The amount of organic products you see out on the market nowadays is quite amazing. Many of these products make grand claims of supporting massive growth and harvests, and while some really do help, they can be quite expensive.

First, look on your own property. Have a small lawn? Fresh grass clippings make great vegetable garden mulch. You don’t want to use too much because they can become matted, blocking out water. Used sparingly, clippings can create lovely mulch that will quickly decompose to bring nutrients back to your soil. Like any good mulch, grass clippings keep your soil moist as well. You can continue to add more clippings when older ones start to decompose.

Well believe it or not there are many organic amendments to help your vegetable garden out—for free!

Other readily available organic items you can use to supplement your garden include:

Leaves – I hate seeing homes that have nice landscaped property and I see them putting their fallen leaves out at the curb. Use them! Shred them up with a lawn mower and use them as mulch.  Like grass clippings these will slowly decompose over time giving your soil a much needed boost.

Small Branches – Break them up or chip them into small pieces and you’ll have wonderful, slow decomposing mulch for your plants. 

Kitchen Scraps – Save those kitchen scraps for adding to a compost pile. Layers of greens (kitchen scraps, lawn clippings) and browns (leaves, dried up weeds) topped with a layer of soil will make a lovely rich compost in a couple months for your garden. You can even make your own compost tea spray if you want to give some of your plants a foliar boost.

So use what you got. Don’t have any of these things? That’s okay, just look for people who don’t want these resources and use them to your garden’s advantage.