Are you fed up with tasteless tomatoes and wary of the chemicals you risk ingesting every time you eat a supermarket-bought carrot ? Then the organic vegetable garden is the ideal solution for you! All you need to do is get seeds from organic farming to enjoy different varieties of fresh, quality fruits and vegetables directly at home.
- The benefits of an organic vegetable garden
- Where to set up your organic vegetable garden
- What to grow in the organic vegetable garden
- Make the choice of a root ball for your organic vegetable garden
- Maintenance and harvesting in the organic vegetable garden
The benefits of an organic vegetable garden
You will have understood: the organic vegetable garden allows you to grow quality fruits and vegetables directly at home, as well as aromatic herbs from organic farming. Embarking on urban organic farming is this opportunity for everyone to get closer to nature – even in town and without having a lot of space. In addition to growing good food and being able to taste new varieties of plants, this will be an opportunity to create your own little personal garden .
The fact of growing your own vegetables or aromatic herbs directly at home allows you to consume products without packaging that have traveled 0 kilometres: the plant from the seed lands directly on your plate after harvest! This perfect traceability guarantees you to consume healthy products and not to ingest dangerous pesticides. So the only thing you need to make sure for your organic vegetable garden to become a dazzling success is that the seeds you get are from organic farming!
Where to install your organic vegetable garden?
The adventure of the organic vegetable garden can be undertaken anywhere: in a garden, in an apartment, outdoors as well as indoors. If you live in an apartment, you can set up your organic vegetable garden on a balcony , a window sill or in the kitchen , for example.
In our opinion, it is wise to choose the location of your organic vegetable garden also according to what you want to grow there. For example, aromatic herbs love drought and can be placed in partial shade. On the other hand, for a tomato to turn deliciously red, it is necessary to expose it to full sun.
The installation of the organic vegetable garden will also depend on the stage in which the seeds and the organic seeds are . When organic seeds have just been sown, it is necessary to ensure a favorable microclimate for germination and growth . Seedlings cannot be subjected to too extreme temperatures. It is therefore preferable to sow seeds indoors .
What to grow in the organic vegetable garden?
You can grow any type of variety in your organic vegetable garden. Your varieties can range from vegetables like:
- the carrot
- the cabbage
- chicory
- the radish
- red beet with fruit like tomato. There is no limit to your desires!
To find your ideal variety, you can, for example, be inspired by delicious recipes such as tomato gazpacho or beetroot caviar.
However, it will be necessary to ensure that the optimal growth conditions for each variety are met. Indeed, the different varieties of fruits and vegetables do not require the same water and sun intake.
Also make sure that the varieties that you decide to place next to each other in your vegetable garden are compatible in order to avoid creating hybrid varieties. For example, cabbage and beets are true comrades for radishes . So try to match varieties that go well together .
The steps to grow fruits and vegetables in an organic vegetable garden
From organic seed to harvest , there are a number of steps to follow:
- Sowing: to sow organic seeds , you will need to plant the seeds in potting soil . If you manage to find special sowing soil , that's perfect. And if not – don't panic! You can also use regular potting soil. Try in this case to sort the soil a little by hand. For example, remove any pieces of wood that may be in the ground. You can get biodegradable pots for your seedlings . The advantage of this is that you can place the pot directly in the vegetable garden once the organic seeds have germinated – and you will therefore not have to carefully remove the plant from the pot. Biodegradable pots are on sale in several garden centers at reasonable prices. They are available in store as well as by delivery.
- Once you have put the soil in the pots, all you have to do is make a hole and put your organic seeds in it . You are probably wondering how deep to put them. The answer is simple: generally, organic seeds should be placed at a depth corresponding to 3 times the size of the seed. For example, tomato seeds are 2mm long; they are therefore to be placed 6mm underground. In order to maximize your chances of a successful organic vegetable garden, it is in our opinion best to put several organic seeds in one pot . Thus, you can choose the strongest plant among the plants that will come out of the ground. We also believe that you will be able to distinguish between different seeds and seedlings better if you write the names of the varieties on the pots. Indeed, when the seeds have just germinated, the leaves and flowers of the different varieties of plants are very similar to each other. Naming the pots will allow you to clearly distinguish the different varieties and avoid creating new hybrid varieties.
- The germination phase: You will need to have a little patience after sowing your seeds because of course, they do not germinate overnight ! Also, don't worry if your carrot seeds take longer to germinate than your tomato seeds. Indeed, the germination time varies from one variety to another.
- Thinning: thinning means sorting out the different plants . Concretely, it will be necessary to sacrifice the weak plants in order to give all possible chances to the strong plant. You should therefore remove smaller and weaker seedlings from the pot. If you don't want to be too cruel you can also replant the cute little plants in another pot. The important thing now is to leave enough room for the plants and therefore to space them out. Another trick that will prevent you from throwing away the weaker little plant is to simply eat it! Indeed, the small plants are very tasty and real condensed nutrients.
Are you convinced that having an organic vegetable garden at home is great but you don't have enough time to devote to the preparation of seedlings and seeds ? So discover now URBAN CUISINE's Cultivation Clods which will allow you to set up an organic vegetable garden directly at home and enjoy a delicious harvest even without having a green thumb!
Make the choice of a root ball for your organic vegetable garden
Did you get scared when you saw the list of steps needed to turn your seed into a tasty harvest? We have the answer to your problem: the URBAN CUISINE Cultivation Mound .
URBAN CUISINE's ambition is to allow everyone to grow organic fruits, vegetables and aromatic herbs directly at home – even for those who do not necessarily have a green thumb or who do not have the time to devote to it.
In order to make agriculture accessible to all, we have therefore developed an innovative product: the Motte de Cultivation . It is a cube of condensed vegetable fibers already containing the seeds and nutrients necessary for the proper growth of each plant according to its variety.
Our seeds are selected in the south of France from two committed seed companies who produce organic, reproducible and royalty-free seeds . Their high quality seeds are sown in all our Cultivation Clods.
The fact that our seeds are reproducible means that the plants produced from them possess the same qualities as the mother plant. Reproducible seeds naturally improve by adapting to the environment in which they grow. The soil, the climate and their living conditions are part of their genetic heritage and allow the seeds to adapt to external factors and therefore to give more generous plants.
In addition, we sow the appropriate quantity of seeds depending on the variety in order to optimize the germination rate of our Cultivation Plugs.
All our seeds are labeled “Organic Farming” . Seeds labeled Organic Agriculture, unlike traditional seeds, have not been treated with chemical inputs. By this label, you are guaranteed on the one hand not to ingest pesticides or other chemicals harmful to health and on the other hand to benefit from naturally more resistant fruits, vegetables and aromatic herbs .
We offer a wide range of Cultivation Clods ranging from Cherry Tomatoes to Mini-Carrot and Mini-Red Pepper , including radishes . The only thing you have to do is take the root ball out of its packaging, water it, observe and… harvest!
Our Cultivation Clods are to be placed in our cork pots or our Balconnières .
Maintenance and harvesting in the organic vegetable garden
Once your seeds have been planted or – if applicable – you have installed your clods, all you have to do is wait while maintaining your organic vegetable garden .
In general, always make sure that the plants have enough water and sun, necessary for their growth.
Harvesting is done differently depending on the types of plants and varieties :
- For aromatic herbs , you can simply cut some leaves or a stem with a kitchen knife.
Be careful, however, never to exhaust more than two-thirds of the plant so that it does not die. Prune it regularly so that it becomes bushier. You thus ensure a generous harvest!
- For fruits such as tomatoes , for example, hold the red fruit in your hand and give a slight twisting movement or lift it so that the stem snaps off. Avoid shooting it.
- Harvesting vegetables again differs from variety to variety. For carrots , for example, the plants must be lifted by pulling them firmly by the leaves.