Organic Gardening Benefits

Organic gardening is basically the method of growing fruits and vegetables utilizing things found only in nature without using any toxic chemicals or fertilizers.

We often ask ourselves, why would we try organic gardening?  Well you would be surprised how easy it is and anyone can do it.  Below are some benefits you would expect by having an organic garden.

1.  Organic gardening and farming does not utilize chemicals that may have an undesirable affect on your wellbeing.  This is particularly significant when growing vegetables.  Most chemical companies do indicate that the chemicals utilized are not hazardous and bad for your health if you follow the instructions found on the labels.  Studies however have proven that even small amounts of chemicals and poisons absorbed by the human body can bring about illnesses such as cancer, particularly in younger children.

A child typically can absorb up to four or five times more cancer causing pesticides found in foods than adults.  This in turn can lead to a variety of diseases later on in the child's life once in adulthood.  By consuming fruit and vegetables that are grown in organic gardens, these risks can be greatly reduced.

Remember, pesticides do contain toxins that have a single purpose, to basically kill or destroy living things.

2.  You can make your own compost without any difficulties using simple kitchen scraps and garden clippings.  While many may find this to be more time consuming than just going out to the shops and just purchasing ready made chemical pesticides and fertilizers, it definitely puts waste to better use and is definitely eco friendly.

3.  Organic gardening does reduce the amount of damage we do to the surroundings.  Poisons and pesticides do unfortunately end up into our waterways, as a result destroying local fish, native insects and actually polluting their environment.

4.  Organic gardening does actually save you money.  With organic gardening, you don’t need to purchase expensive chemical pesticides and expensive fertilizers.  There are many potent organic recipes out there for controlling pests and disease which can be found in you kitchen or laundry cupboard.  Companion plant growing can also help reduce pests and diseases for neighbouring plants.  For example, if you grow marigolds, they do help ward off aphids from vegetables.  Also, combining one tablespoon of liquid dishwashing liquid with one cup of cooking oil can actually create an inexpensive garden insect spray.  Try adding 3 tablespoons of this combination (dishwashing liquid and oil) into 1 quart of water and spray onto your plants.

5.  Organic farming does however assist in the prevention of the erosion of the top soil.  The Soil Conservation Service states that an estimated 30 to 32 billion tons of top soil disappears from United States farmlands alone each and every year.  Imagine what the impact is world wide?

6.  Organically grown fruit and vegetables do taste better.  Many studies have found that the level of specific vitamins, flavonoids or antioxidants in organic foods to be higher than the levels found in matched samples of conventionally grown food.

Many of the antioxidants are poly-phenols, falvonoids and other volatile compounds.  They are compounds that are responsible for a high proportion of the flavours in the food we eat.  The greater the amount of these protective compounds, the great the flavour.

7.  An easy mulch of straw, leaves or pine needles can be used or any other organic matter you may have from your garden, as it can assist suppressing weeds from growing around your plants while help retain moisture.

As you can see, organic gardening can not only help us save some money, but can help protect the environment for upcoming generations and live a healthier life.