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With the cost of produce escalating higher and higher and healthy cooking and eating awareness setting into the main stream of our lives, more and more people are considering starting their own organic vegetable gardens.
There is no need to create a large garden or to even consider a large garden. Think small and be smart about it because any plant deserves your consideration and responsibility.
First thing to do is to sit down and decide what you want to plant and how much you want to plant. How many people do you expect to feed out of this organic garden? Will you want to harvest enough to can, freeze or preserve?
A four foot by four foot area will feed one person and it adds up that if you are a family of four you will need that size plot of land times four whether you create a four foot by sixteen foot organic garden or an eight foot by eight foot one.
Determine how much time you want to spend in your vegetable garden.
Start by selecting an area that gets about 6 hours of sun a day and make sure you put it where it is handy to your watering hose because you will not be able to rely on rain when you need it or want it.
Test your soil to determine if it needs to be amended with good organic fertilizer. A good dehydrated cow manure mixed with water will be a good feeder and eventually if you decide you like organic gardening you can start your own compost heap.
Tomatoes are the easiest to grow and you will have more success if you start with good heirloom tomato plants started in organic biodegradable pots that you can put right into your soil. Six tomato plants will give you a good crop. You might want to check out the maturation time for them so they do not come all at once. You might want two slicing tomatoes, two salad tomatoes such as cherry tomatoes and grape tomatoes. You might add two other kind that come at a later time and you can have them all at different times and you will not be overwhelmed with harvesting.
I like to plant some marigolds in amongst my tomatoes as they act as a natural pest repellent and you can do the same where you plant some string beans. Remember to stake your sting beans as they grow in order to have them climbing up the stakes as opposed to being on the ground. I like to have them grow up among a tripod stake which I create by putting 3 stakes in the ground and bring them together at the top with some gardening wire.
You might want to add some peas for an early treat. A garden should have some lettuce that you sow in succession directly from seed and you will have some coming along for quite awhile until you get some really hot weather. Also you will be able to grow radishes from seed if sown early and give you another early treat.
Putting in four sweet pepper plants will give you a good crop and how about some onion sets which will give you some green onions in the beginning as you thin them out and then later on some good onions for your fall storage.
If you want to add herbs then a three foot by nine foot patch will give you all the herbs you need and you might consider keeping the perennial ones in one part and your annual ones such as parsley on the end so you can easily replant the annual seeds each season.
Remember, smart gardeners start small organic vegetable gardens.
“Tread the Earth Lightly” and in the meantime… May your day be filled with…
Peace, Light and Love,
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Author Bio Box: Arlene Wright Correll
 For more gardening or cooking information click http://www.learn-america.com/
To see Arlene’s Gardens and to read her gardening diaries and to take a walk through her pictorial garden or click on Arlene’s Books where you can download or buy her gardening & cook books, including her new book, “The ABC’s of Wine and Beer Making”. Many of her articles written for Greenthumbarticles have paintings she has created of the subject and they can be seen at her “How to Do It” site. Remember to check out her artwork, especially of her fruits and vegetables. Many of her paintings are sold internationally and many of her works of art have been reproduced on note cards, post cards and other functional items and you can get Giclee prints of her artwork starting as low as $11.89 Arlene says, “All my royalties from the sale of my books, art, etc. go to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and I thank you for visiting my sites.”
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