Organic Gardening 101: Getting started!

You've decided to grow a garden and you've decided to make it organic. First you need to pick your spot. You will need at least 6 hours of sun in that spot. Once you've located where you want to plant you might want to figure out where you want to put your compost pile at the same time it needs sun too!  If you decide to make raised beds or just plant in the ground it all begins the same. You will have to remove all the vegetation this requires a shovel and a wheel barrel. I find the work actually relaxes me. You want to start this in the morning when it's cooler. Not in the afternoon when the heat has built up. You want to remove the roots of anything in that area. If your putting in raised beds you want to make sure that you build the walls inside where you took the sod out. This will prevent grass from growing inside your walls. Then you want to dig and turn over the soil. I do that first with a shovel then with a pitch fork to break up clumps. Now your dirty hot and tired and you deserve a a break! Don't do all it at once take a couple days! Your back will thank you! Better yet get help!
Now for a raised bed you are going to add soil so you would put down cardboard or newspaper to keep the weed roots you missed out. Some use chicken too wire to keep the voles, moles and rabbits from digging under and into your beds. Now comes the good part remember all that sod you dug out? Put it in your compost heap! You should also buy a container for your kitchen to put all your scraps of vegetables, paper-towels shredded newspapers! These will go into your compost! No meats or cooked stuff!
Break up the clumps and add some hay and horse manure...did I say you want your compost away from your house. Pile it on turning it every week or so I save my used brewed coffee grounds and the unused liquid separately. I water house plants with the liquid...and used the grounds around my hostas and flowers to deter snails they hate the stuff. It also composts to soil. People like me are obsessed with dirt. The better the dirt the healthier and less likely to have disease your garden will be and the fewer the pests. Tomorrow I'll talk about soil combinations! This is my Pinterest page my sort of magazine all pictures and little reading lol!
http://www.pinterest.com/edfred_warren/cottage-garden-ideas-favorite-places/
Garden plans:
http://www.pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=garden%20plans
Compost bins
http://www.pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=compost%20bin%20diy&rs=ac&len=7