Having your own urban Eden is not out of reach for those of us in apartments. And you can take it a step further by using sustainable, biodegradable, organic methods - just growing naturally. By using the natural cycle of nature (redundancy? where?) rather than harsh chemical and pesticides, you can produce wonderful plants, herbs and vegetables using methods that don't harm the planet.

Here are some natural gardening solutions that you can use to get started in your green gardening efforts:

While peat is an excellent source of nutrients for growing, its source is our fragile wetlands and removing peat has a dramatic impact on our environment. Using compost made from natural coir (waste husk from a coconut) is an excellent, affordable alternative.

A great replacement for plant fertilizer is to use seaweed granules (also commonly found in many hair products). A natural, organic, slow release multi-purpose fertilizer and soil conditioner, seaweed granules provide the same extra nutrients to plants as other chemical-based fertilizers, but in a much more environmentally-friendly way.

Another great organic fertilizer is produced from the Neem tree. Used in India in dozens of applications (from medicines to dental care to beauty aids to culinary uses) for thousands of years, Neem is also an effective pesticide and plant fertilizer that can add much vibrancy and health to your garden without polluting or contaminating the environment as artificial pesticides can.

Organic gardening is not defined by what you don't do as a gardener. The simple answer is that being a green gardener means you don't use synthetic fertilizers or pesticides on your plants. When you garden organically, you think of your plants as part of a whole system within nature that starts in the soil and includes the water supply, people, wildlife and even insects. An organic gardener strives to work in harmony with natural systems and to minimize and continually replenish any resources the garden consumes.

And while your apartment window box doesn't have the scale or impact of a country garden, you can still follow the principles of organic gardening to help sustain the earth and maintain that small cycle of nature right outside your window.