Our Philosophy on Vegetable Gardening

Organic Gardening Practices

We believe in organic gardening. The word "organic" is overused in our society today, but for something to be certified organic it does have to comply with certain standards. So do we have a right to claim that our garden is organic? Actually, not really. Technically, if we had a commercial garden and sold our produce in stores, we would have to follow these principles in our gardening practices for three years before we could get a "certified organic" label: no pesticides, no chemical fertilizers, and no genetic-modification. We have been following those principles, but only since 2007. But since we're not selling our produce, we can assert that our practices are organic.

Raised Beds

We also believe in using raised beds. These are beds that are contained in a wooden structure (made with untreated wood), and are typically long and narrow to provide easy access for the gardener. This method has become more popular in recent years, especially for organic gardening. There are several benefits to using it:

• It gives you greater control over the soil quality and structure.
• You water only the area where plants are growing.
• The soil doesn't become compacted by people walking on it.
• It looks neater and more organized.
• You can plant crops closer together than in a normal garden plot.
• It provides better drainage.
• Changing the contents of each bed isn't as complicated – you can rotate the crops every year. (If you plant the same crop in the same space for too long, it depletes the soil of crucial nutrients. Different crops need different nutrients, so by rotating them you can keep the nutrients at a balanced level.)

Our garden has six raised beds, and they are surrounded by an electric fence that Nate built. The fence gives animals a small shock if they touch it, and has proved to be excellent at keeping out hungry animals, including the many rabbits, groundhogs and deer we have in the area.

Heirloom Seeds

Another thing we believe in is using heirloom seeds. These are derived from plants that have been around for dozens, even hundreds of years. They have been adapted to the environment where they're grown, and have developed their own pest-resillence and heat tolerance. They are not genetically-modified, which means that you can save your own seeds from year to year. You can essentially develop your own perfect breed of plant for your area by saving seeds.

We haven't yet experimented with saving seeds, so we buy our seeds and plants from Heirloom Acres Seeds, an organic farm run by a Christian family. There are several other online stores where you can buy heirloom seeds. They're several dollars more expensive than the brands you'll find in your local grocery or hardware store, but the quality is worth it.

Compost

We're fans of Mike McGrath's show "You Bet Your Garden" on NPR, and he has turned us into major composting fans. Instead of using just top soil, or even enhancing it with a chemical fertilizer, we believe in using lots and lots of compost in our garden. The results speak for themselves: Last year we had a huge bounty from our garden, and the taste of the vegetables was full of flavor. We only fertilized once (using a mixture of fish emulsion and seaweed), but even that was probable unnecessary. At the end of the growing season we heaped another load of compost on each of the beds to absorb over the winter. We also make our own compost from kitchen scarps, garden plants and straw with chicken manor. It's not enough to fill our whole garden, but we use it to give a boost to our vegetables and flowers in the middle of summer. Leaf mold also makes great compost (leaves broken down over several years) but we haven't tried that yet.

This is a picture of our raised beds in mid-summer.