Organic Guidelines

Weeding

Get out there and get a little dirt underneath your nails and pull those weeds right out of the ground before they get out of hand.

Watering

Most gardens flourish from about an inch of water a week. Newer plants will need more moisture. We recommend a soaker hose, which conserves water and will gently allow water to reach the roots while leaving the plant leaves dry.

We also recommend avoiding watering your plants during midday and to create a schedule to water in the morning or evenings.

Quality, not Quantity

A flourishing plot may seem like one that has an abundance of plants, however, it is wise to plant what you know you will use. When your garden is overflowing with vegetables to the point where you are not sure you will be able to use all of the vegetables, word gets around to garden pests that your plot has extra and your plants are at risk of attracting diseases. For example:

Zucchini plants produce up to 9 lbs of fruit in a season

If you are not handy at freezing or canning your vegetables, then you might consider just how much of each vegetable you will actually devour.

Companion Plants

Some plants benefit from being planted close to one another. For Example:

Chives, Basil, and Mint emit fragrances that repel unwanted pests away from your vegetables
Marigolds are toxic to those pesky pests
Sunflowers, however, attract lady bugs and lacewings that feast on the pesky bugs that destroy your plants

Riverview Community Garden is a 100% Organic garden. What does that mean, you might ask? Well that means that absolutely no synthetic fertilizers and pesticides are allowed. However, Organic Gardening is much more than replacing man-made chemicals with those derived from natural sources... It's a way of life. And here at Riverview, we want to teach you to not only cultivate and grow you garden organically, but your lifestyle: your mental, physical and emotional wellbeing.

True organic gardening starts from the bottom up. This means the soil! Pay special attention to how you treat the soil on your plot. For information on soil and organic matter, please click here.

Finally we have come up with some quick info below that should help you get started.

For a full list of accepted products, please visit the Organic Materials Review Institute.

For more information, please sign up for our Organic Gardening 101 class via our Contact page (which we offer multiple times a season).