About The Series
The Gardening 101 Series is about organic gardening and is based on many, many, many hours of reading and studying, and a great deal of quality time in our gardens. My goal is to take you step by step through the four-season growing process – from ordering seeds all the way to harvesting, and finally to preparing the soil for next year’s garden by planting winter and cover crops.
An important thing about learning to garden is to learn as you go. There is no need to know every aspect of gardening before you start. In my experience, it’s just fine to read one step ahead of what you need to be doing. In other words, it’s ok to order seeds before you know how to transplant the seedlings. Because you have several weeks after planting the seeds to learn how to do the next step!
If at any step in the gardening process you have a question, PLEASE ASK! I guarantee others are wondering the same thing. I’m not perfect, so I may miss a step or two, and I’m relying on you all to help me when I do. And if I don’t know the answer to a question, I’ll research and find out for you!
Note: I started this series at Elements In Time: Creating Edible Landscape. At the time I was a Master Gardener in Training. Since then, I’ve quit the Master Gardener program because I was fed up with their conventional gardening techniques – I received days of instructions about how to use pesticides and page after page of pesticide information! (If you’re still unsure about the use of pesticides, please see this important post.)
Articles In This Series
Getting Started:
- How To Grow A Four-Season Garden – Part 1
- How To Grow A Four-Season Garden – Part 2
- Why Grow Your Own Organic Garden?
- Planning Your Garden Your Own Way
- Creating A Plan For Your Vegetable Garden
- Amending Your Garden Soil, Organically and Sustainably
- How To Make Your Own Potting Soil (Without Peat Moss)
- Why Are Some Plants Killed By Frost But Not Others?
Seed Starting & Seed Saving (It’s Easy!):
- Seed Starting For Beginners
- My Top 12 Easy Vegetables To Grow From Seed
- How & Where To Order Organic Vegetable Seeds
- My Ten Favorite Seed Catalogs
- How To Save Vegetable Seeds – Part 1
Growing Specific Crops:
- How To Hand-Pollinate Tomatoes And Peppers
- How To Plant Bare Roots
- How To Plant, Grow, and Harvest Garlic
- How To Grow Potatoes: From Chit To Chit – Part 1
- How To Grow Tea (Camellia Sinensis)
- How To Grow Sweet Potatoes
- Amaranth, The Wonder Crop
Garden Pests:
- How to Keep Rabbits And Other Animals Out Of Your Garden
- Many Important Reasons Not To Use Herbicides And Pesticides
- Large-scale Organic Weed Control
Miscellaneous:
- Do-It-Yourself Urban Window Farms
- 10 Community Gardening & Local Food Activities To Excite And Inspire
[...] on gardening (and eco) topics along with excellent how to’s. Check out Melinda’s “How to grow an Organic Garden” series and be inspired! Fake Plastic Fish has taught me SO much about plastic. Beth is so [...]
I have really enjoyed your site and our family is starting our own garden next year. We have an acre and a half about a mile away. However, my question was how can we test our soil for other bad contaminants such as uranium. There was a active uranium plant years ago and my concern is the soil. The reports from the locals and officials say that soil is fine. Do you have any recommendations for our concerns?
Thank you,
Doyle
[...] Organic Gardening 101 [...]
[...] Organic Gardening 101 [...]
[...] there, but especially helpful for beginning gardeners are the extensive resources available in the Organic Gardening 101 [...]