Hello.
I want to start organic gardening but I have no clue where to begin. I recently started buying only organic and natural foods from the market and now I want to get more into it. I have a small backyard and years ago my family planted some fruits and vegetables, but now there's nothing there, other than the soil.
So basically, if I wanted to start organic gardening, what would I have to do first?

Well, you are off to a good start by comming here.

How about you fill us in on where you are, What size of an area you have to plant, What books if any do you have? What tools? How much general gardening knowledge do you have?

What a great opportunity to start from scratch!

You'll probably get a lot of advice but my recommendation would be to do two things. Get a good book and start with the soil.

For the book, I like Rodale's Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening. It's organized like an encyclopedia so fertilizers are under F and tomatoes are under T. Makes it easy to look stuff up without wading through a bunch of other chapters first and without having to use the tiny print index in the back of so many books.

For the soil, you might want to send a sample in to be tested. Most soil testing is done through the County Extension Office so check the phone book or the web--most have good websites. They send you out a little kit and you take some soil samples and send them in. You get a report back telling you whether your soil is acid or alkaline and what nutrients it is lacking.

Another thing you can do for your soil right away is to start adding organic matter. All soil benefits from this. For a small area like yours, you can get some bags of composted manure, usually sheep or cow, or bags of peat moss. After you remove any existing sod or weeds (I do this by hand) just spread the organic stuff over the garden-to-be about an inch or so thick and dig it in.

As David said, you've come to the right place. Keep asking questions, and we'll walk you through the whole thing!

The basic difference between organic gardening & chemical-dependent gardening is in regards to the soil. The organic gardener understands that the soil can contain everything the plant needs, if encouraged, & that once the balance, the life, is returned to the soil, the gardener's job is to keep protecting & building the soil,...which will in turn, do everything else almost. By turning your back on anything that will kill the organisms in the soil, a balanced eco-system will return to your land, a place where birds & toads & worms & other beneficial insects are safe from chemicals, safe to help you in your garden. Use the sod that you remove from your land in the area where you will garden, to build your first compost heap that will feed your soil next spring, & you'll be on the right path. Welcome & congratulations on making the right choice. God / Mother Nature provides all we need to grow things; you're doing what's right.

echos of all the other posts. the soil is the foundation that all of your gardening will sit on. take your time to make sure it's good. but also don't be afraid to plant now. if your soil is lacking you just won't do as well.

remember that many of the myths that are said about organic gardening is untrue. i just had a person in one of my classes at school say that organicly grown apple juice had been responsible for a baby's death. after a little questioning it came out that she didn't really know what she was talking about. luckliy it was in a microbiology class. the teacher backed me up that organic would be the least likely thing to cause a problem. but that is an example of how a bad story spreads by people who don't know any better.... don't ever believe things like that. this decision is the healthiest choice you can make.

you also can't always believe what the garden center guys tell you. often you may be told that organic gardening is good to a point, but you should supliment it, or use it as a supliment. if you put chemical fertilizers or insecticide/herbacides in your garden you kill teh microbial life that your soil needs to be healthy. that starts you in a downward sprial. you gave your garden a little something to help, and it does in the very short term. but, it damages your soil. since your soil is damaged there's a new, bigger problem, so you have to use some other chem... one of the other answers refers to it as chemical DEPENDANT gardening for good reason.

sometimes even dedicated OG'rs forget that something that is very widly used is not organic. i mentioned using vit.b in a post... it's not organic & there was a better way that others posted... i just forgot. someone else said that for snails you could use amonium sulfate... but crushed oyster shells are better (i still haven't seen any snails & the birds are so happy ) he just forgot & a better way was posted.

also remember that no one was born knowing these things. it used to be that our parents would have taught us these things as a part of our raising. that doesn't happen anymore, so we find other ways to learn. that's what this board & magazine is for.
if you have questions you have deffinatly found the right place to ask. don't be put off by the great jello/cat contriversy of ought2. this is a great place to be! don't ever be afraid to ask, or present a puzzle to teh memebers of this board. gardeners tend to be very nurturing people & are happiest when helping someone.

it's easier for people to help you if we know where you are. you'll notice that in our sig lines (very bottom of post that prints automatically) we list where we are. something that is appropriate in one loc just doesn't work somewhere else.

and WELCOME!!!

WELCOME.....you did the first thing right......you asked.........somebody has an answer....and you have the net right in front of you .....its the biggest book on the planet.......lol

Even some of the good organic gardening books make it way more complicated that it has to be. I wish someone had told me years ago that it is not necessary to double dig (a method that you will no doubt read about as you research the topic of OG) or even to dig at all. I would urge you to look into sheet composting (also called lasagna gardening). Learn about composting, mulching, and cover cropping and you'll be all set. Don't get discouraged if it seems like tons of work; it doesn't have to be. Good luck.

I would suggest "Lasagna Gardening" by Patricia Lanza--very comprehensive book, and details just how simple organic gardening is! Best of luck to you.

Welcome Lucinda. I am new to organic gardening too. So really the only tip I can give is get a notebook and pen and write everything down. It's hard to remember when everything is new to you. Everytime I get on here I have my notebook ready. When I see advice or answers that I will use I write them down in catagories. I am going to get another one and put everything in order and have the pages laminated so I can hang them on a ring in the shed. I'm glad you chose to go organic,I am glad I did.

Amy

Notebook? PEN? Oh, you Luddite! You disbeliever in Technology! You ....you..... Hmmmm. You're right. When you jot things down, you remember things. As opposed to my lazy slob ways of highlighting, copy-and paste into a notepad directory on my C drive.

When (not if) this dumb PC finally crashes, YOU will have your notes. I will have a fried hard drive....

John

that's what backup hard drives are for. drives are so cheap now, you just put a 2nd on in your system & use explorer to copy one drive to another. set it to start right before you go to bed, bout once a week. then when one crashes you have a copy.

Thank you all for your replies. I will go over them again and write down whatever advice you all have given me. By the way, sorry that I took so long to reply back.

To answer your questions, I have a really small yard, but I would still like to work with whatever I have. I also don't have any books or tools. I don't have much knowledge either.
I tried searching for a place to get my soil tested, and I think I found one, but they're on strike right now. So until that's over, I don't know how to get my soil tested. I'm located in Toronto, Ontario.

Lucinda,
Since you said you don't have any tools yet, I would highly recommend sheet composting. Your local library should have a copy of the book "Lasagna Gardening" which really takes a lot of the "intimidation factor" out of beginning a garden. Realize that you won't get everything right the first time, most of us have some kind of gardening failure every season, so don't get down on yourself if something doesn't go right. It's kind of like slow dancing with someone new; it takes a while to get the rhythm, then you get the hang of it, and then Nature changes the music on you!
It also helps to get some basic tools: decent gloves(leather is not necessary), shoes that you can get mucky and let stay mucky, a shovel, a rake, a hoe or a handweeder of some kind, a transplanter(small had shovel for planting starts), maybe a small wheelbarrow and a lot of enthusiasm and patience. I always check out garage or estate sales for tools. Don't get anything too fancy or expensive until your sure it's exactly what you want.
Good Luck and Happy Gardening!

OH Lucinda. I'm green with envy! (as opposed to green with thumb hehehe)

I have only a cement back porch to work with. I have to be creative to get enough light, since I primarily want to grow edibles.

My question for the group, for those of us who are sticking our toes in the water, is: What plants are the best to start with? A few years ago I bought some plants and they died. Then the next year I bought some plants and they died. It's quite discouraging. I think that new gardeners should start with 'easy' stuff their first year, so that they will gain confidence. I just need to know what these easy things are...

I'm wanting to grow dandelions, since the greens are edible and nutritious, and since they are considered weeds, my guess is they grow well. ;-) I went to my local 'upscale' nursery, and the guy practically scoffed when I asked for some. A lady standing nearby mumbled, 'Come on over to my place.' hehe This tells me that I should definitely grow it. I will always be sure to grow it in pots, even if I do get a backyard someday, since I hear it will take over.

So what else do you seasoned gardeners believe are 'beginner' plants?