Organic Gardening Tips and Techniques for Successful Growing

Reading organic gardening tips can help to speed up the learning process, if you want to become good at organic gardening.

There are lots of skills and techniques which help with growing vegetables and plants organically - some found in mainstream gardening, others less well known. Here I am going to discuss some of the techniques that I think are particularly good and which help towards a greener lifestyle.

What's here?

This page of organic gardening tips and techniques includes sections on mulching, digging and no-dig gardening and selecting tools.

Picture: courgette flower

Organic gardening tips and techniques:

A mulch is simply a covering layer put on top of the soil.

What are the benefits of mulching?

You can use mulches for a whole variety of purposes. You protect the soil from drying out and from sudden temperature changes. A good mulch also suppresses the weeds.

As an organic gardener I like mulches to be feeding the soil as well as protecting it. A good organic mulch is being broken down by living organisms and the nutritional value of the mulch is being delivered up to the soil in a way that plants find easy to absorb as they grow.

To use mulch is to imitate nature. If you go into a forest the floor is often covered with a mulch of dead leaves. The leaves gradually rot down and in about three years they have sunk down to soil level and they are being broken down and digested by micro-organisms – and bigger things – to produce new soil. So a good mulch enriches the soil by providing nutrients and improving soil structure.

Organic gardening tips and techniques:

You can use practically any organic matter as long as it is not too fresh. A good quality well-rotted compost is the best all-round choice. See here for how to make your own compost.

Animal manures are probably my next choice because they are rich in nitrogen, so help build up fertility. They do need to be well rotted. If they are too fresh they will literally scorch nearby plants, as manure gives off heat as it rots.

Well-rotted manure adds both fertility and conditioning elements to soil. Micro-organisms thrive and the soil teems with plant-friendly life.

Manure from any domestic farm animals is suitable. They all have their different qualities. Cow and horse are probably the easiest to find, most places. But use what is nearby and available - it's all good!

Be careful when handling fresh manure. Use stout gloves and wash your hands well afterwards to prevent possible contamination. Make sure that you are protected against soil-borne diseases such as tetanus. While manures make excellent plant food, they can be hazardous in the wrong place!

Organic gardening tips: Other accessible choices include straw, sawdust and wood shavings. These all tend to rob the soil of nitrogen to help them break down, so they are best composted first.

Many animal manures are mixed with straw or wood shavings and this makes them even more useful as the plant matter helps the soil's structure, making it light and easier to work.

Mushroom compost If there is a mushroom farm anywhere in your neighbourhood you may be able to get spent mushroom compost. It can make an excellent soil conditioner as well as feeding the soil. It is worth using only if the mushroom farm is organic - otherwise you are just adding chemical traces to your soil.

Rotted leaves also make a good mulch but they don’t supply much nitrogen compared to other mulches. They take about three years to rot down.

It is well worth collecting any fallen leaves and letting them quietly get on with it. Most people don't want soggy leaves all over the garden, so it's simple to rake them into piles and bag them up to rot. You can do this at any point in the winter to suit you. Some gardeners argue that it is good to let them lie on beds, where they help keep the plants snug and frost-free. I compromise by raking up the leaves on the lawn and pathways but letting the rest lie until spring.

Rather than use recycled bags, you can put your leaves into a holding pen made from wire mesh. You could also use a compost bin. The simple, lidless plastic ones are ideal. See here for more on compost barrels and bins.

Use your leaf compost as a soil conditioner and to suppress weeds. Use it anywhere you would use compost. Before the advent of potting composts, peat and the like, leaf mould was what gardeners used for starting plants. I haven't tried this yet - maybe next year.

It's easy to see when your rotted down leaves are ready: the consistency is almost like soil, perhaps a little flakey. There are no visible leaves left.

Picture above: This vegetable plot is edged with old logs. An organic mulch of well rotted compost covers the soil between the plants.

Organic gardening tips: What about paper, cardboard and plastic?

These can all be useful, as can purpose made mulching mats and weed suppressors. They will all cut down moisture loss. There is no nutritional benefit, beyond reducing moisture loss from your soil.

If you don’t mind recycling old plastic grow bags or compost bags or any other sturdy plastic waste, then that can be a useful way of organising a temporary mulch. Just weight every thing down with bricks or old tiles. This can be quite a help when suppressing weeds on ground which is waiting for you to find time to cultivate it. You can also use old carpet for this kind of crude weed suppression.

Of course, such an approach may not impress the neighbours, so you may prefer to use this method just as a very temporary expedient to help control an over-grown garden or allotment.

You can, if you prefer, buy purpose-made mulch matting or weed suppressing matting.

Organic gardening tips and techniques: the benefits of mulching instead of digging

This is a subject which exercises the minds of many organic gardeners. Can mulching really take the place of digging? Many gardeners are stoutly in favour of digging at all costs.

Personally, I’m pretty much in the no-dig camp simply because I want to let the worms and micro-organisms do most of the work rather than me! Nevertheless, it's not exactly a lazy option: you need to add plenty of top dressings for this method to work properly.

The no-dig route to garden success depends upon you supplying the soil with masses of organic matter, (mulches and composts) to increase fertility. Growing vegetables is quite a drain on the fertility of the soil, so you must constantly keep putting back nutrients.

Organic gardening tips: You also need to build the quality of the soil structure by incorporating more and more organic matter. Poor soil easily loses nutrients because there is not enough structure to prevent run-off (i.e. your valuable nutrients just getting washed away. If you look at the soil from land which is farmed with artificial fertilisers, it is usually poor, dusty stuff which has little ability to hold nutrients.)

Both these soil needs (structure and nutrition) are served by good quality compost and manure.

When you lay down an organic mulch on top of the soil, the organisms in the soil (such as earthworms and beetles) help to break down the organic matter and gradually draw it down deeper into the soil.

The organic matter in the mulch also feeds the micro-organisms in the soil. Micro-organisms are responsible for transporting nutrients to the roots of plants. This is probably the single most important reason for using organic mulches. You are creating a vibrant ecology around your plants which will help them to grow.

As in nature (think forests with their layers of leaf litter), mulches feed the soil from above.

Organic gardening tips:

So is there really no need to dig?

Digging can be very useful in order to break down a hard pan in the soil. This is where a hardened layer of soil has built up over time.

Deep-rooted plants like comfrey and some legumes (pea family) may also be able to break down hard layers of soil to some extent.

It is certainly true that you will see better results faster if you take the trouble to carefully dig and weed a new plot. And the further down you dig the better - except you don't want to bring up sub-soil.

If you dig down one or two spits, in most cases that is sufficient. (A spit, is a spade depth, or about 8-10 inches.) You'll know if you have brought up sub-soil if the colour changes and the soil is stony and rough. Sub-soil is nutritionally poor and you don't want it near the surface where most of your plants have their roots.

Some gardeners set great store by double-digging i.e. digging down two spits or more. For those that have the time and energy, I'm sure it can pay dividends, especially if you incorporate lots of good manure or other fertilising organic matter. For me, the main use of digging is to clear weed from a neglected plot before preparing a seed bed. If weeds have become established it may take too long to suppress them with mulch matting etc and they may be too strong to simply hoe off. In this situation, a light digging usually does the trick.

For the most part, I prefer to keep adding organic mulches which feed the soil. For breaking new ground I let potatoes and other deep rooted crops to do most of the work!

Organic gardening tips: the best tools for the job

In organic cultivation you generally use much the same tools as you would if you were taking the artificial route (except the spray gun!) – i.e. you will need a fork, spade, trowel, hoe, wheelbarrow etc, depending on how far you are taking your organic cultivation. If you only want to grow plants in containers, you might be able to get away with just hand tools, for example.

If you are growing potatoes, and a variety of plants and flowers you will probably need a wider range of garden tools. Good tools make garden jobs easier and are a pleasure to work with whereas poor quality tools are often a false economy – they break easily and don’t do such a good job or they are heavy and hard to wield.

So when you choose a new garden tool, always consider who is going to use it. If it is for yourself, pick it up and weigh it carefully in your hand. How does it feel? Is the handle long enough? Is it too heavy for you to use effectively? This can be a really important consideration if you are a small build or elderly.

In addition to standard tools, I have found a couple of things really useful.

The mattock

Organic gardening tips and techniques: A mattock is a versatile tool. It has to be the greatest tool for all round cultivation. You can use it as a large hoe or where you might use a spade or fork.

You can use it to clear ground by skimming weeds off the top and hew out troublesome weeds, even bramble roots. You can also use it to dig shallow holes.

Unfortunately all the ones I have seen are really quite big, designed for and by muscular men no doubt! My mattock cost me 20 pounds about 4 years ago. I would say it’s worth its weight. I tend to use it in short bursts as it is quite hard work (and good execise!) Some people will find that a good spade suits their purpose better. A spade will certainly skim weeds from the surface if it is sharp.

If you are prone to back problems you should take advice before using one. Breaking your back is not a necessary part of green living!

Mattocks are used extensively by women in Africa as the cultivation tool of choice.

Some of the older onion hoes are like miniature hand mattocks and are very good, whereas most of the modern ones seem to be very light weight.

It's worth looking in junk shops and car boot sales for good quality old tools.

The machete

I always wear gloves and I don’t sharpen it up too much.

A machete is a pretty dangerous thing in the wrong hands, so always keep it well away from children or irresponsible people. Take time to build your skill in using a machete. Always chop away from yourself and always wear stout gloves.

I hope you will find these organic gardening tips useful. Organic gardening tips on weeding will be added very soon.

You can also find more organic gardening tips in the section on growing food: Green Grow. There are some organic gardening tips for particular crops as well as more on soil cultivation.

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