Three Important Factors In Organic Gardening

Organic gardening refers to a form of gardening that uses absolutely no artificial pesticides and tries to provide as much fertility with local sources of nutrients. Organic gardening believes that the use of pesticides should be minimized as they are not safe for the plants itself. The term organic gardening evolved in the early 1990s when the water became highly polluted with pesticide residues at some places. Organic gardening stresses in the concept that the soil feeds the plant. Let us see the important factors to be considered in the case of organic farming.

1) Soil Fertility - The fertility of soil can be enriched with the use of green manures, minerals and humus or by companion plants. The best example of companion plants is legume fixing nitrogen in the soil for other plants to grow properly. The minerals of the plants can be obtained from a variety of sources. For example calcium is obtained from fossils of deceased fish; potassium is obtained from wood ash and nitrogen is obtained from animal urea in manure. Composting of the soil is very much essential. Composting is the process by which vegetable matter in the soil us consumed by bacteria, fungi and other insects like earthworms to covert the matter into useful cellulose and minerals.

2) Pest Control - As mentioned before the use of pesticides in organic farming is very limited. Organic gardening does not rely much on the use of pesticides. Organic gardening in fact believes that the population of animal pests can be brought under control with the help of natural methods like crop rotation, physical removal of insects, interplanting which reduces the spread of pests the introduction of natural prey species.

3) Weed Gardening - Undesired plants or weeds are done away with without the use of herbicides. Barriers are often built to prevent the growth and spread of weeds that can be dangerous for other plants and suppress their growth. Barriers include mulches in the form of stones, leaves, straw, wood or paper. Paper is used more often as a natural barrier and it returns cellulose to the soil like leaves, straw and wood. Also the barriers perform the added function of retaining moisture in the soil. The soil can be loosened with the help of hoeing and tilling as dirt mulch. The gardener may use a tilling device to suppress the weeds by disturbing their roots and preventing them from absorbing moisture and nutrients.