Some plants benefit others by attracting pollinators or detering nematodes. You get the idea. Anyway, a “Go Organic Club” subscriber sent me in a few photos of the companion planting he’s got happening in his organic garden.

He’s got lovely combinations of vegetables, flowers and herbs. Thanks Robert Esparza for sharing your garden. I really appreciate it! Your veggie plot looks really healthy.

Give companion planting a go. I’m sure the benefits are measurable mostly by the healthy, tasty produce you get from garden.

Happy Organic Gardening, Healthy Living…

Growing different types of plants close together often confuses pests, so that they don’t find your great row of carrots, say, and munch all the way through the row to the end (then belch loudly, thankyou very much!).

This photo shows my cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower that have been interplanted with lettuce (mignonette grows all year round here). Here’s the same space when I first put in seeds – April 29th. Of course things grow much slower now that the weather’s turned cold, so we’ll still have to wait a while for the brassicas, but we’re picking the lettuce as we need them.

The yellow flowers belong to bok choy, which will be pulled out and thrown to the chooks in the next day or so. I also have snow peas growing next to the bok choy.

I find companion planting – along with other organic gardening methods – is a great tool that helps me to grow my food plants without chemicals.

Happy Organic Gardening, Healthy Living…

Julie

Essentially the difference between gardening and organic gardening is that if you’re gardening organically you are working with nature – without the use of chemicals. There are many alternatives to using chemical fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides.

Organic gardeners aren’t so concerned with a few bugs that pass by, because they know that there are probably many times more beneficial insects that will come and eat the pest – without having to do anything. 90% of insects are good for the garden, not bad. The trick is learning the difference and encouraging the beneficial insects to your garden. Give companion planting a go.

There is quite a range of organic fertilizers available from your local nursery or hardware store. But better still, you can make your own fertilizers. You can make compost (yes, it takes time and effort, but it uses up all your kitchen and garden waste and is an incredible food source for both your plants and the microbial activity in your soil), or your own organic liquid fertilizer, or both – FREE!

There are many techniques that organic gardeners use to grow delicious vegetables without the use of chemicals and with the aid of nature. If you want to learn more, take a look here.

Happy Organic Gardening, Healthy Living…

Julie

I pottered around my garden for most of the afternoon. Tidying this, pulling up that… throwing bits to the chooks. My organic veggie garden’s become a little messy, not that I’m complaining. It usually looks like that in my garden this time of year. I still have some very straggly tomatoes holding up, pumpkin vines still bearing new fruit and plants earmarked for seed production. But isn’t that how an organic food garden is supposed to look in Autumn (fall) in temperate zones? I say yes!

So the tidying made some space for new plantings. I’ve sown (seeds) cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, as well as further successions of carrots, lettuce ( 2 varieties) and radish. I’ll put more of most of these in again in about 4 weeks, to make sure we have a continuous supply.

I put sugar snap peas, lettuce and leeks in about three weeks ago and they are all looking good. Of course you want to make sure that you don’t plant your leeks (or any members of the onion family) and peas (any legumes) close to each other as they make bad companions. If you want to know more about Companion Planting click here.

My capsicums and zucchini are still going strong – as are the basil plants and other herbs. In fact they’ve never looked so good since we had a nice drop of rain a few days ago.

So it was a lovely day for me, and in a few months we’ll be enjoying the benefits of organic gardening on our dinner plates from the few hours I “worked” in the gorgeous autumn sun.

Happy Organic Gardening, Healthy Living…

Warmly,

Julie

It also means that I plant my veggies more densely than if they were grown in rows on their own. This in turn keeps down weeds. It also provides a living mulch of sorts, so there’s less sun beating down on the soil, which means less watering and less stress on the plants. I also think I end up with higher yields per area by companion planting.

As you can see in this photo, I’ve grown quite a few things here altogether. They are all beneficial to each other and enjoy similar conditions.

In this group I’m growing (from left to right) radish, leeks and beetroot alternately, lettuce, more lees and beetroot, silverbeet, strawberries and spring onions.

This photo was taken about two weeks ago. We’re eating all of these now, except for the strawberries and leeks which aren’t quite ready yet.

All in all, if you’re serious about organic gardening, I think the benefits are too great to be ignored!

I started my organic gardening website about 18 months ago and thought it was about time I started a blog so that anyone interested could keep up to date with what I’m doing in my organic garden. You might even pick up a few tips and techniques in my posts to use in your own organic garden.

Of course it’s not always exciting at my place, but I am trying out a no-dig, raised bed this spring and it’s doing very well so far. My partner built it for me from old flooring timbers about the middle of September. So it’s been going for about 6 weeks or so, and it’s looking great! We’re already eating our own lettuce, radishes and herbs.

I have quite a bit of variety and have used companion planting techniques to reduce pest and disease problems.

Some things I’ve planted as seedlings and other as seed – mostly organic seed that I’ve saved myself from past seasons.

We haven’t had much warm weather here yet and barely any rain to speak of.

I may not be writing much to start off with as I’m getting married next Friday (2nd), so I have many preparations to make before then. We will only be honeymooning for a few days though, so shouldn’t be too long.

I hope this blog will inspire you to create you own organic food garden, which reduces our negative impact on this gorgeous planet.

If you’ve never grown your own food organically, then take a look at my e-book “Organic Food Gardening For Beginners“; it will get you on the right track in no time.

Warmly,

Julie