There is Nothing Greener than Organic Gardening!

Having a green thumb is not as difficult as you might think it is. Humans have been growing vegetables for thousands of years. Most of them with far less education than you have probably received. Only in recent years have they had the resources of the internet (and Squidoo) to help them out! You can do it, I promise.

Square foot gardening is a method that involves building beds out of wood, rocks, etc and filling them with deep, rich materials. Organic compost, vermiculite or perlite (for drainage) and peat moss are your basic ingredients. This creates rich, nutrient filled soil with excellent drainage and water holding capacity.

To get plenty of free fertilizer, consider keeping chickens! Vist our website and our lens on raising chickens.

The square foot part refers to how the garden is organized. Each vegetable requires a certain amount of space to grow (with sq ft gardening it is less space than will be printed on your seed packet). The vegetables are planted in each square foot according to their alloted space. [For example: A broccoli plant needs the whole foot, so you plant it in the center. A green onion plant is small and harvested young, 16 will fit in a square so you plant 4 across and 4 down in a grid pattern.]

Typically square foot gardens are a 4x4 foot square. We like a lot of tall growing veggies that grow best trellised, so we have 2x7 foot beds with a trellis across the back. You don't have to follow the rules, adapt them to what best fits your needs.

Deep root growth is encouraged by the soil mix, allowing for closer planting. The close planting helps shade out weeds and conserves water. Having a raised bed helps the gardener's back.

To learn more about square foot gardening, visit the links below. To learn more about organic gardening scroll down to our next section!

Maybe we can have the best of both worlds, no spots and the birds and the bees. Nature is a delicate balance that keeps itself in check. When we don't add chemicals, non-native insects, animals or plants, nature has an easier job taking care of itself. You can help with that balance in your garden using companion planting, natural pest deterents and plants that attract beneficial insects.

Planting compatible vegetables helps prevent disease and infestation. It can also improve the productivity and flavor!

Plant some basil near a tomato plant. It will impove the flavor, and make grabbing the ingredients for your spaghetti sauce even easier! Basil is also said to repel flies. Plant some peas near your corn and the corn will get the extra nitrogen it needs. Garlic and hot peppers can help prevent disease and are ingredients in our non-toxic pest deterent spray (below). For more information on companion planting, check out the links below.

Many non-toxic natural substances and plants can help keep nasty bugs away from your garden. In turn many of these plants attract beneficial insects that are natural predators to the bad ones. Peppermint, nausturtium, garlic all scare away the bad bugs. Alfalfa adds nutrients to the soil, is very easy to grow and attracts lots of bugs hungry to eat the bugs that eat YOUR veggies.

To get free bug extermination, consider keeping chickens! Vist our website and our lens on raising chickens.

Bugs don't like mint, garlic, onions or hot peppers. Soap, just regular dish soap, kills a lot of them. These are the basic ingredients to our bug spray. DON'T spray it in your house, because YOU won't like how it smells either. Ingredients are approximate, so you get the idea, but use what you've got handy.

Peppermint leaves/Peppermint oil/Peppermint extract
Hot Peppers/Hot Sauce
Garlic
Onion
Dish soap (food safe, no bleach or anything like that)
Water, just plain water

Take several peppermint leaves, a couple drops of oil or a spoonful of extract, several cloves of garlic, a few slices of onion, a spoonful of hot sauce or a hot pepper, and a couple spoonfuls of soap, mix with a little water in a blender. Add the mixture to make about a quart or so to some more water. Let it sit for a day or two, strain it and put it in a clean spray bottle. Spray all over your plants. Repeat when it rains.

Square foot gardening helps cut down on the unpleasant chores of gardening. You water only the plants that you are trying to grow (not the weeds). I use a drip irrigation system on a timer and I never have to think about watering the garden. Organic gardening wastes less water also.

As for weeding...I don't. Not much anyway. Square foot gardening helps shade out the weeds and watering only the intended plants doesn't allow the weeds to grow. I like to take it one step further and mulch. Cover the ground with woodshavings, disease free leaves, or even black plastic and the weed seeds will get no light.