Guide to Gardening the Natural Way

Growing great-tasting vegetables and bold, beautiful flowers the healthy way sounds hard but it isn't all that hard to do. You to can have colorful tomatoes and peppers blending with pungent herbs. Insects buzzing in and out, pollinating fruit and filling the air with their soothing hum.

To obtain a sensational garden you have to us only natural components. Create a balanced garden ecosystem that allows plants to flourish and provide the highest possible yield.

Follow these ideas for a healthy garden that actually becomes more productive over time.

Lets start at the beginning of all gardeners first: The Soil
Your plants need and have to have well-drained soil with plenty of nutrients. Follow these steps to make sure your soil drains well.

1. Limit the use of the rototiller because it destroys soil structure. Instead of a rototiller, use a garden fork to break up the ground.
2. Mushroom compost from a garden center provides an affordable way to put organic matter back into the soil.
3. Rotate the plants you grow in your garden every season so that the same nutrients aren't depleted year after year. Follow a shallow-rooted plant, such as lettuce, with a deep-rooted plant, such as the tomato, to help break up the soil.
4. Don't walk on the garden because it causes compaction, which breaks down soil structure and reduces its ability to drain.

Bugs - friends and foes
When you have healthy growing plants in healthy soil, a diversity of insects will follow. The key is to establish enough beneficial bugs to control the bad ones. It's actually very simple. To provide a habitat for beneficial insects, such as lady bugs, wasps, and spiders, keep flowering plants in the garden as long as possible. Don't spray insecticides that will kill all bugs indiscriminately. Instead, monitor an outbreak of bad bugs, and use a spray made specifically for those bad bugs.

Gardening does not mean you have to abandon all chemicals and simply letting those bad bugs have free range and first taste of all your hard work. When it is necessary, use a host of naturally derived, perfectly safe chemicals to ensure the balance doesn't get out of whack. Here are some commonly available natural insecticides that you can use listed in order of their strength. You should always start with the mildest treatment to limit inadvertently damaging beneficial insects.

Neem oil - This is a naturally derived oil from the neem tree that controls a wide range of insects, including beetles, caterpillars, and thrips.

Insecticidal soap - This is a mixture of soap and water that suffocates the insects.

Diatomaceous earth - This is a natural powder that will kill soft-skinned insects, such as caterpillars.

Pyrethrums - This is a strong, naturally derived pesticide that will kill pests such as beetles, aphids, and caterpillars on contact.

What about Weeds
If"natural" garden breeds images of shoulder-high grass and spending your weekends battling the Bermuda, you can breathe deeply and exhale, there is hope. The best way to minimize how much effort you have to spend weeding is to prevent the weeds from having a chance to grow. Here are some easy tips to do just that.

1. Don't ever let weeds go to seed. If you do the little seeds will multiply faster than you can pull them out.
2. Cover exposed soil with straw mulch, or purchase some landscape fabric.
3. Water only the plants you are trying to grow. Water deeply and infrequently. Never water the whole entire garden soil.
4. Plant your vegetables close enough together so they will create a "living mulch," with the mature plants leaves touching one another. This also keeps the soil cool and prevents moisture evaporation.

Here are your four main keys to growing a successful natural garden.

1. Use lots of compost to build up soil health.
2. Encourage a diversity of insects by having flowering plants in the garden all the time.
3. Select disease-resistant plants from reliable sources, and buy only healthy seedlings.
4. Don't leave soil exposed to eroding winds, rain, and passing weed seeds.

The health benefits that you and your family will receive from a health garden is:

1. Increases your intake of vitamin C and trace minerals by eating fresh vegetables grown organically.
2. Reduces your exposure to harmful insecticides by using natural-based garden supplements.
3. Save money by growing your own produce.

So get out there and start your natural garden. You'll reek the benefits!