Organic gardening The difference between the organic vegetable gardening method and the chemicals and poison approach, which is so popular today, is that the organic gardener is more concerned about the quality of the soil. The organic vegetable gardener strives for a dark, rich and crumbly soil that retains moisture and releases nutrients slowly at the rate that plants can absorb the nutrients. The most important element of the organic gardening method is to add organic matter to the soil. During the biological breaking down of this organic matter, nutrients are released slowly and humus, gels and other substances that improve the structure and other properties of the soil are formed. To preserve the biological processes in the soil (and not to poison themselves) organic vegetable gardeners do not engage in chemical warfare against weeds and pests. Instead they rely on cunning and wits. The organic gardening method requires some knowledge on soil, plants and pests, but if this is acquired, vegetable gardening will be a much greater pleasure than ever before. There isn't much evidence that vegetables produced in organic gardens are safer and promote human health better than those vegetables produced with chemical fertilisers, toxic weed killers and pesticides. The major benefits are that the organic gardener does not put the environments ecology and the environments biological diversity at risk and that organic vegetables taste and store better. Thus, friends of the natural environment, gourmets and all of us that simply enjoy crisp and tasty carrots have equally good reasons to go organic. A good location for a vegetable plot has a well drained, fertile soil, a favourable microclimate and is exposed to sunlight for most of the day. Fine textured soils can absorb and give of more water to plants than soils consisting of larger particles, making water management easier in most climates. On the other hand sandy soils are free draining. A sandy soil dries and warms up quicker in the spring and generally allows earlier sowing (and harvest). Clays typically contain more nutrients and has a larger capacity to absorb nutrients in fertilisers and to release these nutrients to plants. Vegetables have different requirements, and there isn't one particular type of soil that is best for all vegetables. The choice of soil depends very much on your preferences. Many root crops like warm and free draining soils and do not require a lot of nutrients. Therefore they grow well in light sandy soils. If you are particularly fond of carrots sandy soil is the soil for you. Carrots can be grown successfully in heavy clay soil too, as in my garden, but a lighter soil is better. Clay is superior for hungry and drought sensitive plants e.g. cabbage, other brassicas and cucumber. It doesn't require an awful lot of training to produce a bountiful vegetable garden, but it takes work. Many vegetables do badly if left to themselves and the parts that most people would eat are usually the last to appear. It is very important to give vegetables the best possible conditions from the start and to make sure that growth can continue without interruptions. A well managed 25 m² plot produces a yield of at least 75 kg of vegetables. One hundred m² and the same effort give less than 50 kg of vegetables, much of it stunted, damaged and ready for the compost heap. If you walk on the soil you will pack it down, especially if it's wet. If you plan to use heavy machinery in your garden or want to weed your vegetable plot using a horse you have no alternative but to drive or walk on the soil between every row. For everybody else I strongly recommend the use of raised beds in the ecological vegetable garden and that walking is restricted to paths inbetween the raised beds. Packed soil impedes root growth, microbial ecology and growth and makes weeding a much harder work. With raised beds you can move around in your garden even when the soil is soaking wet without doing any harm. My vegetable garden beds are 100 centimetres wide and the paths 50 cm including the sloping sides of the beds. This size makes it easy to reach the middle of the beds and there is enough room to crouch down. The combination of beds and the addition of lots of organic matter keep the soil loose and open. Beds that remain in the same place from year to year also make crop rotation very easy. It's much harder to determine were last years carrots were if your vegetable garden is simply a large flat soil surface. My beds are raised, but they don't have to be. In dry climates it can actually be advantageous to lower the beds. In the cold and wet Swedish climate raised beds should be favoured. Competition from weeds is a major cause of crop failure. Some plants like potatoes and Jerusalem artichoke will suffocate all weeds, whereas carrots will disappear if weeds are not removed tenaciously. Perennial plants and plants grown from tubers, bulbs or very large seeds e.g. beans tend to tolerate some weeds, but most vegetables and annual herbs are quite feeble in comparison with the competitive capabilities of many weeds. If you want a bumper crop of these vegetables the soil must be kept weed free, at least when the plants are still small. If you garden without poisons there will be pests in your garden. However, my experience is that the damage that the pests do is marginal. Most plants will not suffer any pest attacks at all. The brassicas are likely to be attacked by pests in one way or another, with the notable exceptions kohlrabi and kale, which are usually pest free (at least the edible parts). You can expect to lose 10-25 percent of your carrots to carrot root flies, if nothing is done to prevent carrot root fly attacks. Wireworms burrow into root crops such as potatoes and attack seedlings of beans and lettuce. Snails and slugs chew a little (or a lot) on this and that and can damage a row of seedlings terribly. Apart from these pest problems there have been few noteworthy attacks in my garden. Aphids can be a bit of a nuisance, but this problem often resolves itself as soon as the ladybirds are in place. Ladybirds eat aphids. Insects and other small pests benefit from monoculture and an environment low in variability. Pests often survive on a single plant whereas their enemies have much wider requirements. Everything you do to create variation in your garden will tilt the balance over in favour of predators and other pest enemies. Even some lush weed patches may serve you in your quest for mastery in your garden. Variation in the garden will not solve all pest problems. The next line of defence is to create barriers to prevent access and when that does not work or is impractical to take direct measures to decrease pest numbers by handpicking or setting up traps. Mammal pests are a problem in all gardens and the damage they do is not smaller in the vegetable garden. The only sensible way to keep them out is to build a fence. To keep deer out the fence must be at least 1.5 m tall. The art of getting rid of slugs and snails is a very common subject of discussion whenever gardeners meet. Everyone has his or her favourite technique. Most of these anti slug methods probably do not work at all, hence the eagerness to learn from others. Slugs and snails are rather stationary. If I kill slugs and snails in one corner of my 50 square meter garden I can see a reduction in slug damage in that corner for a week or more. The least complicated method is often the best. Step on all slugs and snails as you find them. If that is too greasy for you, chop the slugs in two and crush all snails with the hoe, or pick and release them a hundred meters from the plot (or in the gardens of your enemies where they can actually do some good). The key to success is to know when to be in the garden and where to look for slugs and snails. Slug and snails are most likely to be encountered in early mornings, late evenings, after a rain or whenever the ground is wet or moist. In sunny but not too dry weather snails and slugs will be going about their business in the shade under dense canopies. Examine all plants with dense foliage that touch the soil. They may also be found in dense bushes e.g. Hyssop, and under your boards of course. In really hot and dry weather they will retreat to deep cracks in the soil, to ditches and piles of stone. Disease in the garden can lead to significant yield reductions. The gardener must know how plant diseases get into the garden and how plant diseases can be suppressed once the soil is infected. Think about what you bring into your garden. To buy vegetable seedlings is risky. The plants and the soil that they come in are sometimes infected with plant diseases. Don't use tools that have been used in other gardens without cleaning them thoroughly. Don't bring in garden compost or soil from other gardens. Stressed plants are more susceptible to plant diseases. Plants that suffer from nutrient deficiencies, drought or other types of stress are more likely to succumb to disease than those are that can grow unchecked. Excessive fertilisation, especially with nitrogen, reduces resistance to disease (and stress) in many plants. Most plant diseases are specific to certain plants or groups of related plants. You can make it more difficult for these plant diseases to build up by moving plants around from year to year. This practice is called crop rotation. There are a number of good reasons for crop rotation. The first idea behind crop rotation is to starve out soil-borne diseases and harmful insects present in the soil by depriving them their host plants for as many years as possible before the plants return to the same spot again. Especially brassicas and potatoes, but also other plants, can be severely affected by soil-borne disease. The alliums (onions etc.) are susceptible to white rot. Once present in the soil this disease will remain for many years. Crop rotation makes it harder for the fungus that causes the disease to build up in the soil. Plants have different needs for nutrients. Carrots do better in soil that has not been recently manured, while cucumbers cannot have too much manure and compost. Rotation makes it possible to give every crop what it needs and still add plenty of organic matter to every corner of the vegetable garden in a few years time. Some plants also have special needs for specific nutrients. Rotation reduces the risk that these nutrients will be depleted in any part of the garden. Finally some vegetables are particularly effective at suppressing weeds. A crop of potatoes may leave the soil nearly weed free for the next crop. Crop rotation allows the whole garden to benefit from these weed killers.