An Organic Vegetable Garden
You should take heed of certain basic principals when starting your
first organic vegetable garden: the choice of plants, natural
fertilizer, rotating the plants, and other treatments of parasites.
An organic vegetable garden demands good exposure to sunlight and protection against dominant winds. Avoid, wherever possible, planting close to a house (which will create shadow) and to trees (which consume a lot of water). Once the plot has been chosen, the gardener should choose plants adapted to the region and to the weather conditions. To facilitate working the soil, the garden should be divided into squares separated by walkways. Hardy perennials like herbs, asparagus or even rhubarb should be planted at the bottom of the garden or on the edges to facilitate future digging and hoeing. Once the squares are marked out, planting can start according to the season.
To avoid using chemical pesticides and fertilizers, sow plants which compliment each other: for example, garlic, onions and even shallots slow down the development of leguminous plants like beans and peas. The same can be said for cabbage and fennel, which affect the growth of strawberries and carrots, respectively. Carrots are traditionally planted beside leeks, onions and coriander, tomatoes are planted near onions, beans beside radishes. Marigold flowers keep insects away from carrots, cabbage and lettuce, whereas the French Marigold, with its peculiar smell, protects tomatoes from damaging insects.
The best protection from ravaging insects is to leave part of the garden half fallow. The plants' enemies will find plenty to feed on here, and so will the plants' allies like the redbreast and bees. If you have the good fortune to have nettles growing nearby, keep them for their protective quality against diseases. Nettle slurry works wonders against diseases. Once your plants are in place, you can start making your own compost to enrich your soil in the low season. This compost will give the same chemical benefits as a fertilizer, without any polluting side-effects.
Finally, rotate your plants the following year. This technique avoids impoverishing the soil. Watering drip by drip with recovered rainwater will add the final touch to your organic vegetable garden.