What Is Organic Gardening

Organic gardening means using only natural products and fertilizers on your garden and not using any artificial chemicals such as pesticide sprays or slug pellets.

The first consideration in organic gardening is the soil. You should add organic matter to the soil regularly. You can make your own compost from waste vegetables and decaying plant waste such as grass clippings and leaves.

The next consideration is choosing plants or vegetables that are well suited to your environment. Plants that are adapted to growing in your climate and weather conditions will stand a much better chance of thriving without too much attention. Whereas, a plant that is not right for your site will need a lot of extra attention to boost it's natural defences just to keep it healthy.

With regard to pest control, you can sprinkle cayenne pepper on your plants or spray them with a water and cayenne pepper solution to stop squirrels and other rodents from eating them.

Spray the leaves of your plants with a mixture of 1 part dishwashing detergent to 10 parts water to deter small insects. This won't harm the plants. Another good repellent for many insects is garlic. You could either have some garlic in your garden or spray your plants with a mixture containing garlic oil.

 An inexpensive way to keep grub worms from getting at your potatoes is to use a product called milky spore. This will kill the grubs, and as they decompose they will release new spores into the soil.