Reap health benefits: Consider an organic vegetable garden | Mark Mahoney (2024)

FAQs

What is the best soil for an organic vegetable garden? ›

Loamy Soil: The gold standard for most gardeners, loamy soil has a balanced mix of sand, silt, and clay. It retains moisture while ensuring good drainage and is rich in nutrients and organic matter.

In general, organic gardening differs from traditional gardening in two important ways: use of agricultural chemicals and use of artificial or processed fertilizers. Organic gardening rejects the use of all artificial agricultural chemicals, including pesticides used to control insects, diseases and weeds.

Gardening requires the same traits as many of the most formative spiritual practices—patience, attentiveness, diligence, self-control—and in turn cultivates in us many of the postures that draw us closer to the Divine, including mindfulness, creativity, and curiosity.

Why does gardening seem to be so beneficial to health? It combines physical activity with social interaction and exposure to nature and sunlight. Sunlight lowers blood pressure as well as increasing vitamin D levels in the summer,⁴² and the fruit and vegetables that are produced have a positive impact on the diet.

Secret Soil Recipe for Great Tomatoes in Your Garden

Mix shale, compost and manure together and then add: Soft Rock Phosphate – 3 lbs. Alfalfa Meal – 1 lb. Earthworm Castings – 1lb.

Unlike sandy soil, clay soil holds moisture well — sometimes too well. Fine soil particles stick together, allowing little room for drainage or for air to reach plant roots. The solution? Break up the soil and add lots of organic matter like compost, shredded leaves, peat moss, and gypsum over time.

Studies have shown small to moderate increases in some nutrients in organic produce. Organic produce may have more of certain antioxidants and types of flavonoids, which have antioxidant properties. Omega-3 fatty acids.

According to USDA data, organic foods have fewer pesticide residues than conventionally grown produce. But the amounts for both types of produce are within the level for safe consumption.

Gardening also increases the production of brain derived neurotrophic factors, or BDNF's. This is essentially fertilizer for the brain, and helps grow new neural cells as well as maintaining the neural pathways you already have.

Why is gardening good for your body and brain? ›

It's been shown to lighten mood and lower levels of stress and anxiety. It's very gratifying to plant, tend, harvest and share your own food. Routines provide structure to our day and are linked to improved mental health. Gardening routines, like watering and weeding, can create a soothing rhythm to ease stress.

Gardens reduce stress and promote a sense of wellbeing. This leads to measurable psychological, physiological, and behavioral benefits, such as reduced anxiety, sadness, and other negative moods, lower blood pressure and improved immune functioning, and better compliance with treatment protocol.

Studies have found that simply having plants in view can reduce stress, fear, anger and sadness, and can also reduce blood pressure, pulse rate and muscle tension. And research has shown that even taking a walk in a natural environment can have a positive effect on anxiety and depression.

Digging, weeding, trimming, raking, tilling, lifting and other gardening activities use major muscle groups and burn plenty of calories, too. Besides the aerobic benefits that come from moving your body, gardening is a form of strength training and also helps improve flexibility.

In particular, the study found that people who engaged in low-level activities like gardening for less than one hour per week reduced their risk of death from heart disease by 12 percent. Those who engaged in these activities for more than two hours per week reduced their risk of death from heart disease by 37 percent.

The ideal mixture for plant growth is called a loam and has roughly 40% sand, 40% silt and 20% clay. Another important element of soil is its structure, or how the particles are held together - how they clump together into crumbs or clods. A loose structure provides lot of pore spaces for good drainage and root growth.

You can increase the amount of organic matter in your soil by adding compost, aged animal manures, green manures (cover crops), mulches or peat moss. Because most soil life and plant roots are located in the top 6 inches of soil, concentrate on this upper layer.

Loam Based Compost

Loam-based compost is a combination of soil, sand, and clay that has been decomposed and processed to create a deep, rich product that is ideal for growing vegetables. Loam-based compost can be purchased commercially or created at home using a simple composting bin.

Compost is usually used more as potting soil, a top-layer fertilizer to your plants, or to amend your current soil. Whereas topsoil is better for building up your soil level or as a landscape filler. In fact, many times when you order topsoil in bulk, what you get is dirt with some organic matter blended in.