I love planting seeds and watching them grow!! Being in the deep south allows me at least 2 growing seasons which means food all year long.  Because I don't want any added chemicals in my food or soil, I opt to grow completely organic.  I order and use organic heirloom seeds. My soil is organic and my fertilizer is from organic compost that I make from our kitchen scraps.  This year I decided to add compost worms to my garden.  I am excited to watch them reproduce while enriching my soil for my garden. In my posts below, I will share with you what I do to make my organic garden.  As a breast cancer warrior, I am doing everything I can to give my body and the cells it possesses, every nutrient possible to heal and repair itself.  Food is Medicine!! These are my personal thoughts and the fun I have playing in the dirt.

One of the best ways to organically fertilize your soil is to create a compost bin. You can go big or you can go small, it is all dependent on the amount of space you have available and the time you have to care for it. In the Before/After picture, what you see was in a 5-gallon bucket.  The rich compost is 3 months of raw kitchen scraps, made up of mostly used coffee grounds in the filter, banana peels, lemon skins, and egg shells.  I also added other scraps such as potato peels, zucchini and squash ends and tea bags. I have a small container with a lid that sits on my counter so as I cook, I can place the scraps into it, and the lid keeps pests and smell out of my kitchen. Once a day, the scraps were thrown into the 5-gallon bucket and then once a week, the contents in the bucket were turned over and packed down with a garden hoe. as you can see, it create an amazing dark rich soil.

If you have ever had a garden, you know that the first step to prepping the soil is to plow it. Whenever I think about "why" we do certain things, I think about what God gave Adam to care for the garden.  Now I have read Genesis many times, and no where have I been able to to find where God left Adam a John Deere when He kicked him and Eve out of the Garden of Eden.  So that must mean, that God had already created something that would do the job of a plow.  And He had, it was the earthworm.  As earthworms move through the soil they are "plowing" or "tunneling" in the soil allowing air and water to flow more freely through.  Not only do they plow, but they eat compost within the soil and then excrete a rich compost back out.  This rich compost they release back into the soil contains phosphorus, nitrogen, calcium and magnesium. I don't know about you, but I will gladly let the worm do the plowing! Of course, if you are using a grassy patch of your land for a garden, you will need to plow up the grass and soil to prep the area properly, but after that, allow these amazing worms do the work for you. In these pictures, you will see the worms I bought and now I am giving them a space to create more worms that I can add to my garden once it is planted.  Here is what you need to "grow" more worms.  

• 2 plastic bins
• organic soil
• earthworms from your local bait shop- how many you buy is up to you, just keep in mind that they double and triple their population every 2 to 3 months
• a drill
• a lid for one of the containers
• newspaper and kitchen scraps
• 2 bricks

Directions: Drill several holes in the bottom of one of the containers, and on the lid. Add newspaper to the bottom of the container with the holes. Then add half of the organic dirt and the kitchen scraps and then the worms. Top off with the remaining half of organic soil. Wet the soil until moist all the way through but not soaked. Your worms need moisture, so you will need to mist the top of the soil every other day or so, depending on your climate. Place the 2 bricks inside the remaining container one on each end. Then add the worm container on top of the bricks.  After about 2 weeks or so you should have a liquid in the bottom of the bottom container.  That is your fertilizer water but it is concentrated so be sure to add plenty of water to it and use it to water your garden and indoor plants!

**Note- only add things like coffee grounds and filters, tea bags, egg shells, potato peels, banana peels, and other vegetable scraps.

What NOT to add- meat, grease, dairy, onions or citrus

There are many ways to "start" your garden.  If you don't want to start by seed, you can always visit your local nursery and purchase organic plants already started and then transplant them into your garden.  I strongly recommend getting organic plants to ensure they are not GMO plants and have had minimal exposure to to pesticides or chemicals. If you want to start your own seeds then I would suggest seeking out organic/heirloom seeds. There are several places to find those online, and sometimes you can find them in local feed and seed stores. I personally purchase mine online. 

Now while I have been adding to my compost bin and worm farm, I am also using my egg shells to start my seeds in.  This is a great FREE way to start your seeds. I used some soil I had left over from last year to start my seeds this year.  I container planted last year so my soil was made up of organic soil and a blended mixture of banana peels, egg shells, lemon peels and coffee grounds with the filter. If you don't have to compost this is an easy and great way to make a homemade fertilizer.  Here is my recipe.

Homemade fertilizer

2- 3 banana peels

6-8 egg shells

1 filter with used coffee grounds

1 lemon peel

1-2 cups water

Mix all ingredients in a blender (I bought a cheap one from Wal-mart).  Once it is all blended (it should look like a coffee smoothie with egg shell sprinkles, only not as tasty) then blend it into at least 5 gallons of organic soil and mix thoroughly with your hands and then use it to plant your seeds.  You can also use this to add to your starter plants from the store as well.  

Back to seed planting in egg shells, be sure to add 2 to 3 tablespoons of soil to your egg.  Plant your seed and then water with a spray bottle, so you don't drown the seed. Place indoors in a warm sunny place.  We have huge windows in our garage so I have mine on a table in front of the window.  Just remember they don't have to be in direct sunlight, as long as they are in a warm environment. In the picture here, I planted those seeds 4 days ago! So in the right environment your seeds will grow.  By the way, those are tomatoes and cucumbers coming up there!