Don't let this put you off because, once you learn the basics, the rest is easy.

Organic crop growers, unlike commercial growers, feed their soil not their plants. Healthy soil is alive and breathing. It supports micro-organisms along with other creatures like earthworms. All these things maintain a balance that keeps the soil healthy and able to produce good crops.

We need earthworms and good bacteria to maintain the quality of the soil but many chemical fertilizers kill them. This makes the use of natural, well balanced, fertilizers essential.

Two other ways to ensure healthy soil and good crops are land resting and crop rotation. If you have the space it would be ideal to mark out five sections of land as "plots" for your vegetable garden.

Land Resting

One portion of your land should be allowed to "rest" each year for at least a full year. This allows the land to recover from feeding hungry crops and renew itself ready for the next crop.

Crop Rotation

When you use soil to grow the same kind of vegetables every year the soil will deteriorate after a while. A rotation system changes the crops grown in each plot of land every year. Growing the same type of crop each year, without rotation, can cause a toxic build up of residues in soil that can harm that particular type of crop but will not harm others. An additional benefit of rotating crops is that the elements left in the soil after growing one type of vegetable can be beneficial to the growth of a different kind of vegetable.

Balancing the feeding of your soil and rotating the crops will reduce soil-borne diseases and pests. Rotating crops can also reduce the need for fertilizer as, for example, the growth of alfalfa and other legumes can replace nitrogen in the soil removed by other types of crop.

A simple rotation system consists of five equal plots. One plot can be used to plant members of the cabbage family, a second for root crops such as potatoes, carrots and turnips, the third can grow legumes such as beans and peas while the fourth can be used to grow celery, onions, cucumber, leeks, spinach, sweet corn, lettuce and marrows. The fifth plot can be left to rest each year.

Rotating the crops means no family, or type of vegetable, will be grown in any plot for more than one year every four years. See this (Link to page 2) for a simple four year plan for crop rotation.