Any Organic Veggie Gardeners out there?

[flowerbug]

Do you live on government property?

no, i live with Mom, the land-owner. we are surrounded on three sides by farm fields. the field behind us is currently not being farmed. also, the part of our property on the other side of a large drainage ditch is open field which has not been farmed since we've been here.

the most i've done to that back field is have it brush hogged once to knock back the thorn bushes, honeysuckles and poplar trees that were starting to get going. i didn't want them spreading further and i didn't want them blocking the light to the vegetable gardens. i figure if i have that done every 5-10yrs that should be good enough.

 

[YourRabbitGirl]

I bought them at Home Depot, they’re the organic open pollinated variety as that’s what I tend to grow exclusively in my garden.
Unfortunately I have them all planted as starts for the years. But honestly they may have been $2.75 for around 30 seeds. I’m sure you can find them around. What part of the country are in in?

Wow that's so nice. Im in the Philippines.. We don't have a home depot here. the local supermarket has seeds for sale. but they dont have jalapeno seeds. just our local chili..

 

[MinnesotaGardening]

I also grow my crops using aged manure for fertilizer and by picking pests by hand (could be considered organic, I suppose). I don't know what zone you are in, but maybe you could grow pears? They grow here in my zone 4a, as long as you pick the right varieties.

 

[Zeedman]

My garden was not always organic in my early years, but has been so for the last 30 years or so. My main reason for going organic is knowing what is not in my vegetables.

Nearly half of my garden is various legumes, which helps to preserve fertility. I turn over the 20-25 bales of hay that I use for mulch each year, plus whatever leaves & lawn clippings I can gather. The neighbors & DD are helpful in that regard, giving me bags of shredded leaves in the Fall. All garden waste (other than infected waste) is also returned to the garden. such as bean hulls. Adding all that organic matter has been effective, both the gardens on my property & my rural garden (on a friend's property) have been gardened for about 15 years, and have shown only a modest reduction in fertility. I'm presently looking for an alternate garden site, so that I can place the present gardens in green manures for a couple years (and maybe find a better drained site for my garlic).

I miss the garden I had when I lived in San Diego. It was across the highway from a horse stable, I could take all the composted horse manure I could haul for free. I turned under 4-5" over the whole garden each year. It began as hard-baked desert clay, and was loose fertile loam when I turned it over to another gardener.

The biggest hurdle with organic gardening is the control of pests & diseases. Finding & growing resistant varieties is part of the solution. Encouraging insect predators, while avoiding conditions that promote harmful insects, is also important. For the most part, if I am patient, a healthy population of beneficial insects solves problems with aphids and caterpillars; lace wings, lady bugs, syrphid flies, and wasps are all present in large numbers. If I can get them up in time, row covers protect squash from SVB, and traps help to keep Japanese beetles down to controllable numbers. On the rare occasion that a particular insect or disease threatens to wipe out a crop, there are usually organic solutions... but push comes to shove, I would rather lose a crop - or not grow it at all - than resort to poisonous chemicals. The only exception I would make would be to save a rare variety whose seeds could not be replaced.

IMO organic gardening takes patience, persistence, and a fair amount of learning. It takes time to build up poor soil, and to build up a good beneficial insect population. If you save your own seed, successive generations may become better adapted to your conditions, and their yield will improve. I've witnessed this in several of the vegetables I save seed for; beans become more vigorous, okra has become increasingly resistant to the wilt which once ravaged it, and the DTM of some of my limas has been reduced by as much as 3 weeks.

 

[JalapenosinDelco]

I also grow my crops using aged manure for fertilizer and by picking pests by hand (could be considered organic, I suppose). I don't know what zone you are in, but maybe you could grow pears? They grow here in my zone 4a, as long as you pick the right varieties.

I’m in zone 7A. My family is not big on pears unfortunately...

 

[JalapenosinDelco]

My garden was not always organic in my early years, but has been so for the last 30 years or so. My main reason for going organic is knowing what is not in my vegetables.

Nearly half of my garden is various legumes, which helps to preserve fertility. I turn over the 20-25 bales of hay that I use for mulch each year, plus whatever leaves & lawn clippings I can gather. The neighbors & DD are helpful in that regard, giving me bags of shredded leaves in the Fall. All garden waste (other than infected waste) is also returned to the garden. such as bean hulls. Adding all that organic matter has been effective, both the gardens on my property & my rural garden (on a friend's property) have been gardened for about 15 years, and have shown only a modest reduction in fertility. I'm presently looking for an alternate garden site, so that I can place the present gardens in green manures for a couple years (and maybe find a better drained site for my garlic).

I miss the garden I had when I lived in San Diego. It was across the highway from a horse stable, I could take all the composted horse manure I could haul for free. I turned under 4-5" over the whole garden each year. It began as hard-baked desert clay, and was loose fertile loam when I turned it over to another gardener.

The biggest hurdle with organic gardening is the control of pests & diseases. Finding & growing resistant varieties is part of the solution. Encouraging insect predators, while avoiding conditions that promote harmful insects, is also important. For the most part, if I am patient, a healthy population of beneficial insects solves problems with aphids and caterpillars; lace wings, lady bugs, syrphid flies, and wasps are all present in large numbers. If I can get them up in time, row covers protect squash from SVB, and traps help to keep Japanese beetles down to controllable numbers. On the rare occasion that a particular insect or disease threatens to wipe out a crop, there are usually organic solutions... but push comes to shove, I would rather lose a crop - or not grow it at all - than resort to poisonous chemicals. The only exception I would make would be to save a rare variety whose seeds could not be replaced.

IMO organic gardening takes patience, persistence, and a fair amount of learning. It takes time to build up poor soil, and to build up a good beneficial insect population. If you save your own seed, successive generations may become better adapted to your conditions, and their yield will improve. I've witnessed this in several of the vegetables I save seed for; beans become more vigorous, okra has become increasingly resistant to the wilt which once ravaged it, and the DTM of some of my limas has been reduced by as much as 3 weeks.

I agree with you on avoiding poison treatment on foods I eat. I actually haven’t used any pesticides in the last 5 years. Little kids running around barefoot makes you paranoid.
We compost heavily, and this years compost should be enough for out entire garden.
I don’t so much have issue with insects, as they mainly eat my rose leaves and Cana Lillies, I’m less concerned with losing them as the plants I eat are my main concern of late.
It’s the deer, wood chuck, voles, squirrels, and chipmunks. It’s war this spring. Completely enclosed garden beds in hardwire cloth.
Makes gardening a lot less convenient and a little less fun. But that’s what has to be done for all this work to be worth it.

 

[7651]

I had really good success with everything I planted in my first year garden last year. I didn’t have any bugs Issues and I did that by companion planting. For example, I planted dill by my corn because dill attracts a certain species of fly that eat ear wigs and keep them at bay. There are lots of resources online for that. As for what we grow, we are up north in zone 5a/5b and we have success with all the things. We have a very short growing season, and these are the varieties that I had success with last year. Pardon my disorganized list, I just started planning my garden last night. I grow 99% organic vegetables. There are some things that I will settle for nonorganic to save money, but for the most part we try to be Organic. And don’t forget the potatoes!

 

[valley ranch]

Everybody here is growing organic ~ am I right ```

 

[flowerbug]

Everybody here is growing organic ~ am I right ```

as much as i can be. i don't have full control of what goes on here.

as far as i can tell it works and i've been doing it long enough that i see the soil gradually improving i see bug diversity remaining stable or increasing except the recent declines in bumblebees and some smaller birds. i can't tell what is happening with the native frogs, but was happy to see baby toads last year for the first time in some years.

 

[JalapenosinDelco]

I had really good success with everything I planted in my first year garden last year. I didn’t have any bugs Issues and I did that by companion planting. For example, I planted dill by my corn because dill attracts a certain species of fly that eat ear wigs and keep them at bay. There are lots of resources online for that. As for what we grow, we are up north in zone 5a/5b and we have success with all the things. We have a very short growing season, and these are the varieties that I had success with last year. Pardon my disorganized list, I just started planning my garden last night. I grow 99% organic vegetables. There are some things that I will settle for nonorganic to save money, but for the most part we try to be Organic. And don’t forget the potatoes!

Very impressive list. I’ll look into the companion planting, I have only heard a few of those.
You don’t attempt growing asparagus? We get 4-5 bunches a spring and I’ve only scattered 2 sets of seeds a few years ago. They’re perennials ya know. Love me some perennials...