This photosynthesis simple explanation is good for gardeners to understand, just so we know the very basics of how a plant eats and what we can do to help.

Garden centers occasionally sell home soil test kits, but are they accurate or are you better off sending your soil test sample to a soil lab?

Define humus: The organic component of soil, formed by the decomposition of leaves and other plant material by soil microorganisms.

That's according to Google and it's basically accurate, although if we're getting nit-picky:

• Humus isn't the only "organic component of soil"
• It's not just leaves and plant material (it's anything that was once living)
• Insects and animals are involved in this decomposition process, too.

Biological transmutation is when organisms combine elements together to produce new elements. As to whether or not this is actually possible, that's up for debate.

I know people come searching here for organic pest control methods, and I occasionally mention a few specific techniques, but mostly I talk about a far more important concept that pretty much gets rid of pests altogether.

Before I studied organic gardening, I had hardly considered growing food. Now, the vegetable garden is my main focus.

This page is my main hub for introducing you to some important concepts on how to grow organic, so be sure to bookmark it.

I've been involved with gardening since I was a kid, but I didn't get excited about it until I discovered organic gardening. This page is my main hub for introducing you to some important concepts, so be sure to bookmark it.

I don't read very many organic gardening blogs. I find I pick up more useful gardening tips from reading organic farming research and organic gardening books.

Most blogs just seem to be covering topics that I'm not really interested in, which is fine - I tend to lean slightly towards the ecological side of gardening rather than the aesthetic side, and to advanced soil building and food growing techniques rather than the basics.

Continued from What Is Brix? The second reason we may conduct a brix test is more practical and useful in our vegetable gardens.

First, we take our refractometer and measure brix in a leaf or especially a fruit from one of our plants, for example a tomato.

When I started learning about brix, I got super excited about organic vegetable gardening. To me, brix is one of the most fascinating topics in organic gardening.