The Benefits of Organic Gardening
What Is Organic Gardening?
Organic gardening focuses on the health of the entire gardening ecosystem without using synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. It starts with emphasizing soil health and then moves to caring for the plant from seed to harvest, all while balancing pests and beneficial insects in a holistic way.
If organic farming is new territory for you, don’t worry. With a little know-how and patience, you’ll be on your way to organic gardening in no time.
Organic Gardening Benefits The Soil
Organically managed soil contains higher levels of organic matter, which fortifies the soil with nutrients and enables it to retain more water and air. Organic matter adds nitrogen, carbon, oxygen, phosphorus, hydrogen, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and small amounts of sulfur—all important nutrients for plant growth.
When starting your organic garden, it makes sense to begin with cultivating good soil because soil rich in minerals and nutrients is the foundation for everything that will stem from it. A carefully constructed and sturdy foundation provides a good basis for everything that comes after. Without a solid foundation, gardens, like buildings, will topple in their weakness, but a solid foundation creates lasting strength and the ability to grow in abundance.
Take the time to cultivate mineral-rich soil that’s chock-full of nutrients and your garden will start off strong and sturdy. Good soil leads to healthy, well-fed plants.
Whether you’re growing flowers or produce, a thriving and bountiful harvest is the end goal. This is more likely when you’ve taken the time to carefully balance your soil using organic materials to keep things in check.
Organic Gardening Benefits Produce
Organic methods lead to good soil, which nourishes your plants, creating happy vegetation with higher concentrations of nutrients, minerals, and antioxidants.Studies have shown that organic produce has higher vitamin and mineral contents. And who doesn’t want better, healthier food? Some say organic produce eventastes better than conventional.
Organic Gardening Benefits Humans and Animals
Synthetic pesticides and fertilizers contain chemicals that humans and animals shouldn’t ingest. We prefer natural substitutes to keep ourselves and our animals as hardy and healthy as possible. A few examples oforganic alternatives to synthetic fertilizer are kitchen scraps, grass clippings, manure, leaves, and coffee grounds.
Repeated exposure to synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides can lead to an accumulation of toxic heavy metals and carcinogenic compounds in our bodies. A simple way to combat this is to farm using organic methods and to eat organically grown produce as much as possible. Organic gardening also prevents the possibility of chemical runoff in our irrigation systems, which is another way of ensuring that we and our animals are safe from tainted water.
Organic produce contains higher levels of vitamins and antioxidants than conventionally grown produce. Antioxidants combat cell damage and ward off oxidative stress. Prolonged oxidative stress can lead to cell death, as well as a host of diseases like cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.
We need antioxidants to increase our quality of life and keep our bodies in the best condition possible for a long life. So why not get more antioxidants into your body with food from your own organic garden? And let’s not forget that gardening also provides great exercise—another benefit for us.
Organic Gardening Benefits The Environment
Organic agriculture is a more sustainable alternative than conventional agriculture thanks to methods such as organic no-till, crop rotation, composting, cover cropping, and the encouragement of natural predators for pests.
In conventional gardening, chemicals from heavily fertilized fields often become airborne, reducing air quality and polluting the atmosphere. These same chemicals contribute to the pollution of waterways and drinking water when irrigation or rain causes the runoff of chemicals. Water pollution negatively impacts marine life and reduces water-oxygen levels. By cutting synthetic inputs out of the equation, the risks of air and water pollution are drastically reduced.
Moreover, organic farming is better for the climate because organic methods use less non-renewable energy. This is because organic gardening decreases the need for agricultural chemicals, which leads to less fossil-fuel usage. Therefore, organic farming mitigates climate change.
Also, organically managed soil has the ability to sequester higher levels of carbon. Simply put, well-balanced organic soil captures and stores carbon, keeping it out of the atmosphere and storing it where it can do more good than harm. Once in the atmosphere, carbon combines with oxygen to become carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas that's on the rise.