OrganicGardeningWorld.com
How to do Organic Gardening
Complete guide to grow organic products
If you are planning to start organic gardening or already have an organic garden and need useful guidelines, then you have come to the right place. This website will teach you how to start and maintain an organic garden successfully and provide useful tips to overcome problems.
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There are links to reliable organic gardening websites through out this page. Feel free to explore them.
What is organic gardening?
Fundamental concept of organic gardening is to grow things in a “natural” way without chemical additives. For the most part, that means that you don’t use chemical fertilizers or pesticides. However, organic gardening may entail far more than that, especially if your intention is to sell produce from your garden.
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Small-scale organic Gardening for Personal Use
There are set standards for organic gardening. If your plan in organic gardening is to grow produce for your own personal use, you are not required to meet USDA standards. That means you decide how organic you want to go. Usually, most organic home gardeners pay a lot of attention to the soil, making sure they don’t use chemical additives. They also eliminate chemical pesticides, but may fudge a little if they are invaded with some bug that they can’t get rid of with organic means.
Most home organic gardeners produce healthy, chemical-free produce and protecting the environment by keeping chemicals out of the water supply and food chain. Average home organic gardeners do not worry about buying organic seeds or making certain there are no foreign chemicals in the soil. Again, it is up to the individual how organic you want to go.
Standards for organic products
USDA Certification
If you are planning to sell produce from your organic garden, you will want to look into getting USDA Organic Certification. The products are not “organic” without this certification.
USDA Organic Certification came as a result of there were no standards for organic gardening, and consumers had no way of knowing what they were getting. Some of the basic needs for this certificate are
× Grown without chemical additives.
× Seed was organic
× The soil has had no chemical additives in it for at least five years.
It is time-consuming, expensive and a paperwork headache to get USDA organic certification and many organic gardening enthusiasts don’t go through the process.
Are there any other Organic Certifications?
Yes there are other certifications you can get if your organic gardening is going to produce food for the public.
One such certification is “Certified Naturally Grown.” Produce with this label is grown under the same conditions as USDA Organic produce, but the fees are lesser than USDA and do not need much record keeping as USDA. It is a realistic option for small organic gardening endeavors. However, the USDA does not authorize these certifications, and you cannot label your produce “organic” if you choose them
With or without a certification, organic gardening is a good way to provide healthy produce for you and your family. Whether you grow food just for your own use, or you grow it to sell, you are protecting the environment and the health of those who eat it. If you love gardening then certainly the better choice is organic gardening.