Grow your own Organic Vegetables
Ranked #9,353 in Food & Cooking, #169,752 overall
How we started our organic vegetable garden
About 3 years ago my husband and I started growing our own organic food when we bought a new house. The previous owner was an 81 year old gentleman who had a fantastic vegetable garden on the slope at the back of the house. We needed a bigger garage so the vegetable garden was destroyed by laying drainage pipes and the whole sloped section was just one big mud hole. As we don't have as much time as the retired gentleman, but loved the idea of growing our own organic food so we decided to make a raised bed vegetable garden.
Our vegetable garden has produced way more than we could ever imagine! We learned so much not only about growing our own vegetables but also about organic vegetable gardening, permaculture, eating and preparing healthy quality food, preserving, keeping chickens and much more.
Growing our own food became a lifestyle and proofed to be an interesting and rewarding hobby. I would like to share some of what we learned and who knows, maybe your will discover you have a green thumb too!
Our vegetable garden has produced way more than we could ever imagine! We learned so much not only about growing our own vegetables but also about organic vegetable gardening, permaculture, eating and preparing healthy quality food, preserving, keeping chickens and much more.
Growing our own food became a lifestyle and proofed to be an interesting and rewarding hobby. I would like to share some of what we learned and who knows, maybe your will discover you have a green thumb too!
Bugs and Insects
There are more beneficial insects in your garden than bad ones. When you spray chemicals you kill not only the bad insects, but also the good ones and creating an imbalance! The long term solution is to practice companion planting and attract more beneficial insects to your garden.
Why you should grow your own organic food?
Time vs Benefits
We all have the same problem. There is just not enough time in a day to do everything that needs doing and still have a moment for yourself. Buying your food worked perfectly well until now so why would you want to change that to do something that will create even more work?Yes, I can just hear your say that as a few years ago that was exactly how I thought. At the time, I thought growing your own food is just for people who are fanatic about their health and the environment. Little did I know how much I was missing out on! Below are some of the benefits you will experience when you and your family start growing your own organic food.
- Most of the produce in the supermarkets are grown for a long shelf life. Unfortunately taste was sacrificed to achieve this longer shelf life.
- With recent food scares, even in dog food from China, it is a good idea to know just where your food is coming from.
- Growing your own food will decrease your carbon footprint. You cannot get more local than your own backyard.
- Your own grown fruit and vegetables will not only be tastier than the ones from the supermarket but it will be as fresh as you want it to be.
- There is some debate around whether or not organic grown food is more nutritious than conventional food. I believe that if you grow food in nutrient rich soil it will most definitely result in more nutritious produce.
- You have a choice of a greater variety of products to grow. There are hundreds of different varieties which are not viable to a commercial grower but can provide your taste buds with pleasant new experiences.
- In the long run it is cheaper to grow your own food and you will almost always have extra to sell, preserve or give away.
- When you grow your own organic food you can avoid eating chemical residues left from sprays of fertilizers and insecticides on commercially grown food.
If you feel the reasons above is not enough to get you out in the garden then how about this: Growing your own food is an excellent opportunity to spend time with your children. Teach them where food comes from and an appreciation for quality food. It is good exercise (no more paying for the gym), improves your balance and relieves stress.
Chemical Residues on our Food
Loading poll. Please Wait...
Organic Food Gardening Beginners Manual
by Julie Villani - Organic Gardening Advocate
This manual explains everything your need to know on how to start your own organic vegetable garden or to convert your current garden (if your have one) to an organic garden. Click on the photo for more details!
Raised bed vegetable growing
This is how we started our journey to growing our own vegetables. Most of our backyard is against a slope. Raised beds were a good solution for our vegetable garden. Follow the link below.
Other lenses on raised beds
- My Small Vegetable Garden
- This lens chronicles my small vegetable garden and its progress for one summer growing season. The photo galleries cover the months April until September.Last year I had a great year for tomatoes and ate lots of tomato sandwiches! It was an experimental gardening year for me, so I did not make a per
- Waist High Raised Bed Gardening
- GardenRack is a revolutionary gardening system for those who can't -- or don't want to -- bend or kneel to garden or have downsized from a house to an apartment or condo. Customize GardenRack to your height so you'll be guaranteed to never bend or kneel to garden again.If you've been looking for a w
Raised Bed Gardeing
Books and Kits
Organic vegetables in abundance
What to do with surplus fruit and vegetables
Once you start growing your own organic fruit and vegetables you will most probably soon be in a situation where you have produced more fresh produce than what you and your family can eat. Here are a few ideas of what you can do with the surplus.
- Dry surplus fruit and herbs in a food dehydrator.
- Make delicious preserves.
- Make your own jam.
- Sell the surplus at your garden gate.
- Have a stall at the farmers market.
- Share with the neighbours.
- Exchange your surplus produce with local growers in you area for some of their products.
- Donate to a foodbank.
- Donate to a resthome
- Some can be used as seeds for next season
How to Make Money with Organic Gardening
by Peter Tremayne
Everything you need to know about getting up and started in your own organic gardening business ... as soon as TOMORROW. Click on picture to find out more.
Profit from your garden.
Here are a few lenses to help you boost your income from your garden.
- Ideas For Your Farmers Market Booth Or Vegetable Stand
- Once upon a time, Steve and I lived on a farm. And on that farm we had a garden, full of tasty vegetables. Intending to grow only what we needed for ourselves but being new to gardening and not confident in the greenness of our thumbs, we not only tilled far more ground than necessary and planted mo
- Start a profitable Gardening business
- Goal: To live off the land; and produce a great income using the Food for Everyone Foundation method of Grow-Box and Grow-Bed gardening. Gardens using the Foundation method grow five to ten times the yield of traditional gardens. In addition to producing these increased yields, the Mittleider metho
Vegetables
Store your Produce in a Root Celler
PLANNING
is the secret to a productive vegetable garden
Change the Way You Look at Dirt!
I saw this movie recently when Transition Towns arranged a screening in our town's cinema. To be honest, I did not expect much from a movie with dirt as a topic but I was pleasantly surprised. Dirt was not only humorous at some places but it was very informative, interesting, and entertaining and kept my attention right to the end.
Dirt! The Movie
Amazon Price: $14.59 (as of 06/01/2012)
The movie deals with the relationship between humans and the soil. Divided in three parts it looks at the structure of the soil, show the effects of human mismanagement of soil and look at ways we can improve the soil by using different soil management techniques.
I would say this movie is a must see for everybody. We can only make intelligent decisions about our planets future if we know how what we currently do effect the environment we life in. This is an inspiring movie. It changed the way I look at dirt, made me think and moved me to action.
Have you seen Dirt! The Movie
Your feedback
If you have seen the movie say what you thought and whether you would recommend seeing it or not.
If you have not seen it say if you would want to see it or not.
Have you seen Dirt! The Movie ?
Yes, I have seen it and...
No, I have not seen it
RenaissanceWoman2010 says:
I haven't seen the movie yet, but I would like to.
momsfunny says:
Not yet!
lizziebeth says:
No, I haven't seen it (yet!)
Jobs for a rainy day
Dedicated to my grandmother who is 99 this year
This morning we woke up to the sound of rain on the roof. It is a welcome sound as the bush is very dry and risk of bush fires high, but it also means that we won't be spending much time outside today.
I always think of my grandmother when it is raining. She lived with us when we were children. We lived in a region where there were usually water restrictions in place for most of the summer months. We did not have a big water tank to catch rainwater but my grandmother always had buckets and containers under all the downpipes around the house to catch and save as much of "God's water" as she could. I remember her doing this well into her eighties. So my fist job for you, if it is raining and you do not have a rainwater tank, is to put containers under the downpipes and catch as much rainwater as you can. If you are lucky enough to live in region with enough water, use the rainwater to water your potted plants!
Here are more things a gardener can do on a rainy day.
I always think of my grandmother when it is raining. She lived with us when we were children. We lived in a region where there were usually water restrictions in place for most of the summer months. We did not have a big water tank to catch rainwater but my grandmother always had buckets and containers under all the downpipes around the house to catch and save as much of "God's water" as she could. I remember her doing this well into her eighties. So my fist job for you, if it is raining and you do not have a rainwater tank, is to put containers under the downpipes and catch as much rainwater as you can. If you are lucky enough to live in region with enough water, use the rainwater to water your potted plants!
Here are more things a gardener can do on a rainy day.
- Check your to-do list, if you have one, and see which of your jobs can be done on a rainy day. If you do not have a to-do for your garden jobs, start one.
- Check your garden tools. If any of the tools needs cleaning, sharpening or fixing today would be a good time to do it. Service the lawnmower.
- Check your seed collection. Prepare seed trays and sow ones that can be sown. If you do not have your own seeds, it may be a good time to do some research on seed saving for next season. Saving seeds and growing food from your own seeds can save you a lot of money.
- Find a new recipe for a preserve, jam or dish to make from produce that may soon be ready for picking.
- Make a givebasket with some of your garden produce, home made jams or preserves and visit an elderly person, somebody who lives alone or who are sick to brighten their day.
- Have you noticed any pests or insects in the vegetable garden or fruit trees? If so, do you know how to treat the problem? If not, do research on how to solve the problem. Look at recipes for home made organic sprays and companion planting.
- Tidy up the garden shed.
- Ok, so you have done all of the above and it is still raining. Make a cup of tea or coffee, put your feet up and enjoy the rain!
Collecting Rainwater
Nasturtiums
Organoponico
Organic gardens - The Cuban Way
About 90 % of Havanas food is grown in Organoponico (Organic Urban Garden)
curated content from YouTube
A Gardeners Hands
My aunt said "If you want to know how old a woman is look at her hands" For some reason that thought stuck in my head and I try to give my hands special attention as I know gardening can be pretty hard on them.
I find wearing gardening cloves dries out my skin so I always put a good hand cream on before I put gloves on. Men can do this too, even if they don't wear cloves as it makes it easier to clean your hands later. I usually have three kinds of gardening gloves: thick leathery ones for the hard jobs, very thin ones for doing fiddly things, like weeding between small plants and another pair for all the jobs in between. Keeping a spare pare of these last ones is not a bad idea both because I seem to work them through quite often and as it normally happens when I am not planning a trip to the shops. Sometimes I work without gloves for a while, just to feel the texture of the soil on my hands.
I find wearing gardening cloves dries out my skin so I always put a good hand cream on before I put gloves on. Men can do this too, even if they don't wear cloves as it makes it easier to clean your hands later. I usually have three kinds of gardening gloves: thick leathery ones for the hard jobs, very thin ones for doing fiddly things, like weeding between small plants and another pair for all the jobs in between. Keeping a spare pare of these last ones is not a bad idea both because I seem to work them through quite often and as it normally happens when I am not planning a trip to the shops. Sometimes I work without gloves for a while, just to feel the texture of the soil on my hands.
O'Keeffe's Working Hands Cream :: 2 Pack
Amazon Price: $15.99 (as of 05/31/2012)
Gloves, Sunscreen, Sunhat
You should also wear a good sun protector, sunhat (those with bigger brims are better) and possibly sunglasses when gardening in summer.
What are your thoughts on growing organic vegetables?
Thank you for visiting!
Do you like growing your own vegetables? How do you feel about the chemical residues in our food? Do you have any tips for new gardeners? How do your fit growing your own vegetables into an already busy day? Have this lense inspire you to start growing your own vegetables?
-
-
TransplantedSoul
May 3, 2012 @ 6:01 pm | delete
- It sounds like a lot of work, but well worth it. I have grown veggies before, but our yard now has lots of shade - so not worth the effort.
-
-
-
emmalarkins
Dec 4, 2011 @ 8:58 pm | delete
- What a great guide! I look forward to expanding my growing opportunities in the future.
-
-
-
Leilani-m
Dec 4, 2011 @ 7:31 pm | delete
- Love the lens! IMy family is growing vegetables for personal use for generations and I joined the team 2 years ago :) I'm always lookning for resources that will help me fight the pests in natural way. I have a 3yo kid and I would like that he eats food that is free of pesticides and other chemical as much as possible
-
-
-
RenaissanceWoman2010
Nov 21, 2011 @ 5:56 pm | delete
- Now that I am living off the grid I hope to grow more of my own food. I am very much into permaculture and organic gardening. Thanks for sharing your experience. I enjoy connecting with others who have similar dreams and a similar lifestyle.
-
-
-
sherioz
Nov 16, 2011 @ 10:50 pm | delete
- Excellent piece. Has everything one needs to get started. I'm bookmarking this for future reference.
-
-
-
stuhaynes
Oct 25, 2011 @ 6:54 am | delete
- Love your lens! We live on a boat, but our 'home' mooring has space for us to grow some of our own food, so we started this year. Funnily enough we end up giving much of it away, because there is a limit to the number of tomatoes etc that 2 people can eat! Smashing lens, well done!
-
-
-
momsfunny Oct 10, 2011 @ 6:37 am | delete
- Love organic foods! your lens has given me so much information that i will be able to implement in my own garden.
-
-
-
lizziebeth
Sep 26, 2011 @ 2:25 pm | delete
- I love growing organic vegetables. I want to expand my garden next year and will use this lens as a guide. Thanks for doing it! I added it to my lens, More About Me: Important Goals today. (One of my goals is to make my garden better.)
-
-
-
orange3
Aug 25, 2011 @ 2:34 pm | delete
- Great information on organic vegetable gardening. I love growing organic fruits/vegetables and my family loves to eat them!
-
-
-
Tipi
Aug 22, 2011 @ 12:14 pm | delete
- What excellent information you share, I can't believe we are still allowing our food supplies to be poisoned with insecticides and killing off our garden friends to get rid of pests.
-
-
-
whoisbid
Aug 14, 2011 @ 6:16 am | delete
- These days many of us have no idea what companies are putting in food
-
-
-
ajsanders100
Aug 11, 2011 @ 2:32 pm | delete
- Awsome site, I liked everything about it! I wll be back!
-
-
-
iijuan12
Aug 4, 2011 @ 10:11 am | delete
- We try growing our vegetables (and fruit trees) using organic methods but have had huge insect issues each year. We're still trying.
-
-
-
VickiSims
Apr 1, 2011 @ 3:35 pm | delete
- I enjoy growing my own organic vegetables, too. I only have a small raised bed, but it is amazing how much food can be grown in such a small space. Great tips and a lovely lens. Blessed by a Squid Angel.
-
-
-
davidkiser
Feb 18, 2011 @ 4:59 am | delete
- Great Lens packed with valuable contentKeep up the? Great works. check out my Lens and leave a comment.
-
- Load More
About Me
by Sanet
I live in a small village on the South Island of New Zealand. I love walking, reading, spending time in the garden and are a bit of an internet junkie... more »
- 14 featured lenses
- Top lens » Clothes Pins Galore!
Feeling creative?
Create a Lens!
Explore related pages
- Raised bed vegetable growing Raised bed vegetable growing
- Growing Vegetables in a Polytunnel Growing Vegetables in a Polytunnel
- Sustainable Gardening Non-Profit changing the world one garden at a time. Sustainable Gardening Non-Profit changing the world one garden at a time.
- Vegetable garden planning - in easy steps Vegetable garden planning - in easy steps
- How to Start a Vegetable Garden How to Start a Vegetable Garden
- My Crop Rotation Vegetable Garden My Crop Rotation Vegetable Garden
More about Vegetable Gardening
Choosing Safer Foods
Choosing Safer Foods: A Guide to Minimizing Synthetic Chemicals in Your Diet
Amazon Price: $20.90 (as of 06/01/2012)
Build an Extreme Green Rain Barrel
Amazon Price: (as of 06/01/2012)
