By now, you probably know that buying locally produced, organic food is best for both your health and the environment. But why not take it a step further, and create that food right in your own backyard? Here we’ve compiled a number of top-notch resources devoted to helping gardeners create their own personal organic farms.

Basics

Whether you’re new to gardening, or just organics, these resources can provide lots of guidance.

1. Basics of Home Vegetable Gardening: This document offers 7 basic rules for organic gardening.
2. What is Sustainable Agriculture?: Get a look at sustainable concepts in gardening and farming here.
3. The Future is Abundant: This publication offers resources for sustainable agriculture.
4. Organic Guidelines: Read about what exactly goes into gardening organically here.
5. How to Grow Your Own Organic Vegetables for Frugal Sustainability: This guide offers tips that even novice gardeners can appreciate.
6. Organic gardening: Kick the chemicals: This article recommends that you carefully look after your soil.
7. Organic Gardening Techniques: Take a look at this guide for in-depth information on organic gardening.
8. Gardening at a Glance: Check out this chart for planting dates, distances, and preservation techniques.
9. Grow Your Own Organic Garden: This guide walks you through the steps of organic home gardening from soil to harvest.
10. Organic Gardening Tips: Find tips for organic gardening in this resource.
11. Organic Vegetable Gardening: This guide covers vegetable gardening from planning to selling.
12. Growing a beautiful edible landscape in an urban neighborhood: This guide takes a look at gardening in a restricted area.
13. Organic Gardening: This guide offers a quick look at organic gardening principles.
14. Plant Glossary: This glossary will help you build your organic gardening vocabulary.
15. You’re a What? An Organic Gardener?: This article offers an easy guide to answering questions about organic gardening.
16. Organic Vocabulary: Check out this glossary so you’ll always know what you’re talking about.
17. Organic Gardening Essentials: This article describes the benefits and requirements of organic gardening.

Inspiration

Take a look at these urban gardeners to see what can be achieved when you work hard on your organic garden.

18. Path to Freedom: This family is part of the homegrown revolution.
19. Reasons to Garden Organically: If you’re not already convinced you should garden organically, check out this article.
20. A day in the life of an urban farmer: See how families are developing their own small-scale farms.

Soil

Healthy soil is the foundation for every successful garden, so be sure to pay attention to these helpful resources.

21. Garden Soil: Why it Matters-Making it Great: Find out how to create healthy organic soil with this guide.
22. Soil Biology Primer: Learn all about microorganisms and other important components of healthy soil in this book.
23. Managing Clay Soils in the Home Garden: Learn how to deal with hard clay soil using this guide.
24. Factors Influencing Soil Health and Quality: Check out this animation to get a good look at what makes up healthy soil.
25. Soil Health: This site has a number of resources and recommendations for healthy soil.
26. How to build new topsoil: Follow this guide to create healthy new soil.
27. Amending Your Garden Soil-Making Good Soil out of Bad: Get the dirt on how you can make any soil good for gardening here.

Composting

Follow these guides to turn household scraps into rich fertilizer for your garden.

28. Compost: The Backbone of an Organic Garden: Find out why compost is important, and how you can make your own.
29. How to Make Compost, a Composting Guide: This guide will help you create rich, cheap compost.
30. Organic Gardening Compost: Consider composting’s benefits and how you can use it with this guide.
31. How to Know when the Organic Compost in your Bin is Ready: This video explains when your compost is ripe.
32. Composting: Find out what the Veggie Lady has to say about composting.
33. Make your compost bin work: This gardener runs down what you’ll need to do to create a good compost.

Planning

Check out these resources for help in creating the perfect organic garden.

34. Planning Your Vegetable Garden: Here you’ll find information for planning your location and space as well as plant selection and schedule.
35. Easy Garden Anyone Can Make: Plan your garden the easy way with this resource.
36. Hey Grow UP!: This article explains how you can make use of more space with fences, trellises and stakes.
37. My Ideal Garden: Use this resource to create a garden you can love.
38. Planning a Child’s Garden: Check out this resource to learn how to create an organic garden your kids can help with.
39. Plan and Prepare: Figure out where to plant your garden and what to put in it with this guide.
40. When You Plan Your Garden, Here’s Some Things to Know: Keep these tips in mind when planning your garden.
41. Plan a Beautiful Vegetable Garden: Follow this guide to create a gorgeous vegetable garden.
42. The Gardening Calendar: Check out this calendar to see what you need to be doing in your garden each month.
43. Fruit Salad in a Pot: Make the most out of a small space by growing fruit in a pot.
44. How to Plan Your Organic Garden: Check out this video for tips related to planning an organic garden.
45. Getting Ready for Planting: This guide offers information on purchasing seeds and plants, as well as getting started before you plant.
46. Know When to Plant What: Find Your Average Last Spring Frost Date: This guide will help you figure out when you need to start planting.

Maintenance

Once you’ve created your organic garden, keep it up with the maintenance recommended by these resources.

47. Caring for Your Vegetable Crop: This document discusses irrigation, weeding, and thinning your garden.
48. Fertilizer Products for Organic Gardening: Check out this report that helps make sense of organic gardening product labels.
49. Vacation: Read this article to find out how to deal with your garden before you leave for vacation.
50. Organic Fertilizer: This resource describes a number of different fertilizers you can use.
51. Garden mulch: Look at different kinds of mulch and how you can use them here.

Pests & Weeds

Staying organic is a challenge for some when confronted with pests, but these resources offer a wealth of chemical-free solutions.

52. Organic Insect Repellents and Insect Control: Find out how to control insects in your organic garden here.
53. Slug & Snail Trail: Check out this site for advice on keeping snails and slugs at bay.
54. Use of Baking Soda as a Fungicide: See how others are using baking soda to keep mildew and other diseases away from their gardens.
55. Ten Steps Toward Organic Weed Control: Follow this guide to take care of your weed problem organically.
56. Plant Disease Control: Take a look at organic disease control methods here.
57. Weed Photo Gallery: Check out this photo gallery to find out which weed you’re up against.
58. Organic Weed Control: Find out how this gardener controls weeds organically.
59. Mulch: The Organic Solution for All Your Weeding Worries: This article discusses mulch as a way to keep the weeds at bay.
60. Plant-Disease Index: In this index, you’ll find details for the various pests that affect gardens.
61. Weeds, Guardians of the Soil: This publication discusses weeds as a positive gardening tool.
62. Beneficial Insects: Find out about the beneficial insects you can make use of in this article.
63. Biological Control: A Guide to Natural Enemies in North America: This site offers lots of information for combating pests.
64. Management of Insect Pests in Organic Vineyards: Find out how the wine business takes care of pets.
65. Insect Pest Finder: Check out this tool to identify pests.
66. Fly Predators: Make use of fly predators for a natural fly control method.
67. Organic Apple Disease Spray Guide: Here you’ll find organic methods for protecting your apples and other crops.

Harvest

Check out these resources to make the most of your harvest with storage, pickling, and more.

68. Harvesting and Storing: Find out how to make the most out of your harvest here.
69. When to Harvest: This guide will tell you when the right time to harvest is.
70. Secondary Edible Parts of Vegetables: Take a look at parts of vegetables you never thought about eating.
71. How to Store Your Garden Produce: This article takes a look at food storage and waste.
72. Home Canning Basics: Get the lowdown on canning here.

Techniques

Here you’ll learn about specific organic gardening techniques like hydroponics, moon cycles, and greenhousing.

73. Grow Biointensive: This technique makes growing large amounts of food in a small area possible.
74. Organic Hydroponic Gardening: This article has great information on the hydroponic technique.
75. Water Features: Check out this article to find out how you can bring water into your garden.
76. Garden Beds: Follow this guide to digging excellent garden beds.
77. Gardening by the Moon: Find out how to garden based on the moon’s cycles with this article.
78. Year Round Gardening with a Greenhouse: Check out this guide to find out how you can use a greenhouse to grow your garden throughout the year.
79. Hanging Basket How-to: Here you’ll find out how to grow in a hanging basket.
80. Saving Water in the Vegetable Garden: This guide has practical tips for conserving water in your garden.
81. Sustainable Soil Management: Here you’ll find out how to create high quality sustainable soil for your garden.

Specific Crops

Here you’ll find a bit of advice with specific crops in mind.

82. Growing Cantaloupes: Find out how to grow cantaloupes with this guide.
83. All About Growing Lettuce: This resource discusses everything you need to know about growing organic lettuce.
84. Herbs: Find out how to make the most out of herbs in your home garden.
85. Blueberry Planting Guide: Check out this guide to get the most out of your blueberries.

Products

Check out these product resources to find tools that will make organic gardening easier.

86. 11 Useful Organic Gardening Products: Here you’ll find 11 really neat and useful products for organic gardeners.
87. Organic Materials Review Institute: Find out how your products stack up with this resource.
88. Garden Seed Catalogs: This resource has great advice for saving money on seed orders.
89. The Organic Pages: Here you’ll find loads of links to useful organic gardening products.
90. Clean Air Gardening: This site features lawn and garden supplies that are environmentally friendly.
91. Better Grow Hydro: This hydroponics supplier is helpful for indoor gardeners.

Blogs & Communities

For ongoing knowledge about organic gardening, check out these blogs and Internet forums.

92. Tiny Farm Blog: Check out this blogger who is working on an organic microfarm.
93. Down-to-earth: This blog discusses the life of a family living simply on the outskirts of a rural town.
94. Seed Swapper: Check out these forums to get your hands on some excellent seeds.
95. Calendula & Concrete: See how well this urban gardener is doing.
96. Organic Gardening Information: This blog offers lots of great links and ideas.
97. Organic Gardening Forum: Share tips and advice on this organic gardening forum.
98. Veggie Gardening Tips: Here you’ll find lots of great tips for cultivating your organic garden.
99. Garden Rant: Check out what these opinionated organic gardeners have to say.
100. Organic Flower & Garden Tips: Follow this blog to make your garden the envy of the neighborhood.

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