Lawns may look good, but they are unproductive, require a lot of care, and are environmentally unfriendly due to the high use of pesticides and fertilizers necessary to maintain them. As even the White House has discovered, turning a lawn into an organic vegetable garden is a much better use for the land.
Many people who would like to turn to organic vegetable gardening are put off by the idea that it must be a difficult and time-consuming endeavour, and that a lot of tilling and other back-breaking work is involved. In fact, if you follow some basic permaculture precepts and let nature do its work, it will be very easy work. Unless your lawn is contaminated by a lot of pesticides, you won't even have to remove the grass.
Start by marking off the area for your organic vegetable garden with string. The White House's vegetable garden is about thirty feet by thirty feet square, which is enough to feed a large family. But to start, you could do with a quarter of that space. Water the area thoroughly.
Next you need to add an area of ground mulch that contains some slow-release nutrients. A good mix is half-finished compost, grass clippings from the lawn, manure, rock phosphate, and sand. Finish off by covering the whole area with four to five overlapping sheets of newspaper.
Next you need to build a simple raised bed, made of planks, which you will put on top of the newspaper or cardboard. In due time the paper will decompose and become part of the organic base, but at first you will need it as a barrier between the early plants and the high-quality soil that you will now add.
The frames of the raised beds for your vegetable garden need to be filled with more organic compost, this time mixed with normal organic soil and some vermiculite for aeration.
Next, let everything be for a month or so. The lower layer will decompose, insects will arrive, the grass underneath will die off, and the whole area will naturally turn into a healthy and fertile ground for your organic vegetable garden without any need for tilling, ploughing or other hard work.
For planting, seedlings that have been grown in a greenhouse, inside the house or at a nursery are preferable to putting seeds in the earth right away. But both methods can be used. Organic herb and vegetable seeds are easily available through online stores.
To make sure that you'll enjoy the produce don't just pick the most typical plants for an organic vegetable garden, go for the ones that you like and that often turn up in your kitchen, and don't be afraid to leave any popular plants out. But make sure that you plant according to season.
If you have any children, make sure to involve them in the project early on, you will find that they will be very interested and fascinated by organic vegetable gardening, and will probably enthusiastically participate in the work, which is also going to be very character-building for them.
As for compost, you should start one or two composting heaps right away, as they will supplement and enrich your organic vegetable garden. You can supplement the compost from local materials, such as unused wood chippings from a local carpenter or the grass clippings from your neighbour's lawn.
Many people who would like to turn to organic vegetable gardening are put off by the idea that it must be a difficult and time-consuming endeavour, and that a lot of tilling and other back-breaking work is involved. In fact, if you follow some basic permaculture precepts and let nature do its work, it will be very easy work. Unless your lawn is contaminated by a lot of pesticides, you won't even have to remove the grass.
Start by marking off the area for your organic vegetable garden with string. The White House's vegetable garden is about thirty feet by thirty feet square, which is enough to feed a large family. But to start, you could do with a quarter of that space. Water the area thoroughly.
Next you need to add an area of ground mulch that contains some slow-release nutrients. A good mix is half-finished compost, grass clippings from the lawn, manure, rock phosphate, and sand. Finish off by covering the whole area with four to five overlapping sheets of newspaper.
Next you need to build a simple raised bed, made of planks, which you will put on top of the newspaper or cardboard. In due time the paper will decompose and become part of the organic base, but at first you will need it as a barrier between the early plants and the high-quality soil that you will now add.
The frames of the raised beds for your vegetable garden need to be filled with more organic compost, this time mixed with normal organic soil and some vermiculite for aeration.
Next, let everything be for a month or so. The lower layer will decompose, insects will arrive, the grass underneath will die off, and the whole area will naturally turn into a healthy and fertile ground for your organic vegetable garden without any need for tilling, ploughing or other hard work.
For planting, seedlings that have been grown in a greenhouse, inside the house or at a nursery are preferable to putting seeds in the earth right away. But both methods can be used. Organic herb and vegetable seeds are easily available through online stores.
To make sure that you'll enjoy the produce don't just pick the most typical plants for an organic vegetable garden, go for the ones that you like and that often turn up in your kitchen, and don't be afraid to leave any popular plants out. But make sure that you plant according to season.
If you have any children, make sure to involve them in the project early on, you will find that they will be very interested and fascinated by organic vegetable gardening, and will probably enthusiastically participate in the work, which is also going to be very character-building for them.
As for compost, you should start one or two composting heaps right away, as they will supplement and enrich your organic vegetable garden. You can supplement the compost from local materials, such as unused wood chippings from a local carpenter or the grass clippings from your neighbour's lawn.
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