My Family's First Attempt At An Organic Vegetable Garden

by Scott Oakes
(Spring Hill, Florida)

We knew from the get go that we would face some difficulties starting an organic vegetable garden in West Central Florida.

The soil is not very good. Mostly sand and the climate is hot and humid. The perfect incubator for insects and fungus, but we felt we were up to the challenge.

The first thing we did after clearing the plot was to add over 1600lbs of cow manure to the soil and work it in. To give us an edge against the anticipated insect assault we alternated garlic and onion plants around the entire perimeter of the garden as most insects will avoid both garlic and onions. It worked extremely well.

We did experience an episode with leaf miners in our organic vegetable garden but quickly brought it under control by putting jalapeno peppers in our blender with a little water.

After mixing the peppers and water on high for a few minutes, we then filtered the concoction through a coffee filter, then put it in a sprayer and sprayed the plants in the garden. Again, it worked great.

We never introduced any pesiticides to our organic vegetable garden. Not one.

The only fertilizer we used was the original cow manure and fish emulsion. We had fantastic results. Much better than I ever expected.

Finally ,vegetables we could eat and no worries about what poisons they had been exposed to!!

My family is definetly staying organic gardners.


Response...

Glad you got your story through Scott and inspiring it is too. If young Savanna had been any younger and smaller we would not have been able to see her pretty smile above that amazing broccoli head. :0)

Well done! I hope we hear about any updates - you can make as many pages as you like using the form.

Laurence