Five Steps to Grow an Organic Vegetable Garden with Companion Planting

Follow these 5 steps to begin an organic vegetable gardening with companion planting.

1. Observation

The area of the garden must have enough sunshine. An organic vegetable garden needs 7-8 hours of sunlight to grow a successful and high yielding vegetables, herbs and flowers. The morning sun warms the soil for germination. If the garden does not have enough sunlight, try planting seedling instead of seeds into the garden to give the crop a chance to grow.

2. Organic Vegetable Garden Soil

Not all soil is equal. Find out what type of soil you have. Is it Clay, Sandy, Loamy, Gravely? Take the test. What healthy soil texture feels like and how to sustain the nutrition levels in the soil.

3. Importance of Water

Vegetables need a steady supply of water. For good results, the soil must never be allowed to dry out. Keep the organic vegetable garden close to a water source or plan a way to carry water to the site. Consistency is key to watering the seed to germinate which then grows into vegetables that we can eat.

4. What about Seed?

There are many ways to get seed but the key to healthy crop that flourishes is quality seed. Quality seed is an organic seed. If the growing season is short, like in Canada, start the organic vegetable garden with seedlings. It is always good to start tomatoes, cucumber, zucchini, green pepper as seedlings.

5. How to integrate companion planting in organic vegetable garden

Implement companion planting by using herbs and flowers to neutralize bugs and pests in your vegetable garden. As an example, herbs can encourage growth when cabbage and thyme are planted together. Thyme will keep the cabbage disease at bay because the bugs become attracted to the thyme instead of the cabbage.

A start up organic vegetable garden with companion planting or an existing garden that implements companion gardening, can exist without pesticide.

More on  companion planting: http://melojak.com/garden/organic_gardening.htm