Kitchen Hospitality: Organic Vegetable Planting

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Organic Vegetable Planting

What are the best organic fertilizers to use in a vegetable and fruit garden? My friend and I were talking about the organic gardens we're getting ready to plant. Her dad, an old-time farmer, said the best fertilizer is rabbit, then sheep, then chicken or cattle. He said rabbit fertilizer has a lot of protein, and sheep fertilizer is better than that from chicken or cattle because it's not hot. You have to wait on the hot fertilizer to set in the sun and rain, but the other that isn't hot can be used right away.

Rabbits visit my yard about every evening. They're so cute. The last thought I've had about them, though, is that they are good for my garden's fertilizer. Rabbit droppings, according to Backwoods Home Magazine, are nearly odorless. That is good for anyone living in a residential area. I don't think I want my cute rabbit visitors visiting my vegetable garden once I get everything planted! They'll get the wrong idea that I'm planting all that good organic food just for them. So even though their continual droppings might be good for the vegetable plants, my husband and I are planning to fence the cute critters out. That's where the feed store will come in handy. You can purchase different organic fertilizers such as rabbit, sheep, and cow manure at feed stores.

My dad and my friend's dad grew up on farms and are both very knowledgeable about organic farming. Me? I benefited from the delicious home-grown vegetables for years but didn't do much of the gardening. I have to ask the pros and learn from others. I went on an organic fertilizer search to learn a bit more this morning. One of my favorite readings was the blog, In My Kitchen Garden, with the post about using sheep manure as fertilizer.This interesting blog article lists similar information like my friend's dad gave me yesterday such as the sheep fertilizer not being hot, which means it doesn't need aging. I think I'll need to visit Backwoods Home and In My Kitchen Garden blogs in the near future while I'm planting that garden. I'm not quite the farmer that my friend's dad and my dad were in their earlier years, but I enjoy trying my hand at it.

I'm planning a raised bed square foot garden for my vegetable planting this Spring. This weekend my husband and I are beginning the project. I've researched organic gardening, raised bed gardening, square foot gardening, and here are a few designs and photos I am impressed with: