To celebrate National Vegetarian Week 2014, The Tofu Diaries has invited fellow bloggers to get involved and share! Today’s guest blog is from Tom who is going to be sharing his tips and some great resources for getting started growing your own organic vegetables in an eco-friendly way. With summer on our doorstep (in the Northern Hemisphere that is), these should come in handy when you’re out in the garden. Since I am moving house in July and going to be having a garden for the first time in a long, long time, I’m going to be putting a lot of this into practice then!For a vegetarian, there’s nothing more important than making sure your fruit and vegetables are top-quality and free from artificial additives. One great way to make sure your food is grown in an eco-friendly manner is to grow it yourself – but how do you do this?

Getting started

Composting

If you’re considering growing your own organic food, a composter is a perfect place to start. A compost bin allows you to throw away all your vegetable cuttings, old fruit, leaves, grass and any other organic material to create a new soil source. As more materials are added they will decompose, and break down into a useable (and organic) soil to use in your garden. An even balance between green (grass, peelings) and brown (paper, leaves, straw) will produce the best results. To find out more about composting, have a read of Recycle Now’s guide.

Soil

Aside from composting to create a new source of soil you should try to use only natural soil – no Miracle-Gro or the like. This is because whilst it may help plants grow quickly, it is filled with artificial chemicals to make plants grow quicker than they should – chemicals which will be absorbed by your vegetables.

Recycling and upcycling

Recycling and upcycling are both perfect ways of saving both money and the environment. Old jeans can be stuffed with padding and sewn up to create a new kneeling mat, whilst an old CD, hung from a branch, can scare away squirrels and other unwanted wildlife that might try to munch on your vegetable patch.

Choosing what to plant

When choosing what to plant, take a moment to think about where you’re going to plant it and the climate you live in. An apple tree will provide apples all year round, but will take up a lot more water than cabbages. If you’re going to plant more than one kind of seed, consider how much water each plant requires and try to plan accordingly.

Keeping it going

Once you’ve started and have begun to harvest your organic produce, there are a few more things you can do to further your organic growing efforts.

Encourage wildlife into your garden

Birds, bugs and bees are all part of a healthy garden, and can actually help your gardening. Worms can aerate your soil, bees can help pollinate any plants you have and birds can pick at bugs that might try to eat your plants. A healthy, thriving garden will have all sorts of nature working together to create a miniature eco-system, and encouraging it in rather than spraying harsh pesticides to keep it out will help it to grow naturally.

Making it sustainable

Sustainability is important when gardening, as it ensures your garden can continue for as long as you need or want it to. Lucy from Smallest Smallholding says “There are two fundamental factors you need to take into account when building an eco-friendly garden. Firstly, you need to think about what is already to hand, and secondly, the three ‘R’s ‘- reduce, re-use, recycle.” Recycling will help you to keep your garden growing for as long as you need it to, whilst reducing the amount you waste will help the environment.

Some final tips…

• Anything that has harsh chemicals in – from store-bought compost to weed killer – will have a natural alternative. Look around before committing to using something with chemicals in that could get into your food
• Make the most of what you have – if you have a small garden, try planting things like carrots and potatoes that won’t take up much room
• If you’re unsure how much time you can dedicate to eco-friendly gardening and growing, start small and see how you go
• If your garden is shaded, try to plant vegetables in the place with the most sun

The most important part of organic gardening is to enjoy it – you’re growing your own food, saving the planet and saving money; what’s not to enjoy!

For more information on how to help your whole garden become eco-friendly, read this guide. How do you keep your garden eco-friendly?

Thanks to Tom for this very helpful guide. Unfortunately Tom doesn’t have a blog to share with you – he has simply shared his expertise out of the goodness of his heart and in the spirit of Vegetarian Week!