We are now moving into the time of year where it is great fun to be working out in the garden, spending long hot sunny afternoons tidying up the garden, weeding and planting new plants in time for the summer. Gardening is having a bit of a resurgence in popularity over the past few years with more and more of the younger generation having a go at growing plants and designing a garden, partly because of the exposure that gardening has been given by television design programs and because of acceptance as the garden patio area as an outdoor living space. But one of the biggest growths in the gardening sector has been with people growing their own fruit and vegetables. In years gone by everyone with a garden or an allotment would grow their own fruit and vegetables as a way of providing food for the dinner table when times were hard, now it appears as though we are going into a period of slight recession and people seem to have less money in their pockets because of rising costs people are trying to make ends meet by growing their own produce. So what is the trick to successful gardening and ensuring that you can provide food for the dinner table?
People are viewing their garden in a different light to the way that they would have 10 – 15 years ago, whereas then the garden would have been full of flowers and shrubs today people are either giving more space over to use the garden as an outdoor living area or alternatively pulling up the flowers and replacing them with useful crop plants such as carrots, potatoes, peas and cabbage. These are all crops that are easy to grow and take the minimum amount of maintenance throughout the season other than keeping the plants free of pests.
The other side to gardening that is changing is the increase in the way more and more gardeners are producing the crops with most gardeners moving away from using chemicals that can infiltrate the food chain with potentially harmful affects to both humans and wild life and moving towards a more organic form of gardening. Organic gardening ensures that only totally natural products are used in the growing of the crops, whether it is by using totally organic fertilizer or using totally organic pest control.
Many of the organic methods that are used are almost a step back in time two or three generations to when our for fathers and grand fathers used to keep gardens and ensure that they were correctly fertilized with horse or cow manure, although to be truly an organic farmer you must ensure that the animal from which the manure came has eaten a totally organic diet. Even so if you cannot prove this to yourself at least you can be safe in the knowledge that you are taking a huge step towards organic farming by not purposefully using any harmful chemicals to fertilize your crops.
When it comes to pest control you have to be a bit more diligent not to use chemical pesticides as organic versions do take longer to work and is generally harder work to apply but the extra effort is well worth it in the end. Many garden centers or even on-line garden stores now offer advice on organic pest control as a full range of organic gardening pesticides so it is worth doing a bit of research or asking for help if you have a problem. There are even dedicated organic gardening forums on the inter web that are full of like-minded souls who mare always more than willing to help out a fellow organic gardener.
Many people say that organically produced fruit and vegetables taste better than those that have been produced with the help of chemicals; that is for you to decide. The only thing that is for certain is that organic gardening can be much more rewarding and fulfilling as well as cheaper on your pocket.
![[Valid RSS feed]](/images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites