Guess what? You can grow your own organic vegetables in your own yard, or on your own patio, or even in your own garden – in pots! It’s a lot easier than you might think, too. Go to your local garden store and purchase pots, first. It’s better to buy environmentally friendly pots like clay or wood. It’s important for the pot to have drainage holes in the bottom.

The next thing you need is organic soil. Most garden centers sell packaged organic potting soil. (Unfortunately, most of this organic soil is still being packaged in plastic, but we are working on that problem.) You might also check with your local organic farm. Sometimes organic farms sell organic soil and natural composted fertilizer as well.

Now you need to decide what kinds of vegetables that you will raise. For your early attempts, it is probably better to choose vegetables that don’t need a lot of space to grow, like radishes, lettuce, or carrots. As you get better at organic gardening, you’ll be ready to raise other, more labor-intensive crops.

You need seeds, but you don’t want to buy those little packets of seeds that are sold everywhere. You want to look for seeds or plants that have been organically grown so that you get the full benefit from your crops. The produce will be no better than the seed that it comes from.

One of the greatest benefits, in my opinion, to gardening in pots is that the gardener has so much more control of factors like light and shade. Most vegetables are just as pretty as many “decorative” plants. You can display your organic vegetables just like you would any other potted plant. After you get the hang of growing organic vegetables in pots, you might branch out (pun intended) to growing your own organic herbs, as well.