Organic Gardening -  What You Need to Know about Organic Gardening

Organic gardening is a “natural” way to grow things without chemical or synthetic additives. For the most part, that simply means that you don’t use chemical fertilizers or pesticides, but organic gardening may entail far more than that, especially if you intend to sell produce from your garden.

Organic Gardening for Personal Use

If the goal for your organic garden is to grow produce for your own personal use, you are not required to meet USDA standards. You decide how organic you want to go. Most organic home gardeners pay a lot of attention to the soil, making sure they don’t use chemical additives. Most also eliminate chemical pesticides, but may deviate a little if they are invaded by some bug that they can’t get rid of with organic means.

Most home organic gardeners don't worry too much about buying organic certified seeds or making certain there are no foreign chemicals in the soil. Most home organic gardeners do however produce healthy, chemical-free produce. In the process they are also protecting the environment by keeping chemicals out of the water supply and food chain.

USDA Organic Certification

If your organic gardening plan is to sell organic produce, you will want to look into acquiring USDA Organic Certification. You can't label or claim the produce you sell as “organic” without this certification.

USDA Organic Certification was created because there were no standards for organic gardening, and consumers had no way of knowing what they were buying. Today if you buy food that is labeled “organic,” you know that it was grown without chemical additives. You also know that the seed it was grown from was organic, and that the soil has had no chemical additives in it for at least five years. It is time-consuming, expensive and a paperwork overload to get USDA organic certification and many organic gardening enthusiasts don’t go through the process.

Other Organic Certification

There are a few other certifications you can get if your organic garden is going to produce profit as well as food. These certifications are not authorized by the USDA, and you can't call your produce “organic” if you choose them.

One of these is called is “Certified Naturally Grown.” Produce with this label is grown under the same conditions as USDA Organic produce, but you don’t have to pay the USDA fees and do the USDA recordkeeping. It is a realistic option for small organic gardening enthusiasts. Organic gardening is a good way to provide healthy produce for you and your family, and maybe even your neighborhood. Whether you grow food just for your own use, or you grow it to sell, you are protecting the environment and the health of those who eat it.

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