Vegetable gardening to grow organic vegetables in your garden can be easy and fun if you know the best gardening tips. Correct vegetable gardening practice can be rewarding too. Here I explain all information you need to grow and harvest organic vegetables from your vegetable garden.

Growing vegetables in garden is quite easy. But if you are a first time gardener, it may need some work but there is no reason to get discouraged. Some of the requirements of a good vegetable garden are proper sunshine, proper soil preparation, watering, adding organic fertilizer, and a little bit of weeding. All this can be fun and rewarding.

Let us now discuss in detail on how to grow organic vegetables in garden.

The ground where the vegetable plants will grow needs to be prepared. Soil in most yards these days get concrete hard during summer. I suggest that the best time to dig soil in your garden is early spring when the soil is moist enough and can be dug easily.

Here are steps to be followed to prepare soil in your garden to grow vegetables:

1. Prepare a layout for your vegetable garden. Mark spots according to your layout making sure there are no trees or large shrubs around whose roots can spread into the garden.

2. Remove all grass and make border with soil.

3. If you have pets or kids, you can make short fence.

4. Dig the soil upto a depth of 12 inches. You can use a large digging fork or a rototiller. Use rakes to smoothen the soil after digging is complete. Add about 2" of compost and mix it into well the soil. (Check: Composting: How to Make Compost, What to Compost, Stages of Composting, Making Compost). Do not add too much of compost. 10-20% of the soil should be compost. When the soil is loose enough and the compost is mixed well, the soil is ready.

5. You may also need Lime or Gypsum in your garden to correct the Ph value of the soil. If you live in an area with lots of rainfall, add about 1 pound per 100 sq. feet lime every year. If you live in a place where there is low rainfall each year, you may have to add some Gypsum to new gardens to remove some of the salt content.

Before you plant vegetables in your garden, you need to do prepare a plan so that plants get enough room and space to grow. Without enough space, plants will not produce good vegetables. When you purchase these plants / seeds, check out for information on how much space they will need when fully grown. A standard spacing of 18-24" is good for most plants. Draw this garden plan on a paper. This will help you later when you start planting. Remember that sunshine and watering is essential to all plants. Put the tallest plants in the back so that they do not shade the shorter ones.

Plants that can be grown during summer harvest include: Tomatoes, Peppers, Squash, Bush Beans, Eggplant, and Cucumbers.

Plants that can be grown during spring include: Leaf Lettuce, Broccoli, Spinach, and Peas.

You can plant 2-3 types of each plant, depending on how many vegetables you want. After planting, water the soil gently so that the soil is moist about 1 inch below the surface. When the soil appears dry from top, water again. This is common during warm summers. You can place newspaper strips or pine needles as mulch around the plants. This will protect the soil from drying out quickly and will also keep the soil cool when the temperatures go up during warm summer.

Preparing the soil, planting and watering the plants does not guarantee of good vegetables. You will have to protect the plants from any insect damage. If you see any damage to the leaves or holes chewed by caterpillars, you may use an organic insecticide such as Bacillus Thuringiensis (BT worm killer). Spray it according to the package instructions. Do not spray strong insecticides too often or you will poison your vegetables. Most insects in a garden are there for pollination. Spray insecticides only when you see an insect that is eating a leaf or causing severe damage. Make sure you use organic and safe insecticides.

You will also have to take care of weeds. They should be pulled and not sprayed. Check for weeds every 2-3 days and use a weeding tool or mulch to keep them away.

When adding fertilizer, use organic fertilizers. These organic fertilizers are mixed in at the time of planting often and last almost the whole growing season. Remember, more is not better. Just enough is enough.