Organic Gardening Made Simple
Simply stated organic gardening is growing gardens as nature intended, without the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides, instead using environmentally friendly composts, mulches, flowers and insects.

"Just What Is Organic Gardening and Where To Start"
Basically organic gardening is environmentally friendly, it builds up the soil not ruin it and it helps protect our children and ourselves from chemical over-exposure. If you have never gardened organically or otherwise, might I suggest you get Organic Gardening for Dummies by Ann Whitman. This is a great book for beginners, it is easy to read and informative. Another favorite of mine is Organic Gardening by Geoff Hamilton - a great practical organic gardening book for anyone, well written and illustrated.

Of course, some good 'must have on hand' reference guides are Rodale's All-New Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening: The Indispensable Resource for Every Gardener by Fern Marshall Bradley (Editor) and Barbara W, Ellis (Editor), The Organic Gardener's Handbook of Natural Insect and Disease Control: A Complete Problem-Solving Guide to Keeping Your Garden and Yard Healthy Without Chemicals by Barbara W. Ellis (Editor) and Fern Marshall Bradley (Editor), and Rodale's Illustrated Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening by Anna Kruger (Editor). Remember, these books are reference books or encyclopedias and to be used as such. You wouldn't want to try to read them straight through - might be a little daunting.

Recently I've added The New Organic Grower: A Master's Manual of Tools and Techniques for the Home and Market Gardener (A Gardener's Supply Book) by Eliot Coleman and Lasagna Gardening: A New Layering System for Bountiful Gardens: No Digging, No Tilling, No Weeding, No Kidding! by Patricia Lanza to my gardening book collection.

"Organic Gardening at Its Finest"
What a joy if you have wide open spaces to garden organically! If you live in a rural area, try raising chickens and letting them roam free throughout your garden. Chickens are great insect eradicators and you get the extra benefit of fertilizer as well. Just watch where you step!

Living in Oklahoma has its pros and cons when it comes to gardening. We do have a longer growing season and can grow some great tomatoes but we also can have red clay for dirt and intense weeds. This is the reason, thirty-five years ago, I started to garden organically. Organic gardening is the best way to build up our soil and mulching, mulching, mulching, oh did I mention mulching, is the easiest way to get a handle on the weed population and beat the dry spells. If you don't have your own water well, by late July or early August water rationing starts, so what better way to conserve water than organic gardening. I like to lay soaker hoses down then mulch over them with straw to really conserve.

My favorite way to grow potatoes is to work compost lightly into the soil with my MANTIS® TILLER - America’s Favorite Tiller, then put down a layer of straw, next on top of the straw add the seed potatoes and then just cover them with straw. At first just put about a foot or so over them, then when the sprouts poke through add another two foot or more of straw. The roots go down into the rich composted soil and the potatoes grow on the bed of straw. Once they blossom you can peek under the straw and pick the size of potatoes you want.

Now let's dig in and get our hands dirty! Enough sitting at the computer, go out and start organic gardening.