Organic gardening is the way of growing vegetables and fruits with the use of things only found in nature.

Why would one want to indulge in organic gardening?

- One can easily make compost from garden and kitchen waste. Though this is a bit more time-consuming than buying prepared chemical pesticides and fertilizers, it certainly helps to put garbage to good use and so saves the environment.

- Organic farming does not use chemicals that may have an adverse affect on your health. This is especially important when growing vegetables. Chemical companies tell us that the chemicals we use are safe if used according to direction, but research shows that even tiny amounts of poisons absorbed through the skin can cause such things as cancer, especially in children.

On the average, a child ingests four to five times more cancer-causing pesticides from foods than an adult. This can lead to various diseases later on in the child’s life. With organic gardening, these incidents are lessened.

Remember, pesticides contain toxins that have only one purpose – to kill living things.

- Less harm to the environment. Poisons are often washed into our waterways, causing death to the native fish and polluting their habitat.

Over the last ten years there has been a switch towards mechanization and homogenization in farming, this uses pesticides, herbicides, additives, synthetic fertilizers and mass-production systems. This is having an impact on our health, we are seeing new diseases spreading from animals to human. Think bird flu, swine flu.

The World Health Organization produces reports to show how the use of chemicals and other products on food, coupled with the manufacturing processes involved, are actually a threat for our health.

If you have space for a few pots or even a small piece of land, it is a wise decision to grow your own organic vegetable garden. Today I’m presenting you with seven reasons for doing this:

1. You will have no additives in your vegetables. Research by organic food associations has shown that additives in our food can cause heart diseases, osteoporosis, migraines and hyperactivity.

2. There will be no pesticides or synthetic fertilizers used. These chemical products are applied to obtain crops all the time regardless plagues or weather conditions, and affect the quality of the vegetables. Pesticides are poisonous to humans.

Our lawns and gardens are craving something natural to help them thrive, the way nature intended. Fish emulsion has been a prime organic fertilizer used by our ancestors for centuries. I’m uncertain as to how anyone ever thought that synthetic fertilizers would benefit our environment, but someone did. Hands down, though, organic fertilizer out shines chemical fertilizers every time.

The best fish by-product to use for an organic fertilizer comes from the Menhaden fish. Menhaden meaning “that which manures”. Such a great name since manure is an excellent fertilizer too. The Menhaden fish is an organic and renewable source, serving North America for centuries as an extraordinary organic fertilizer. For centuries our ancestors used the Menhaden fish to make crops grow incredible yields?way before synthetic fertilizer was a twinkle in anyone’s eye.

A much desired quality of fish emulsion as organic fertilizer is that it offers instant gratification. One misconception many people have is that all organic fertilizers don’t act fast enough. True, some organic fertilizers are slow acting but not fish emulsion. Your plants benefit almost immediately after its application. Some other organic fertilizers leave you waiting. Often their ingredients need some time to decompose and release their nutrients. You have to be careful to store fish emulsion at room temperature so that it doesn’t degrade before you want it to as it will in excessive heat.

What fish and parts of the fish are used for making fish fertilizer? By-products or waste materials from various types of fish are used. And although technically several varieties of fish can be used, mostly Menhaden fish that contain few amounts of meat and used for making animal feed are used.

The first step is to cook the fish and to squeeze its juice and oils by pressing. The oil is removed while the leftover solids can be ground and baked into protein meals and fed to animals. The juice of the fish is brought to a boil until it becomes more concentrated and results in a fish emulsion.

A small amount of phosphoric acid is added to the fish emulsion to lower the pH. Lowering the pH makes the liquid fertilizer more acidic, which prevents it from decaying and fermenting into gas. Before phosphoric acid was added in the manufacturing process, containers of fish emulsion were known to burst from fermentation. Because the amount of added phosphoric acid is so small (less than one percent by weight), the product is still considered organic.