Educational Information

Organic matter (OM) are the two most important words on the subject of organic gardening. Increasing the organic content of your soil is the best thing you can do for your land and for your plants!

Composting

Turn food waste into garden gold. Collect home cooking by-products (veggie ONLY! Eggshells if they are crushed) and yard debris in a pile. Stir every once in a while to aerate the decomposing material. Over time this material will recompose as valuable organic matter full of nutrients for soil strengthening.

Cover cropping/Green manure

Grow your own fertilizer with this simple practice. Whenever you are not planting in a field you should be cover cropping. Grow it and then incorporate it into the soil. Clover, cowpea, vetch, rye, buckwheat, alfalfa, and more! This is the great way to build soil fertility with very low input.

Crop rotation

Don't plant the same crop in the same place every year. This repeatedly depletes the same nutrients out of the soil. Rotate your crops based on their family and this will maximize soil productivity. Include a space for cover cropping in your crop rotation plan.

Pest management

Scout, beneficials, and companion planting. These are the best combative measures for pest pressure. Finding infestations before populations get too high are ideal for handling control. There are a number of biological pest control options. Beneficial insects make great comrades in the battle on bugs. Companion planting and using trap crops are great ways to distract the bugs.