Organic Vegetable Soil is the basic component in organic gardening. Creating organic soil is pretty simple and straight forward, don’t read this expecting anything difficult, expensive, or hard to follow. Nature is not generally a complicated beast no matter what people try to tell you so they can sell you something that you do not need.

The main ingredient needed is organic compost. Creating a compost pile will be discussed later but if you already know how to make one get started. Compost is created by mixing different types or organic matter together so they will decay rapidly. It is the best thing for soil.

The next ingredient in creating good vegetable soil is mulch that will break down and enrich the soil. Again this is simple to do. To create organic mulch you simply need to get a lot of shredded paper, leaves, dying plant material, and optionally organic manure. Most inks used are soy based but if you are not sure if your paper uses soy ink just call and ask the company or publisher.

The shredded paper can be anything from junk mail to paper grocery sacks. Just shred it and put it on top of your garden bed and wet it down so it doesn’t blow away. Newspaper is also a good source, there is never anything good in those anyway.

Leaves are easy to find, if you have trees you probably have a lot of leaves already. If you do not have trees just wait until fall and gather the leaves that friends, family, and neighbors are trying to get rid of. Pile it up and let it sit until spring and then spread it on your vegetable garden. You can also dig it in if your soil is low on organic matter and your worms are hungry.

The manure from grazing animals that are raised in an organic way can also be used. This also needs to be aged for at least 1 year before placing it onto the garden bed. Organic manure is very strong stuff and will burn your plants if it comes into contact with them when it is fresh.

Vegetables need fertilizer there is no getting around this. Planting legumes, beans and peas, is a good way to get nitrogen into the soil. Legumes remove nitrogen from the air and put it into soil for the plants to use as they need.

Another source of organic fertilizer is compost, remember that compost pile that you ran out and built? We are going to dig it into the garden to feed the plants.

If you have a yard and throw away your grass clippings, start saving them. They are the gas that powers the compost pile.

You can purchase organic fertilizer if you think your garden is still short on this. Just look on the labels, it is becoming easier and easier to find organic gardening supplies. Personally I prefer to do it the cheap way but that’s just me.

The creation of organic vegetable soil is important and enjoyable if you like gardening.