Planting your Organic Garden
You can choose to buy
plants that are already growing that can be found at most garden
centres, but if you do this, you can’t be sure what pesticides have
come in contact with these plants.
Your goal, as an organic
gardener, is to avoid these chemicals, so we recommend starting your
garden from seed.
If you want to simply
plant the seeds directly in the ground, that’s fine, just remember
that growing from seed takes a little more time than growing from
plants, so be patient! Don’t get too over-anxious here!
Many beginners will take
a seed packet and dump its contents into the ground hoping a few
plants will spring up. What they don’t realize is that with care,
they will probably ALL come up – or at least most of them.
The problem here is that
these plants will strive for air and light developing tall, weak
stems and they will not thrive as they choke each other out.
There are some plants
that can be seeded thickly. These include peas, parsnips and
radishes. It’s fine to block these together as they will grow fine
in clumps. Seeds have within them everything they need to grow,
except moisture and warmth. But, if you pile 4-inches of soil over
them, though, they are overwhelmed. The soil is heavy and cold and
often damp enough to rot off the emerging leaf bud before it can
break the surface. Be kind to your seeds. Cover them with soil to a
depth no more than 2-times their size. Very fine seeds shouldn’t be
covered at all.
There are also some
vegetables that are conductive to early planting. These include
radishes and leaf lettuce. They tend to come up quickly and can be
harvested before any of your other plants have even begun to bud.
With these types of plants, plant a single row or small bed and keep
replanting every two or three weeks in small amounts.
You’ll take up the same
amount of space, save harvest time, and have a continuous crop
throughout the growing season. When planting your seeds, you’ll need
to dig a small trench and sprinkle them evenly throughout the row.
The rows should be at least an inch apart, but increasing that
distance makes for easier weeding and gives you walking space
between the rows.
As we said, sprinkle them
evenly and try to avoid crowding. In other words, don’t just dump
the seed packet in the trench. You must leave room for the plants to
grow and be able to get adequate light and air circulation. Once
they’re in the ground, mark what you have planted where. This way
once the plants start to come up, you’ll know where to look for
them.
Water well after you’ve
planted your seeds and then wait. You’ll soon begin to notice small
plants popping through the soil and reaching for the sun. Before
long, with proper cultivation, you’ll have beautiful plants!
Sometimes, it’s more
satisfying to start your seeds indoors in the winter time so that
when the spring arrives, you’ll have your own organically grown
starter plants ready to put into your garden plot.
Let’s look at how to
start your seeds indoors.
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