What is growing organically? It depends upon who you talk to. The simple answer is, that organic gardeners only use animal or vegetable fertilizers rather than synthetics. It also means natural pest control devoid of industrial insecticides. In other words, using natural substances and beneficial insects to ward off pests. It is a philosophy that stresses increasing the natural health of the soil, choosing appropriate plants that are suited to your area, and working with nature to produce a healthy and productive garden.
There are many benefits to Organic Gardening.
Saving money by growing your own vegetables, being able to eat healthier and feel better and preserving our environment from the harmful and toxic chemicals that seep no only into our vegetables but our soil, oceans and waterways not only harming our environment but wildlife as well.
Beginning and maintaining an Organic Vegetable Garden is simple and easy with a little knowledge.
The following our posts about our organic gardens.
- Harvest Time Fish Fry With Friends
We have been very blessed with our aquaponics system and the continued growth of the fish and the vegetables even through this cooler fall season. One of the first reasons that we set up an aquaponics garden was to help off-set our food costs and ...
- Cymbidium Orchids
The cymbidium orchids are starting to bloom. The above images is of the first batch this year. Three years ago Lyndsey and I picked up some of these wonderful orchids from my Grandma GG's house. She has been growing different color cymbidium orch...
- Fiery Tilapia Taco's
Yesterday I decided to catch one of our larger tilapias so that I could try out a new recipe. Catching the fish is always an experience, especially when you fillet them. I find it easier to cut the head off of the fish entirely so that it is not lookin...
- Give Your Children the Gift of Sustainability
Do you know what GMO stands for? If you do not you are like most American's that have no idea what it stands for either. Neither did the documentary film maker of the GMO Project until his discovery of GMOs through the symbolic act of poor Haitian f...
- Saturday Morning Chores
[caption id="attachment_1176" align="alignnone" width="640" caption="The Aquaponic Hanging Garden is Filling in Great"][/caption] With all of the gardens and animals that our family has accumulated over the past few years we have a list of chores th...
- Backyard Garden Update
I shot the following video this morning from our Backyard. We have been crafting around in our spare time working on the aquaponics garden, finishing up the new chicken coop ad-on as well as building a new rabbit hutch for Dexter, our newest family mem...
- Swallowtail
Recently we have had visits from some Swallowtail Caterpillars that are drawn to our fennel plant in the back yard. Last year we had the same visitors, so this year I thought that I would try to take some photos. The Swallowtail Caterpillars turn into ...
- Front Yard Gardens
One of things that is nice about our new place is the extra space that we have. Unfortunately, in our front yard we have a pretty big driveway but only a little yard space to hang out. So needless to say we had to be creative on where we would pu...
- New Backyard Garden
This is a home scale aquaponic unit that I installed in our new backyard. It is a pretty cool unit because you can really get the jist of what is going on, as well as keep a good eye on the fish at the same time. I repaired an old 150 gallon fish t...
- Escondido Tilapia Farm
Just the other day I took a trip out to Escondido, which is in East San Diego County to pick up a few Tilapia from the couple over at the Escondido Tilapia Farm. They had a really cool and inspiring set-up to raise Tilapia for local fish farmers and u...
- Harvest Time
The tomatoes took their time coming in this year, but it was worth the wait. Starting three weeks ago we have been in hog heaven with some of the best tomatoes we have grown yet. I decided to take a walk in the garden and pick what was ripe this mo...
- July 2010 Garden Update: Growing them Big
We really have not seen that much of the sun over the past couple of weeks. June gloom has turned into June/July Gloom. Eli and the plants do not seem to mind as they continue to grow, sunshine or not. The Zucchini's that we have been h...
- 1st Annual Ocean Beach Garden Party Tour
A couple of weekends ago we sent out an email to a couple of our neighborhood friends to see if they'd like to partake in a garden party tour. Here's what it said, "Summer is here and are gardens are almost in full bloom! Our guys have been toiling ...
- Organic Garden Plots
Shade Garden Our shade garden is starting to take off with the rest of our vegetable gardens. This is the the area that is directly outside of our living room where we keep our fish tank and our seedlings. One of the cymbidium orchid plants that ...
- Organic Mildew Spray
Two years ago our garden was attacked by a powdery mildew that took over our pumpkins and spread to the rest of our plants. You might remember this from our post back from September 08, Garden Chronicles: Chapter 8 Garden Warfare. Photos take...
- June Garden Update
Well the gardens are pretty much going off, or at least some of the plants are starting to. With the longer days of summer the plants are starting to hit their growth spurts and you can really tell the difference. Last year when the plants hit their ...
- Visit with Grandma GG
Last week we went for a road trip up to Pasadena to visit Ricky's Grandma GG "Great Grandma". The ride up there was simple enough when we timed it to coincide with Eli's morning nap. While we were there we enjoyed visiting with Grandma and spending t...
- Garden Pond
Lyndsey and I have slowly been putting together our new aquaponics garden system. Aquaponics is is the symbiotic cultivation of plants and aquatic animals in a recirculating environment. Fish waste from the pond/tank accumulates in water as a by-produ...
- "My Country Pond"
Last Saturday we decided to get out of the house for a little so Lyndsey got on Craig's List and found a lady that sales water plants out her yard in Imperial Beach. We didn't quite know what to expect when we got there, but upon our arrival we wer...
- 7 Months Old
Eli will be 7 months old this week! We spent some time working on the fish pond this weekend in between chasing a cat out of the chicken coop and battling a cold. More pics of the newest family members to follow... 24 new goldfish.
- Yard Work
This past week was so nice out that Ricky and I spent alot of time working in the yard. I am so glad that spring is here and summer is right around the corner. I kind of feel like I missed out on it last year in way because I was so preoccupied with my...
- Starting the Seeds
Last weekend we started planting our seeds for our spring garden. We decided to go with seeds this year so we could have a better selection of vegetables to grow. Lyndsey prepared the "starting soil" with a mixture of soil, a little compost and som...
- Stein Family Farm
Eli and I have been attending a Baby Sign LanguageClass for the past 5 weeks at the Harold J. Ballard Parent Center in Old Town. We go once or twice a week and the class is around 3 hours long. Typically we sing songs, do a little dancing, play wit...
- A New Batch
Eli's Grandma / Lyndsey Mom came into town last Sunday to visit and help out with Eli for a week. It has been nice having her around. We almost got to go on another date, but Eli had his mind set on something different. We have had a nice time visi...
- Computer Garden Plots
I was checking out some stuff online the other day as I was preparing our next garden plot and ran across a program that a developer designed for planning out your next vegetable garden. I thought that it was pretty funny. I have actually sketched...
- Time To Molt
I guess that it didn't help that there was cat in yard standing at attention in the first garden plot when I noticed that Dorothy our Gold Laced Wyandotte had started seriously molting. Blanch the Plymouth Rock came flying into our patio area as I ...
- Buy Me, Buy Me
Feeding the animals on our little urban farm can be a little time consuming from time to time. We have to go to an exotic pet store for our fish food, well we don't have to but they are family run and have good deals. Then we need to go a farm store ab...
- We Are Getting Close
Well, we are about 4-5 weeks away from meeting our little dude. Truth is that we aren't any closer to locking down a name for him either. Lyndsey brought it to my attention that once we have a first name we have to come up with a middle name that goes ...
- Fresh Veggies & Dirt Baths
It is harvest time in our yard. We are getting the first run of tomatoes and peppers...YUMMY! We have some celebrity tomatoes as well as some heir looms that are starting to come in along with some Anaheim peppers. So far everything has tasted amazing...
- Artichoke Flower
It was a hard decision, but after hooking up all of our friends, our neighbors, and just about anyone who came by our house in the past three months with artichokes, we decided to let the last three on our plant turn into a flowers. We are both very gl...
- Stone Age Lawn Mower
With all the extra gardening and yard work it had not dawned on me until the other day that I haven't mowed the lawn in over a month. This time of year it needs to be mowed at least once a week, but for some reason this year it managed to stay at a n...
- Our Vineyard
Our neighbor Conrad planted a grapevine in his backyard last Fall and since we share a fence, we also share the fruit. The grapes are getting bigger every day and there are plenty to go around. We've heard that grapes attract every kind of critter out ...
- Artichoke Update
The artichoke plant is producing like crazy, I took this picture yesterday and counted over 25+ artichokes. We have been able to have an artichoke every other night or so with dinner and they are super tasty. The gross part is when you clean them you ...
- Cactus Blooms
Our cactus starting budding a couple of weeks ago and most of those buds turned out to be flowers! When the little buds started to appear we got a little nervous because last year those tiny little buds rapidly turned into huge cactus parts over a coup...
- Vermicomposting Worm Tea.
I got in a conversation with some friends that are just now starting to get into planting their own organic gardens. We were discussing composting when it dawned on me that none of them were familiar with vermicomposter (worm composters). I shared wit...
- Artichoke Arrival
After waiting many months for our ginormous artichoke plant to do something other than take up 85% of our center garden, I noticed a little artichoke sprouting from the center today. The plant had gotten so big that my Mom had commented that it looked ...
- Garden Chronicles :: Chapter 9
We started our summer garden last weekend. We went with more tomatoes, peppers, squash and eggplant. I dumped a huge load of compost we had been brewing for the past 9 months into our first garden plot. It turned the soil into a nice dark substance ful...
- There Goes the Salad Mix
DON'T LET THE HENS NEXT TO YOUR GREENS. We knew this but we didn't know how hard they would try to get to them. You see we let the hens in our gardens. They do a great job of eating the worms and bugs, however we have learned that they also like salad ...
- Fish Tank Water Is Good For Plants
We have had our Gold Fish tank going for about 9 months now. The tank sits directly outside our living room window. So that we can enjoy our fish from inside the house as well in our outdoor over hang area. Now if you don't know much about fish than yo...
- We've Got Eggs
We are proud to announce that our Rhode Island Red, Rose, has become a Hen. Yesterday morning, right after we got our dog back, we noticed that Rose was acting a little more peculiar than what is normal for her. The other two chicks were free ranging a...
- Garden Chronicles :: Chapter 8
Garden WarfareEvery thing was pretty standard, or so we thought, in our yard and garden for the past month. All of the vegetables and animals seemed to be living and growing in harmony with each other. The western garden plot continued to thrive with t...
- Garden Chronicles :: Chapter 7
Garden Plot Numero dos is taking off.The pumpkin plant has gotten ridiculously huge, it has moved on past taking over the garden and now it taking over the yard. That is just fine with Blanch as she loves to get out of her pen and go to work looking fo...
- Garden Chronicles: Chapter 6
Casualty, Men Down! I have been watching my two celebrities coming in for two months now. They have even been featured in two posts with their magnificent girth and beauty. Apparently I wasn't the only one keeping an eye on their slow maturity. Four da...
- Garden Chronicles :: Chapter 5
So far all of our garden plots are doing great. The celebrity tomatoes in our first plot are getting huge. Our second (new) garden plot is taking off as well. It is hard to believe that we planted it only two weeks ago. We have a pumpkin plant that is...
- OB Parrots
So we live by an airport, and planes fly by. You actually get use to it, the loud sound of the planes and all. You just learn to stop your conversations, or turn up the volume on your ipod and wait for it to pass. We have another loud shrieking sound t...
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