Grow your own organically
Growing fruit, herbs and vegetables ecologically and organically is not only the best route to eating healthily, but also benefits wildlife and helps the natural balance of your garden. Here’s how to do it in five simple steps…
Embrace the good life with our step-by-step guide to creating a plentiful fruit and veg plot
Growing your own produce organically gives you the peace of mind of knowing exactly what has gone into producing your food, without using man-made chemicals and fertilisers. It also results in the freshest and tastiest fruit and vegetables possible. This doesn’t mean your garden fends for itself; rather you need to arm yourself with the knowledge to strengthen your plants’ health and use alternative ways of warding off pests. It may feel daunting to garden organically, but with these five main principles in mind you can foster a more natural, holistic ecosystem – a good site, healthy soil, biodiversity, sustainable resources and avoiding chemicals.
Easy steps to an organic plot
Preparation Select a sunny location – eight hours a day if possible, as most fruit and vegetables need plenty of light and heat to photosynthesise. If you only have part sun, there are still good options: lettuce, greens and some herbs. Ideally, you need a level, well-draining site protected from wind by hedging, windbreak or walls. Consider the practicalities of access to water, tools, compost, maintenance and harvesting. If it’s easy to regularly pop out and check on the crops or quickly harvest something to add to your meals, it will be a practical and useful addition to your garden. Be realistic about how much you can manage and the amount of produce you will eat. It’s best to start small so you don’t get disheartened and and give up. You can grow a lot of food in a small raised bed or pots. Perfect soil Abounding with nutrients and texture, and full of life, good soil is vital, especially with organic gardening. Healthy, fertile soil, with a good structure, allows plants to absorb water and nutrients, and encourages strong growth. Feed the soil with homemade compost, rotted manure or leaf mould. These bulky materials release nutrients slowly, improve soil conditions, and stimulate essential microorganisms. Growing green manures (plants that benefit the soil), such as Phacelia tanacetifolia, that also attract pollinating insects, is another organic technique for soil improvement. Natural liquid feeds can help your plants in times of stress, mycorrhizal fungi improve root nutrition uptake, and worms aerate the soil and improve drainage. Finally, why not try the ‘No Dig’ method, using thick mulches to suppress weeds?
Planting It’s worth hunting out organically grown seeds and plants, as conventionally grown plants are often already loaded with pesticides and chemical fertilisers, or may be genetically modified – exactly the types of things you’re trying to avoid. See our suggestions for organic nurseries and online suppliers, and look out for ‘organic’ labels at your local garden centre. As with all gardening, use the right plants in the right place, selecting strong, healthy plants that suit your conditions, and look for naturally disease-resistant varieties. It’s well worth doing some research so you have a clear understanding of the kind of care each crop needs.
Now you’ve sited your garden, amended the soil and selected your crops, it’s time to start planting and looking after your garden.
Prevention Pay attention to what your plants need, including watering the roots not the foliage, and stay vigilant so you catch pest and disease problems right away with regular inspections. Keeping your growing area in good health, rather than just pestand disease-free, is at the heart of organic growing. A diverse and vigorous growing system, good hygiene, and close observation all help prevent problems. You can suppress and control weeds naturally with a layer of bark mulch, composted straw or leaf mould, and removing any that pop up. Physical barriers, such as netting or cages, are a good idea to protect your ripening crops. biodiversity Encourage a food chain balance to have wildlife work for you, from ladybirds eating greenfly to frogs devouring snails. Brightly coloured flowers will attract a wide variety of insects, and the more bees you attract to the garden, the more pollination and larger yields you’ll have. You can use biological controls for any pests. Remember to rotate your crops as this prevents build-up of diseases in the soil, and keep an eye on the watering; you don’t want your plants stressed as this makes them vulnerable to attack.
Use companion planting to your garden’s advantage. Growing strongly scented plants beside your crops either confuses pests or attracts them away from your produce. For instance, marigolds will deter whitefly from your tomatoes and nasturtium will attract aphids away from the beans. Did you know that certain crops help each other? For example, plant a bed with sweetcorn, beans and squash together. Each plant provides natural shelter and protection for the other, while the large leaves of the squash plants shade the sweetcorn’s roots from sunlight. They also act as natural mulch by suppressing weeds and preventing moisture from evaporating from the soil’s surface. The tall corn stems provide a sturdy support for beans to climb up. In turn, the beans fix nitrogen into the soil.
Finally, organic gardening is not for the perfectionist – you need to accept the odd nibbled leaf or imperfect-looking fruit and vegetable.
companion plants
basil – deters whitefly on tomatoes and kale chives – deter aphids and carrot root fly french marigolds – deter aphids and whitefly, and attract hoverflies, whose larvae eat aphids; plant with tomatoes, aubergines and chillies rosemary – deters carrot fly sage – confuses pests of brassicas and deters carrot fly
nasturtium – sacrificial crop, lures aphids away from beans and attracts beneficial insects
dill – attracts hoverflies and wasps to eat aphids
mint and sage – repel slugs; plant with cabbages and lettuces yarrow – attracts ladybirds and hoverflies fennel – attracts hoverflies and ladybugs, which prey on aphids
lavender – attracts pollinators and deters aphids; plant with carrots and leeks
nettles – attract cabbage white butterflies, keeping them away from brassicas
compost recipe
Penny Hemming, head gardener at Riverford Organic, offers this basic recipe for a nice, crumbly, rich-smelling, loose-textured compost within six months – a fantastic soil conditioner:
Ingredients
1/3 green material, such as stems, lawn clippings, kitchen waste, tea bags
2/3 brown material, such as twigs, roots, straw, ashes, wood chippings
Air is important for decomposition, so start the heap with a load of broken branches
Don’t add cooked foods, diseased waste or weeds Method
Add ingredients in layers
Water occasionally
Cover to encourage build up of heat
Turn every few weeks
Visit riverford.co.uk for organic inspiration.
Helpful websites
garden organic – a good source for advice, organic seeds and plants. gardenorganic.org.uk the organic gardening catalogue – organiccatalogue.com unwins seeds – online organic vegetable seeds. unwins.co.uk tamar organics – seed and organic garden supplies. tamarorganics.co.uk organic Plants – organicplants.co.uk walcot organic nursery – for fruit trees. walcotnursery.co.uk
kitchen Gardens to visit
ham house Historic house with formal gardens and organic kitchen garden. Provides produce for the café and aims to be as true to the 17th century as possible. Richmond-upon-thames, Surrey
TW10 7RS. Tel: 020 8940 1950; nationaltrust.org.uk audley end house and gardens Organic garden; over 120 apple varieties. Saffron Walden, Essex CB11 4JF. Tel: 0370 333 1181; english-heritage.org.uk/ visit/places/audley-end-house-and-gardens the salutation hotel and garden Grade I-listed house by Edwin Lutyens with kitchen garden run on organic principles. Sandwich, Kent CT13 9EW. Tel: 01304 619919; the-salutation.com arundel castle Organic kitchen garden with peach house and vinery. Arundel, Sussex BN18 9AB. Open from 30 March to 28 Oct. Tel: 01903 882173; arundelcastle.org