free organic vegetables from your backyard with very little effort

The first step is to decide where to locate your veggie patch.

This is perhaps the easiest part of the process ...because ....Plants Love Sun! So you need to pick the spot that has the most full sun throughout the day. Keep in mind that the sun is lower in the sky in winter so try to pick a place that you think will have as much sun as possible year round. If you have lots of trees or other shade, planting in containers may be the answer. You can move containers around at during the different seasons and can even have them higher up if you have a balcony.

Also remember to put the smallest varieties closest to the sun side so that taller plants don't create shade for them.

The second step is deciding what to grow.

Basically if you like to eat it and you have the right climate for it - grow it. Most vegetables are hardy and will grow well as long as they get enough sunshine and water. The best bet is to check with some local growers or nurseries to eliminate any problems.

A good idea is to grow something that is not readily available in your area. That way you save more money and get more variety.

Just remember when you are choosing your crop consider your space. Some vegetables need to be grown in crops, like corn, to produce and this takes considerable space. So think about your space limitations when choosing what to grow.

Growing food is typically seen as either an art form or damned hard work. It's no wonder very few people do it on a serious level. But what if a technique came along that was so easy and so prolific that even the busiest corporate executive could grow a significant portion of their family's food in less time than it takes to drive to the shops. Ecological gardening is the answer. It is the only way to get free organic vegetables from your backyard with very little effort.

There are three main differences in eco-gardening as opposed with conventional gardening.

The first and probably most significant is squeezing far more plants into a given area.

The second is to never dig the soil.

The third is an upgraded composting system.

Once these simple strategies are in place the garden will take on a life of its own. Weeds virtually stop growing in the beds and plants start living much longer. The garden will endure longer periods without water, it will yield far better and it can be harvested every day of the year.

Managing an ecological garden is different to managing a traditional vegetable garden. With an ecological garden, there is far less to do. As you become the observer and allow nature to take over as head gardener, you will notice that the garden is in a continual state of gentle change, just like a natural ecosystem.

Its easy to start an ecological vegetable garden. If you decide to plant directly in your own soil, firstly, get your pathways laid out so that you never have to walk on your garden beds. After that, get a good composting system going and apply it to the soil surface. Then plant densely and diversely.

An even easier way to start a vegetable garden is to organize a "no dig" or raised garden. Simply buy a few planks of wood to the size hat you want your garden bed, nail them together so you have a frame. Once erected, simply follow the ecological gardening method.

If you live in a unit or townhouse with no soft ground you could create a mini-ecological garden using a series of containers. Polystyrafoam boxes with drainage holes are ideal. Fill them with good potting mixture and arrange them side by side using as many as you can fit onto your verandah or patio. Rather than developing a large composting system, you could purchase a worm farm and add the worm casts to the soil surface as fertilizer. Once the boxes are set up, simply adopt the ecological gardening method.

The Ecological Gardening Method - the key principles.

1. Plant densely
2. Plant a diversity of plants within a given area
3. Get a good composting system set up and use the compost as a surface mulch on bare patches
4. Allow some plants to go to seed
5. Only interfere with the system when a single species of plant over-dominates and simply scratch out excess plants when they are small.