Advantages and Disadvantages Organic Farming: Good Things, Barriers and

Environmental Effects

Advantages and Disadvantages Organic Farming

Despite the good things about organic farming why do most farmers still operate
by industrialized agriculture?

Here we explore the pros and cons organic farming presents for consumers and
producers, as well as examining the environmental effects of organic farming.

Right>> An ecological organic garden where the vegetables sow themselves!

Watch the video.
GOOD THINGS ABOUT ORGANIC FARMING

CONSUMER BENEFITS:

Nutrition

The nutritional value of food is largely a function of its vitamin and mineral
content. In this regard, organically grown food is dramatically superior in mineral
content to that grown by modern conventional methods.

Because it fosters the life of the soil organic farming reaps the benefits soil life
offers in greatly facilitated plant access to soil nutrients.

Healthy plants mean healthy people, and such better nourished plants provide
better nourishment to people and animals alike.

Poison-free

A major benefit to consumers of organic food is that it is free of contamination

with health harming chemicals such as pesticides, fungicides and herbicides.

As you would expect of populations fed on chemically grown foods, there has
been a profound upward trend in the incidence of diseases associated with
exposure to toxic chemicals in industrialized societies.

Take cancer for example. Representative data on the number of new cancer
cases in New South Wales, Australia has been collected by the New South Wales
Central Cancer Registry.

Adjusted to take account of our aging population, their graph (above) shows that
between 1972 and 2004 the incidence of new cancer cases per year (average for
both sexes) has risen from 323 to 488 per 100,000 people. This is an increase of
over 50% in just 32 years. advantages and disadvantages organic farming

Food Tastes Better Animals and people have the sense of taste to allow them to
discern the quality of the food they ingest.

It comes as no surprise, therefore, that organically grown food tastes better than
that conventionally grown. The tastiness of fruit and vegetables is directly
related to its sugar content, which in turn is a function of the quality of nutrition
that the plant itself has enjoyed.

This quality of fruit and vegetable can be empirically measured by subjecting its
juice to Brix analysis, which is a measure of its specific gravity (density). The Brix
score is widely used in testing fruit and vegetables for their quality prior to
export.

Food Keeps Longer

Organically grown plants are nourished naturally, rendering the structural and
metabolic integrity of their cellular structure superior to those conventionally
grown. As a result, organically grown foods can be stored longer and do not show
the latters susceptibility to rapid mold and rotting.

GROWER BENEFITS:

A healthy plant grown organically in properly balanced soil resists most diseases
and insect pests.

This was proven by US doctor and soil nutrition pioneer Dr Northern who
conducted many experiments to test the hypothesis during the 1930s.

Disease and Pest Resistance

For instance, in an orange grove infested with scale, he restored the mineral
balance to part of the soil and the trees growing in that part became clean while
the rest remained diseased.

By the same means he grew healthy rosebushes between rows that were riddled
by insects, and tomato and cucumber plants, both healthy and diseased, where
the vines intertwined. Northern observed that the bugs ate up the diseased and
refused to touch the healthy plants!

Weed Competitiveness

Weeds are natures band-aids, placed by the wisdom of creation to heal and
restore damaged soils. When farmers husband the life of the soil, as they do in
organic agriculture, the improved conditions dissuade many weeds and favor
their crops. The crops, being healthier, are also better able to compete with
those weeds that are present.

Lower Input Costs

By definition, organic farming does not incur the use of expensive agrichemicals
they are not permitted! The greater resistance of their crops to pests and the
diseases save farmers significantly in expensive insecticides, fungicides and
other pesticides.

Fertilizers are either created in situ by green manuring and leguminous crop
rotation or on-farm via composting and worm farming. Biodynamic farmers use a
low cost microbial solution sprayed onto their crops.

The creation of living, fertile soil conditions through early corrective soil remineralization and strategic Keyline chisel ploughing are significant
establishment costs that, however, reap ongoing benefits to production at
minimal maintenance.

Drought Resistance

Organically grown plants are more drought tolerant. This was dramatically
illustrated to me several years ago when I was fortunate to attend a workshop
with Australian organic gardening guru Peter Bennett. A slide he showed us has
stuck in my mind ever since: it was a field of wheat, organically grown on remineralized soil.

Bisecting the ripening green crop was a wide yellowed strip that had already
finished growing and hayed off. He explained that the strip had been nourished
using agrichemical fertilizer early in the growing period.

Because chemical fertilizer is soluble, plants are forced to imbibe it every time
they are thirsty for water. They can and do enjoy good growth as long as water is
readily available. As soon as water becomes limited, however, the soluble
nutrient salts in the cells of chemically fed plants are unable to osmotically draw
sufficient water to maintain safe dilution. They soon reach toxic concentrations,
and the plant stops growing, hays off and dies earlier than it otherwise would
have.

Added Value

There is a discerning market of consumers who recognize the greater food value
of organic produce and are willing to pay premium prices for it. In an interview
with me in 1998, the manager of Heinz-Watties in New Zealand explained how
his company had been actively supporting and recruiting farmers to organic
production in order to service large and lucrative markets in Japan and Europe.

ORGANIC FARMING DISADVANTAGES

Productivity

Proponents of industrialized agriculture point to its superior productivity. In the

short term, this yield is possible by expending massive inputs of chemicals and
machinery, working over bland fields of a single crop (monoculture).

However, over the longer time frame, productivity advantages dwindle. In my

years working with broadacre farmers in the wheatbelt of WA, it was common for
them to remark on how much richer pastures and crops were in their youth.

Industrialized agriculture thrashes the land, and diminishes its soil life to the
point where it can no longer function to convert available organic matter into soil
fertility. Productivity begins to wane, and attempts to bolster it with increasing
chemical inputs (common advice from farm consultants) has a similar effect to
flogging a dead horse.

Because it relies on living soil to build fertility, the benefits of organic farming for
soil life is fundamental to its methods.

Organic farming benefits food production without destroying our environmental

resources, ensuring sustainability for not only the current but also future
generations.

Cultivation

While their conventional counterparts may sow by direct drilling of seed into
herbicide treated soils, organic farmers are usually at least partly dependent on
cultivation to remove weeds prior to sowing. In contrast to cultivation, direct
drilling does not mechanically disrupt soil structure and removes the risk of
exposed soil being lost to wind or water erosion.

This is a valid argument where farmers are working marginal quality soils.
However, the structure of agrichemically-deadened soils is weakened by the
corresponding loss of soil life and thus unable to maintain its integrity under
occasional cultivation. So its a circular argument!

Structurally sound (life-rich) soils may be cultivated regularly without significant

damage, particularly if protected appropriately by windbreaks and Keyline soil
conservation measures.

Even the need to cultivate may be questioned After noticing rice thriving wild
amongst weeds on roadsides, Japanese alternative agriculturalist Masanobu
Fukuoka succeeded in establishing crops by broadcasting seed coated in clay
onto untilled land.

GM Crops

Organic growers do not use genetically modified or engineered food crops, some
of which are engineered to tolerate herbicides (e.g. Roundup Ready Canola) or
resist pests (e.g. Bollworm resistant cotton). Conventional growers, on the other
hand, are free to take advantage of GM crops.

According to a report from the Directorate-General for Agriculture of the

European Commission, productivity gains attributed to GM crops are usually
negligible when growing conditions, farmer experience and soil types are
factored in, and are often in fact negative. The main advantage farmers using
such crops gain is convenience only.

There are worrying indications that GM crops may be associated with harm to
both human health and the environment. The main concern is that once they are
released it is nigh impossible to un-release them.

Tractor cultivating the soil. Photo: Fabio Cabrera

Time

Indeed, organic farming requires greater interaction between a farmer and his
crop for observation, timely intervention and weed control for instance. It is
inherently more labor intensive than chemical/mechanical agriculture so that,
naturally a single farmer can produce more crop using industrial methods than
he or she could by solely organic methods.

Skill

It requires considerably more skill to farm organically. However, because

professional farming of any sort naturally imparts a close and observant
relationship to living things, the best organic farmers are converted agrichemical
farmers.

Organic farmers do not have some convenient chemical fix on the shelf for every
problem they encounter. They have to engage careful observation and greater
understanding in order to know how to tweak their farming system to correct the
cause of the problem rather than simply putting a plaster over its effect.

This is a bigger issue during the conversion period from conventional to wholly
organic when both the learning curve and transition related problems are

peaking (it takes time to build a healthy farm ecosystem that copes well without
synthetic crutches). Organic farmers I have interviewed report that their most
valuable remedies and advice come from other organic farmers.

ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS ORGANIC FARMING

Climate Friendly

The synthetic inputs upon which conventional agriculture is so dependent are

energy expensive to mine and manufacture. Today the embodied energy of
industrial agriculture uses up 9 calories for every 1 calorie of food that it
produces!

Organic agriculture with its low input needs of naturally derived substances
produces less greenhouse gas emissions and is considerably more climate
friendly.

Ecologically Friendly

It doesnt use soluble fertilizers

Though rarely acknowledged, the chief source of the annual algae blooms that
plague Perths major river (the Swan) is conventional agriculture.

Farmers pour tons of phosphate and nitrogenous fertilizer on their cropping lands
every year. Because it is soluble, much of this fertilizer is either washed off the
soil surface and into waterways (especially phosphates) or leaches through the
soil profile beyond the reach of plants and finds its way less directly into
waterways (especially nitrates). Nitrate contamination of groundwater (indicated
by >10 mg/L nitrate) in Australia is widespread in every state and territory,
occurring over regional and local scales (LWRRDC 1999). In many areas, the
concentration is greater than the recently revised Australian Drinking Water
Guidelines level of 50 mg/L nitrate (as nitrate), resulting in groundwater that is
unfit for drinking. In some of the more contaminated areas, the concentration is
in excess of 100 mg/L (LWRRDC 1999).

With fresh water reserves under increasing pressure from climate change this is
a grave situation for humanity.

The soluble nutrient pollutants that contaminate surface waters fuel the
overgrowth of algae. What is not used up by algae in fresh waterways, spews out
into the ocean where it supports the growth of algae on sea plants and coral reef
systems. This blocks access to sunlight, causing whatever it smothers to die.

Eighty percent of the seagrass meadows in Perths Cockburn Sound an

important nursery habitat for wild fish stocks - have been decimated due to this
process which is called eutrophication.

It doesnt use pesticides or herbicides

Another pollution disaster caused by agrichemical use is the contamination of

groundwater reserves with poisonous nasties, particularly (in Australia) Atrazine
and Simazine, but also Dieldrin, Chlorpyriphos, Amitrol, Metolachlor, Trifluraline
and Diuron Dieldrin, Lindane, and Alachlor.

While systematic monitoring of pesticide contamination of groundwater in

Australia is limited, available tests have detected pesticides in at least 20% of
samples, indicating significant contamination (Australia State of the Environment
Report 2001).

Groundwater studies in the US have found similarly significant contamination. In

Carolina, for example, over 27% of wells sampled in 1997 were found to be
contaminated with pesticides predominantly from routine agricultural usage.

Agrichemicals are life negative. Photo: Rubenshito

There is no economically viable method to clean up widespread contamination.
Pesticide contamination poses a serious, unreasonable public health threat to
current and future ground water users.

Synthetic agrichemicals (and most plastics widely used in our society) are
derived from oil, and thus a source of endocrine-disrupting chemicals (especially
xenoestrogens) in the environment. Distorted sex organ development and
function in alligators has been related to a major pesticide spill into a lake in
Florida, U.S.A.

There is also evidence to link xenoestrogens to a range of human medical

concerns, particularly reproductive problems such as reduced sperm count in
men and breast cancer in women.

Even the safest herbicides such as Roundup (glycophosphate) the second

most widely used in the USA - are now known to pose a danger to wetland
ecologies, and can totally decimate frog populations at routine contamination
levels.

ORGANIC FARMING AND PEAK OIL

Agrichemical farming is extremely energy reliant, particularly in the extraction,

manufacture and processing of the synthetic chemicals upon which it is so
dependent.

In a world of diminishing oil supplies the days of chemical agriculture are

numbered!

One has only to study the experience of Cuba to know this is so. In the early
1990s Cuba had the most industrialized agriculture in Latin America, fueled by
cheap, readily available Soviet oil. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, this
supply was cut, virtually overnight.

At first Cuba was faced with dire food shortages, and despite rationing the
average Cuban lost 10 kilograms in weight! Hungry people responded by
becoming farmers lawyers, teachers, truck drivers everyone learned to
garden!

Under the community-focused direction of its socialist leadership, Cuba rapidly

made a successful transition to organic agriculture and more labor intensive
methods, including reintroducing the use of bullocks in the cultivation of crops.
Grow your own fruit and vegetables

Growing your own food can be good exercise and

could save you money. It can also give you a healthy amount of fresh,
seasonable fruit and vegetables. It's easy to get started and there are
lots of places you can grow plants, even if you don't have a garden.
Why grow your own?
More people are getting interested in growing their own fruit and vegetables, for
many different reasons:

it could save you money on expensive items like salad leaves

gardening is a cheap form of exercise and a great way to burn calories and
get some fresh air

it helps children understand where food comes from, and could encourage
more interest in eating fresh fruit and vegetables

growing your own can help you get your five-a-day portions of fruit and
vegetables

you'll become more aware of what's in season, so you may find it easier to
choose seasonal food when you go shopping (seasonal food is likely to
need less energy to produce)

gardening can be a sociable activity which involves you in your local

community

it can help to reduce stress and can give you a sense of achievement

Five-a-day NHS Choices website

LoveFoodHateWasteNI website

Growing plants at home

You may only have a small balcony, or a space on the windowsill, but it needn't
stop you taking your first steps at gardening. You can grow herbs indoors or
salad leaves outside in a pot.
If you have a garden but no space for a dedicated food plot, you can try planting
fruit or vegetables amongst your flowers.
You could ask a neighbour with a large garden if you could cultivate a patch of
ground, and maybe offer some of your produce in return.
Community garden schemes
Community garden schemes are available in many areas of the country. Groups
of people have joined together to reclaim land to grow food and plants as a
neighbourhood community project.

The projects give a space for people to enjoy and learn about gardening, share
tools, seeds and produce, and meet other people.
Look on the Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens website for a list
of community gardens and farms in Northern Ireland

BBC Gardening - community gardening projects in Northern Ireland

Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens - Northern Ireland

Benefits Of A Backyard Suburban Garden

Image by woodleywonderworks
By Debbie Slack
In this world of increasing living costs, a backyard suburban garden can provide a
family with fresh, delicious, healthy vegetables, fruits and herbs. Many fruits and
vegetables are perennials and with little care or maintenance can bring your
family years of eating pleasure. Gardening can give you the satisfaction of
having grown your own produce for a fraction of the cost of buying it in the

grocery store. In addition, gardening is not difficult nor does it have to take a lot
of time and effort. Lets take a look at how to create a backyard suburban
garden.
Suburban Garden Planning
There are as many ways to garden as there are people who work the soil. First,
think about how much time you have and how much equipment you will need. I
prefer to use the raised bed-no till method of gardening. My equipment list
includes a shovel, spade and a good pair of gloves.
The entire garden should be planned in detail before anything is planted. There
are thousands of sites on the internet that will give you free plans for your
gardens; these plans include flower, herb, water or vegetable gardening.
Planning out your garden will save you hours of frustration later, when with poor
planning thesquash takes over the lawn or the mint threatens to spread to the
next county. Decide in advance what vegetables or flowers you would like to
grow. Do you want to buy plants or grow them from seeds? Start small as you
can always expand the garden next year. What vegetables do you like? No point
in growingzucchini if you cant stand the stuff.
Advertisement
How to Create a Backyard Suburban Garden
Once your suburban garden planning is complete, its time to get your garden
ready for planting. Amend and enrich your soil by adding leaves or
composted manure. If you are planting in compacted clay soil, add a good bit of
sand to lighten the clay.
Place your garden spot where it will receive at least five hours of sunlight a day.
If you want a low maintenance gardening technique, raised beds will fill the bill.
Be sure to position your garden far enough away from trees so they dont
compete with the crops for water. If you have only a small site available for a
garden, we suggest you grow crops that will yield the heaviest crop over the
longest period of time.
Vegetables suitable for a small suburban garden include:

Benefits of Organic Farming for Small Farmers

Organic Cultivation

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The various benefits of organic farming for small farmers all over the world include a
high premium, low capital investment, the ability to achieve higher premiums in the
market, and the ability to use traditional knowledge. According to research conducted
by the Office of Evaluation and Studies (OE), at the International Fund for Agriculture
Development (IFAD), small farmers in Latin America, China, and India can benefit
dramatically from organic farming and will help in alleviating poverty in these
countries.
Organic farming refers to means of farming that does not involve the use of
chemicals such as chemical fertilizers and chemical pesticides. Numerous small
farmers practice organic farming; however, since they are unaware of the market
opportunities, they are not able to reap the benefits of organic farming.
Listed below are some of the advantages of organic farming for small farmers:
High Premium: Organic food is normally priced 20-30% higher than conventional
food. This premium is very important for a small farmer whose income might only be
sufficient to feed his/her family with one meal.
Low Investment: Organic farming normally does not involve capital investment as
high as that required in chemical farming. Furthermore, since organic fertilizers and
pesticides can be produced locally, the yearly costs incurred by the farmer are also
low. Agriculture greatly depends on external factors such as climate, pests, and
disease. Furthermore, most of the small farmers are dependent on natural rain for
water. Therefore, in cases of natural calamity, pest or disease attack, or irregular
rainfall, when there is a crop failure, small farmers practicing organic farming have to
suffer less as their investments are low. It should be noted that while shifting from
chemical farming to organic farming, the transition might be costly.

Less Dependence on Money Lenders: Many small farmers worldwide commit

suicide or suffer from intense economic strife due to increasing debt. Since chemical
inputs, which are very costly, are not required in organic farming, small farmers are
not as dependent on money lenders. Crop failure, therefore, does not lead an
organic farmer into enormous debt, and does not force him to take any extreme
steps.

Synergy with Life Forms: Organic farming involves synergy with various plant and
animal life forms. Small farmers are able to understand this synergy easily and
therefore find it easy to implement the organic farming techniques.
Traditional Knowledge: Small farmers have an abundance of traditional knowledge
with them and within their community. Most of this traditional knowledge cannot be
used for chemical farming. However, when it comes to organic farming, farmers can
make use of this traditional knowledge. Furthermore, in cases of organic farming,
small farmers are not dependent on those who provide chemical know-how.

Limitations of Organic Farming for Small Farmers

Small farmers can benefit drastically by practicing organic farming as it helps them
get a high premium for their produce and reduces the capital investment involved in
farming. Organic agriculture for small farmers, however, has its own limitations.
These limitations were studied by the Office of Evaluation and Studies
(OE), International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD). They include the
following:
Organic farming is labor intensive. Hence, it is beneficial for a small farmer who has
abundant labor in his/her family. A small farmer who does not have sufficient labor at

home may find it difficult to hire external labor. Therefore, organic farming may not be
feasible for him/her.
Organic farming may also turn out to be expensive given the situation when a small
farmer has to carry out the transition, modify the soil structure drastically, or get a
certification.
Although a farmer can use a good deal of traditional knowledge in organic farming,
since the practice is not as common as chemical farming, it is difficult for good
scientific organic farming practices to propagate to the small farmers.
Certification is also an important aspect of organic farming. In many cases, providing
education related to necessary certifications and the guidelines that need to be
followed for obtaining the certifications may be difficult. The cost of obtaining a
certification is also high and out of the reach of a small farmer. Hence a small farmer
can get into certification-based organic farming only when there is a large group of
500-2000 farmers and the government funds the certification process.
Since organic produce is not traded in many markets, marketing the organic produce
may be difficult for a small farmer.
Small farmers can successfully practice organic farming with proper guidance from
public and non-governmental organizations. However, the complexities of problems
that these organizations may have to deal with and the costs involved in running
these organizations may make the entire activity non-viable.
In organic farming, soil fertility needs to be replenished with the regular application of
organic fertilizers. If the organic fertilizers are not produced locally, it might be difficult
for the small farmer, who would purchase the fertilizers in small quantities to obtain
them from elsewhere. Furthermore, due to low economies of scale, there might be a
huge transportation cost associated with the organic fertilizers obtained from long
distances.
It has also been observed that organic food prices are not stable and continue
fluctuating from time to time. In such a scenario, a low price might drastically affect a
small farmer.
Since the volume of organic food production is low (about 1-2% of total food
production), it is very difficult to implement social security measures, such as a
minimum support price.

Healthy benefits of growing your own vegetable garden

NATE SCRAMLIN
GREENER GROUND

Editors note: Nate Scramlin of Mayfield

Township is a 2000 graduate of Lapeer East High School and has been a planner
with the Genesee County Metropolitan Planning Commission since 2006. He
earned a bachelors degree in urban and regional planning from Michigan State
University.
As my idol, Joe Dirt, once said Lifes a garden dig it. While I love his intended
message, I think we should all take him literally for a second and consider the
real life benefits of growing your own vegetable garden.

Where's the story? 3 Points Mentioned

First and foremost, growing your own fresh produce is undeniably green.
Industrial food production how the majority of produce found at our local
grocery stores is grown uses fossil fuels every step of the way. Transporting,
processing, and packaging are all fossil fuelladen functions of industrial food
production that can be eliminated by growing veggies in your own backyard.
For those of you who lack the room, time, or ambition to grow your own, grab
your reusable shopping bag and head on down to the farmers market in
downtown Lapeer on Wednesday or Saturday mornings. You can still feel
confident you are struttin the green line by purchasing locally grown foods as
the transportation, processing, and packaging of these products are kept to a
bare minimum, or simply just not needed.
El numero dos. Growing your own vegetables is way cheaper than buying them
at the grocery store. Take me for instance. I just bought two jalapeno pepper
plants at Randy & Teresas for around $5. Now, I love jalapenos. The plants I
bought will yield roughly 60 peppers and other than tap water every few days, Ill

only invest the original $5. If I were to purchase those 60 peppers at the
supermarket, it would cost me upwards of $30. Thats 25 bucks in my pocket and
were just talking jalapenos. Think of all of the other veggies you and your family
eat and imagine the money that could be saved by growing them yourself.
Nothing upsets me more than when Ive got my heart set on a monster BLT, I go
to the grocery store and have to settle on a barely ripe, lackluster tasting tomato
to complete my masterpiece. BOOORRRING! Unfortunately, around here, during
the winter you just have to settle.
But during the growing season there is no reason why you have to endure this
truly traumatic experience. The deep red color, and unmatched sweetness of a
gardengrown tomato accents perfectly a few hearty strips of hickory-smoked
bacon. Same goes for bell peppers, sweet corn, sugar snap peas, and fresh green
beans among many other summer favorites. They truly taste better. So ... relax,
enjoy, look at the flowers, knock back a few fresh green beans, and listen to the
birds sing.
Small Vegetable Garden Planning

GARDEN DESIGN > GARDEN PHOTOS > ONLINE GARDEN PLANNERS

You can grow your own food! Cultivating a small vegetable garden is not difficult
if you plan your garden layout carefully and a few important factors are kept in
mind. The primary needs for successful vegetable garden planning on a small
scale are the same as those for gardening on a large scale. In designing a small
garden layout greater emphasis must be placed on intensive cultivation and
arranged plant rotations so every available space will produce the maximum
yield.

The essentials of all gardening include soil of suitable texture containing

available plant food, water to dissolve the plant food so that the plant rootlets
may make use of it, seeds or plants which will produce the desired crops,
sunshine and warmth to bring about germination and plant development, and

cultivation. Planning a garden from scratch successfully also depends upon the
gardener and the care he bestows on his project.

Vegetable Garden Planner

In planting a vegetable garden, there are several ways to
use your computer or iPad to plan, space and rotate
crops. The great advantage of a vegetable garden
planning tool is that you can quickly create a color plan
with 3-D views and you have the ability to make changes
in a snap. Not everyone has the horticultural expertise to
choose plants and arrange them for best results, but
with a vegetable garden planner such as Better Homes &
Gardens Plan-a-Garden you can try out this option.
Choosing suitable free trial vegetable gardening software
will also help you create the best possible plan for your
vegetable plot, allowing you to save both time and
money.

Design Vegetable Garden Tools

Vegetable Garden Software Review

Top Small Gardens Planners

Vegetable Gardening App Review

Vegetable Garden Planner Reviews

One of the features you should consider when searching for vegetable garden
software is a when-to-plant guide. Garden software can also keep track of your
vegetable garden plans year after year, which is especially helpful when rotating
crops. The GrowVeg.com Garden Planner shows how much space plants require
and how to group them for maximum success, removing the need to look up
planting distances and crop families.
The first step in small vegetable garden planning is to select a well-drained plot
of good soil. Location and exposure cannot always receive much consideration in
gardening small plots since there is ordinarily little room for choice. Such spaces

are usually located inbackyards or the choice of location is restricted in other

ways by the necessity that the garden be accessible to the house, garage or
shed. Take into account when planning a vegetable garden layout that frost is
less likely to injure vegetables planted on high ground than those planted in low
places or valleys where the heavier cold air commonly settles; and that crops will
mature more rapidly on land that has a sunny southern exposure than on other
plots. Moreover, the garden design should be fairly level, but well drained; and
that a warm, sandy loam will produce an earlier crop than a heavier soil that
retains more water and less heat. Plant your home garden in an artistic manner,
but keep it in such shape as to make cultivation easy.

Planting a Vegetable Garden

Make the soil deep, mellow and rich before the seeds are sown. Time and labor
will be saved. Spade or plow the ground deeply, at least 8 or 10 inches. This
loosens the subsoil so that it will hold moisture and the tiny plant roots can
penetrate it. Work a good fertilizer into the soil as you prepare the seed beds. If
you do not wish to fertilize all the ground in the plot, fair success can be had and
fertilizer saved by working it into the soil only under the seed rows at the time of
sowing, or under seedlings when transplanting them. Rake the surface frequently
to keep down weeds and to prevent the soil from baking. Radish seeds sown with
celery or other slow-germinating seeds will come up quickly, breaking the crust
and marking the rows. Along one side of the area rows of bush fruits may be
planted. About the borders of the vegetable garden is a good place for flowers to
be grown for the decoration of the house or to give to
friends.

Plan, Space and Rotate Crops

When planting vegetable garden seeds, follow the
instructions faithfully as to the depth they are to be
covered, and firm the soil on them with the flat side of
the hoe. Some seeds can be spaced in the trench the
distance they are to grow, while others must be sown at
least twice as thick as they are to grow and must be
thinned after the seedlings are inch or so in height.
Remember, however, that due to climatic and soil
conditions, some localities are unsuited for growing
certain types of vegetables. Inquire from those who have
grown gardens in your neighborhood as to the kinds of
vegetables to plant. In general, you can follow the
instructions on the seed packets regarding planting time and culture. When the
instructions state that the seeds can be sown as soon as the ground can be
worked in the spring, do just that. Vegetables of this type will not be affected by
light frosts and must be planted early because they either require a long time to
reach maturity, or grow best during cool weather, making it necessary that they
have time to reach maturity before hot, dry weather starts.