Organic Vegetable Gardening Tips

While chemicals once seemed the only way to combat gardening problems, current research offers effective ways to organically control the weeds and insects plaguing your vegetable patch. Natural products for fertilizing your plants and building soil fertility abound as well. Garden centers sell prepackaged organic fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides, but free or inexpensive alternatives also exist.

Use Natural Fertilizers

Several weeks before planting, add amendments to your vegetable garden. Send soil samples to your local extension service to determine what your garden soil needs. Most vegetables prefer a neutral pH level. If your soil test determines that the soil is lower than 7.0, shovel in garden lime or wood ash at the recommended rates. Organic choices to balance soils higher than 7.0 include acidic materials like peat moss, manure and sawdust. Aside from correcting acidic or alkaline soils, you'll want to give the soil nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium at the recommended rates. Aged manure and compost organically impart nitrogen; rock phosphate and bone meal raise phosphorous levels; and wood ashes and ground greensand increase potassium. You may also need to add trace nutrients to the soil, available at garden centers in the form of crushed minerals. During the growing season, place handfuls of these same nutrients at the base of each vegetable plant every few weeks. Organic liquid fertilizers such as fish or seaweed emulsion also give valuable nutrients to growing vegetables.

Choose Organic Seeds or Seedlings

Using organic seeds or seedlings represents an earth-friendly choice. Non-organic vegetables grown for their seeds are given more chemicals than non-organic vegetables grown for food, according to eXtension, a national extension service. This intensive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides has a negative impact on surrounding wildlife, land and water. Additionally, organic seeds may make hardier choices for your own garden, because farmers select cultivars which do well in their own organic fields.

Control Pests Organically

Research and your own careful observations are your best defenses against garden pests. Learn which insects represent the biggest danger to specific crops, and be on the lookout for telltale damage. Many organic gardeners rely on companion planting to protect their vegetables. In companion planting, you grow plants together that benefit one another, or your main crop is protected by another plant. Radishes and nasturtiums, for example, may ward off the dreaded squash beetles that threaten your zucchini and pumpkins. Additionally, prepare natural liquid sprays as all-purpose insecticides. Every organic gardener has her favorites, but top choices include a few cloves of chopped garlic or hot peppers infused in hot water with a tablespoon of dish soap added. Spray this on plants weekly, and reapply after rainfall.

Mulch Aggressively

Mulch is an organic gardener's best friend, conserving water and suppressing weeds. After your seedlings reach a height of 6 inches, add several inches of organic mulch on top of the soil. Garden author Barbara Damrosch's favorite organic mulch for vegetable gardens is salt hay, but use materials that are inexpensive and plentiful in your area. Shredded wood chips, pine needles, cocoa bean shells, grass clippings and shredded leaves all make effective, and in some cases free, mulch. Opinions vary on whether plastic mulch is "organic," so consult local experts and your own preferences before spreading it on your vegetable plot.