from a strict "no chemical" garden to a "use chemicals only when necessary" garden. You have to decide what's right for you.

Figure J

1. If you've decided to take your old garden and make it more organic, the first step is to enrich the soil with natural materials like compost, leaf mold, mulch or one of the specially formulated organic soil amendments you can buy. You need to work the material deeply to provide adequate nutrition and to dilute any chemicals that may already be in the soil. Organic gardeners have a lot of choices when it comes to soil amendments. You can buy bagged bone meal, blood meal and even dried seaweed to add to your vegetable beds.

2. Check the temperature of your covered organic beds to see whether they are hot enough to uncover and plant vegetables (figure J). Once the soil temperature gets above 100 degrees, a lot of pests and diseases just won't make it.