By Judi Gerber
 
Those of us who support local and sustainably grown food were invigorated to learn that not only are the Obamas planting an edible garden at the White House, but so is the First Lady of California planting one in Sacramento. This has brought an increased focus to gardens and urban farms, and as the crops at both capitals are harvested, this will only continue. 
 
This also encourages more people to take an interest in growing their own food and for many, like the Obamas, this will be their first attempt at growing edibles. So, they, like you, might be wondering where to start. To help, here’s a brief overview of organic gardening basics. There are some basic principles that will increase your chances of becoming a successful gardener with a bountiful crop of fresh fruits and veggies.
 
The first of these is soil amendment. As most gardeners can attest, the most important thing you need for a healthy crop is nutrient-rich soil. Soil is the be-all and end-all of your garden; if you don’t do anything to it it’s just dirt, not soil. You want to get nutrition into and out of your soil by feeding it, or as it’s known in garden speak, amending your soil. And, the best way to do this is by composting.
 
Standard Composting 
 
Compost is made up of organic material that, when combined, creates humus—a dark brown/black, stable material that has an earthy, soil-like smell—which most gardeners consider garden gold. You create compost by combining one-half organic wastes (greens) such as yard trimmings, and food wastes in proper ratios into piles or compost bins, and adding one-half bulking agents (browns) like branches or dead leaves to speed up the breakdown of these materials. This, along with the right amount of water, warmth, air circulation and using some soil as a compost starter creates a curing process that makes the finished product.
 
While the organic materials you use are entirely up to you, to avoid insects or other pests, there are some things that you should never put in your compost pile. Do not include meat or fish bone scraps, no pet waste, yard waste with chemical pesticides, diseased plants or plants with insects, no fat, grease or oil and no dairy products.
 
One of the greatest things about compost is that it is a natural, slow-release fertilizer. When you add it to your soil its micronutrients are slowly released so that your plants can use them as they grow. This means that even as your plants mature, your compost will be feeding them. And, you can add it to your soil any time, not just when planting, because it’s not just a soil amendment but also a fertilizer.
 
Aside from compost, there are a wide variety of organic fertilizers that add necessary plant nutrients. These  include blood meal or fishmeal as nitrogen sources, bone meal for phosphorous and kelp for potassium. Many gardeners also add coffee grounds to their garden as a great nitrogen source. The best way to do this is to mix the coffee grounds in your compost as a green material. One caution with using coffee grounds: They have a lot of acidity in them, so you need to add some kind of limestone supplement to counteract this. 
 
If you are still undecided whether it’s worth it to compost, consider this: Composting is one of the most environmentally friendly ways to amend your soil, representing recycling at its highest level. You are literally taking your kitchen scraps and green garden materials, reusing them by putting them back into your soil. Composting also helps to protect plants from some diseases, reducing the need for chemicals and pesticides. 
 
How To Make Worm Compost
 
You may also think that you don’t have space to compost, but you can make standard compost in a space or box as small as 3 feet square and 1 foot wide or you can make compost indoors using earthworms. Worm composting, known as vermicomposting, is another great way to add nutrients to your soil. It’s similar to standard composting but also uses organic matter from worm castings (worm poop) along with microbes and bacteria.
 
The two most common types of worms used are Red Wigglers and Red Earthworms, and you can raise them indoors in a modified garbage can or buy a bin to make a worm composter. You simply add vegetable scraps along with moistened shredded paper or cardboard that acts as “bedding.” As in standard composting, you can add most food scraps as long as they are without meat, bones, fats or oils.
 
The worms eat over half their body weight per day, allowing them to process food quickly. It only takes about four to six months for the worms to convert the bedding and food waste into castings. Standard and worm composting also offer another benefit: Healthy soil means healthy plants and fewer diseases, and fewer diseases mean fewer pests. So, composting helps in the fight against pests.
 
How To Fight Garden Pests 
 
But there are other ways that successful organic gardeners fight pests. One of these is through Integrated Pest Management (IPM). IPM is a whole-system approach that focuses on prevention of pests using a combination of techniques including biological control and cultural adjustments. 
 
Biological control is basically using any living organism, including beneficial insects, to combat pests. This means looking at pests differently and identifying the beneficial insects, or those that help save our plants from harm, versus those that destroy our plants, and balancing them out by reintroducing beneficials to our gardens. Not only does this help our plants, but also they cost less than chemicals, and are safer for both humans and pets. 
 
There are beneficials that feed on weeds, those that feed on insects and mites like aphids, and those that are considered pathogens like nematodes that attack insect pests. Some of the “good” pests you want to invite to your garden include lacewings, parasitic wasps, lady beetles, spiders and predatory mites. One of the best ways to encourage beneficial insects is to put in plants that attract them, including plants rich in pollen and nectar such as cosmos, dill, lavender, marigold, sunflower, nasturtiums, spearmint and California natives or wildflowers. 
 
You can also use cultural controls or change the garden environment to make the habitat less inviting to pests. This starts with good, basic gardening principles like making sure to use healthy plants that are less susceptible to disease, amending your soil and always removing and throwing out garden waste, making sure all weeds are pulled and removing disease-spotted leaves. 
 
Judi Gerber is a garden and agriculture writer, a horticultural therapy consultant and a certified Master Gardener with the UC Cooperative Extension Los Angeles, Common Ground Garden Program.
 
Resources 
 
Living in the Los Angeles area, we are lucky to have some great resources for learning how to compost, to buy compost bins and other materials and to get information on IPM and beneficial insects. 
 
UC Cooperative Extension Master Gardener Common Ground Garden Program provides a free gardening help line by phone or email, and gardening information and articles including garden tips for Los Angeles County, a Compost Trouble Shooting Guide and IPM Guides and information from the University of California IPM Program. http://celosangeles.ucdavis.edu/Common_Ground_Garden_Program/
 
Los Angeles County Smart Gardening  offers backyard and worm composting workshops and sells compost and worm compost bins at subsidized prices during most workshops, which are offered all over Los Angeles County. smartgardening.com; 888-CLEAN-LA
 
Don’t want to make your own worm compost? You can buy worm castings at most nurseries or from a vendor like Cheryl Newlander-Hubbard aka “Your Worm Lady” who sells at local farmers’ markets. 951-672-0603
 
You can buy your own beneficial ladybugs at most local nurseries, or from a vendor like Tom Peltier of Ladybugs Forever, at local farmers’ markets.
 
Groundwork offers free coffee grounds.