If you’re planning an organic garden for spring, I hope you’ve been gathering ideas for non-toxic, healthy landscaping. If not here are a few eco-garden starter ideas.

Make your own non-toxic weed killer: Mix 1 ounce orange oil and 1 teaspoon liquid soap (I’d use natural) with 1 gallon of 10% white vinegar. Put some in a spray bottle and use it to spot spray weeds that pop up. Shake well before use.

Start collecting egg cartons: Use these for seed starting vs. plastic cups. You can also try composting or biodegradable seed starting pots.

Plan for crop rotation: Crop rotation is important for an organic garden. This keeps soil at a fertile level and inhibits disease and insects. So, if you’ve been planting your lettuce and carrots in the same places year after year, this season, sit down with a notepad and sketch out a new planting plan.

Save your coffee grounds: During the planting season you can sprinkle used organic coffee grounds into the soil to both enrich the soil content and keep pests like slugs and snails away. You can use non-organic, but organic is better due to the rich mineral content.

Get a better bag for leaves and debris: Snag some 100% biodegradable cornstarch-based leaf bags to gather the leaves and other debris from your yard then toss it straight into the compost bin.

Need more organic garden ideas?

• Choose the Greenest Plants for Home Landscaping
• Organic Garden Planning – Pick Up Organic Garden Seeds Now
• Tree Planting Where You Live
• Using Environmental Landscaping at Your House

You can plant almost anything when it comes to landscaping – BUT that doesn’t mean you should plant any old thing. Part of using environmental landscaping for your home means focusing on plants that make sense for your location and site. Right now is a great time to consider which plants to choose – before you buy organic seeds or plant starts.

Why bother choosing the correct plants?

• Your landscape and garden environment is more likely to thrive on its own. This cuts down on evasive care and nurturing.
• You’ll reduce fertilizer, water, and pesticide use if you choose plants that naturally thrive in your specific environment.
• Your plants will attract the helpful bugs, birds, and butterflies you want in in your garden and eliminate the pests you don’t want around. Native plants are much better at this task than weird non-site specific plants.

Tips for choosing the right plants:

I suggest starting at your local nursery. The folks at a local site know the area, know the weather, and know the water. A pro can help you find the best native plants and flowers.

Read Heat-Zone Gardening: How to Choose Plants That Thrive in Your Region’s Warmest Weather. This book will help you choose plants that will thrive in your area and is not only handy for warm weather regions but everywhere.

Better Homes & Gardens has an extensive regional gardening section, as does the National Gardening Association, and Gardenplace.com. You can also use basic Plant Hardiness Maps. All of the above resources allow you to make smart plant decisions – i.e find the best plants for your landscaping needs that cause the lowest eco-impact.

Tree Planting Where You Live can help you decide which trees to include in your landscaping plans.

What’s your gardening region? Does your region make it harder to plant what you like?

Organic Seedstarting Mix: 100% Organic Germinating Mix with sphagnum peat and perlite for a fine texture, and the addition of compost, protein meal and trace minerals for healthy growth.

Garden Starter System: Reusable vs. plastic seed starter bins. Other ways to start seeds include recycled egg cartons, yogurt cups (cut a hole in the bottom), or real planters that later will hold flowers.

Sun-Mar Continuous-Use Auto Flow 200 Composter: If you don’t have a composter yet, it’s time to get going with that. You still have time to start recycling your food scraps into healthy soil for the summer gardening season.

Grab a great organic gardening book:

The New Organic Grower: A Master’s Manual of Tools and Techniques for the Home and Market Gardener (A Gardener’s Supply Book) – excellent book packed full of tips.

Burpee : The Complete Vegetable & Herb Gardener : A Guide to Growing Your Garden Organically

The Moosewood Restaurant Kitchen Garden: Creative Gardening For The Adventurous Cook – not the best overall organic gardening book on my shelf, but I love Moosewood, and this book is really pretty, with natural cooking tips included. I love it.

And in case you’re also working with herbs this year; Heirloom Herbs – this is an old book, but if you can find it at the library or a used bookstore, it’s so worth it. There are tons of tips for herb growing, and so many beautiful images you’ll pass out. This is one of the best five herb books in my opinion.

To gather a ton of facts and tips online about organic, healthy, natural gardening, visit The Organic Gardener or Mother’s Earth Garden.

Also read:

• Earthworms for Your Home Organic Garden
• Green Yard Renovations: Choosing the Right Plants

It’s early to consider gardening, I know. However, right now, all the seed shops have great deals, and you can get a jump start by planning and shopping early for a beautiful and hopefully bountiful organic garden later this year.

Why organic seeds are the way to go:

• Obviously, if you want an organic garden, why would you buy conventional seeds?
• Organic seeds are GMO-free (i.e. not genetically modified)
• There are no chemicals added to organic seeds.
• Buying organic seeds from companies or farms supports the organic movement as a whole. If you can purchase seeds locally, even better.
• Many organic seed companies have are introducing organic seeds that have been specifically bred to grow well in organic soil conditions.

Where to find organic seeds:

• Seeds of Change
• High Mowing Organic Seeds
• Park Seed
• Turtle Tree Seed
• Horizon Herbs
• Gardener’s Supply Company

To learn more about organic seeds visit the Organic Seed Alliance. Coming up, some more organic seed starting help.