How Organic Gardening Can Help You Thrive And Survive

How Organic Gardening Can Help You Thrive And Survive

Depending on the effort you put into it, an organic garden can be a great pleasure or a great pain. Here are some suggestions to get you on the right path to successful organic gardening. Your children can help you with your garden. Gardening helps your children learn about biological processes and serves as a social activity that helps the family grow closer while eating healthier. Working in the garden doesn't have to be grueling; learn to work more efficiently. Don't waste time searching for lost tools. Prepare all the tools you need before you go out to work on your garden, and put them away nicely when you are done. If needed, purchase a tool belt or heavy duty pants with plenty of pockets. Pay attention to how much light your indoor plants are getting. If your home does not let in sufficient light, then consider getting plants that thrive in low-light situations. If you do and this does not help, consider investing in some grow-lights. Pine is a wonderful mulch so do not discard the idea. Certain plants are acidic, and thrive in acidic soil. If you are growing these types of plants, simply gather up fallen pine needles for use in your garden. Cover your beds with two inches of needles; acid will be dispersed into the soil as they decompose. As your seeds sprout, they require less warmth than before. Remove plants from the heated environment once they begin growing. If you used plastic wrap to insulate your seedlings, you should now remove it. Monitor the seeds carefully so you know the best time to do it.

Laundry Basket

You need to make sure you are very efficient when working in your organic garden. One of the biggest time wasters is not keeping track of your tools and having to look for them every time you need them. In addition to keeping your gardening tools in one location, you should also clean your tools after each use. Wear pants with several pockets or use a tool belt. Use a laundry basket to help you collect produce from your garden. An old laundry basket makes an excellent strainer for cleaning your produce. Rinse the product off whilst it's in the basket so that any extra water can strain through the laundry basket's holes. One of the most important things to consider when plotting your garden is to make note of your available space. Do not underestimate the space that plants need to develop their root systems. Air circulation and room to grow is important for any plant. Plant the plants appropriately when it comes to spacing the seeds. Your compost pile should contain green plants and dried ones in equal amounts. When you pull weeds from your garden, throw them in the compost. The same goes for vegetable trimmings and grass clippings. These are considered green materials. Paper and straw are dry plant materials. Never use ashes, meat, charcoal, diseased plants or carnivorous animal manure in your compost pile. Use a laundry basket to help you collect produce from your garden. The basket strains the produce as well as stores it while you are going through your garden. You can rinse your produce off while it is in the basket, and the excess water will strain through the holes of your laundry basket. Ruffle the seedlings carefully with a piece of soft cardboard or your hands twice a day. Believe it or not, aerating the soil in this manner can actually make your seedlings grow larger. To get the most from your composting efforts, aim for a 1:1 ratio of dried materials and green plant products. When you pull weeds from your garden, throw them in the compost. The same goes for vegetable trimmings and grass clippings. These are considered green materials. Dried plant material includes straw, sawdust, shredded paper, cardboard, and dried and cut-up woody material. Avoid using animal manure, charcoal or diseased plants in your compost.

Treated Wood

In an organic garden, ruffle any seedlings with a piece of cardboard, or even your hand, a couple times each day. This may sound strange, but research has proven that doing this will help your plants grow bigger than if they were not petted at all. Try to use untreated wood, brick or stone and make a raised bed. Any wood you use needs to be untreated and resistant to rot. Some good woods are locust, cedar and cypress. Don't use treated wood in a garden for vegetables because the chemicals contained in them can leak into the ground. If your existing garden structure contains treated wood, at least take the time to make a plastic lining beneath the soil. If you are building a raised bed utilize stone, brick or wood that is untreated. When selecting wood, make certain you pick untreated products that have a natural resistance to rot. Optimal wood choices that fit these criteria are locust, cypress, and cedar. Never use compost from treated woods in a veggie garden; the chemicals can contaminate your food. Treated wood can be lined with plastic to create a barrier. In order to claim your crops are legitimately organic and be credible, it is important to your customers that you become organic garden certified. This will increase sales and shows your customers they've been buying from the best. It is a good idea to get organic garden certification so as to reaffirm your claims that your products really are organic. This also does several things to boost your business. First, it is likely to increase your sales as it builds trust in more customers. Second, it shows customers who have been loyal that the quality produce you provide is top notch. Though organic farming can present challenges that traditional farming with the use of chemicals does not, harvesting the crops is reward itself for the hard work. Harsh chemicals may be easier to use, but they can affect the nutrition and taste of your vegetables. Annually rotate your garden. Planting your garden in the same area every year will allow fungus to grow there as well. These diseases can build up in the soil, reinfecting your plants the next year. By mixing up your plants and planting them in different areas, you'll be using a natural way to keep away any fungus and other diseases. Change how much you water your plants with the changing of the seasons. You should also adjust your watering habits if the temperature or amount of rainfall changes dramatically. The amount of water you need depends on when you are doing the watering, whether your water is high-quality and the grade of the soil in your garden. For instance, if you live in a warm, humid climate watering the leaves can cause leaf fungus. Instead, focus water on the plant's root system. Stagger you vegetable planting so you will have a new harvest every month or so. This way you will not have to harvest all of your crops at once. This will also prevent you from losing an entire harvest if some type of problem arises that kills off a batch. One of the best parts about using foods that are organic or from organic gardens is that they do not have any type of pesticides used on them. This provides benefits for your family, but you ought to double check for pests. It will only take a few pieces of advice to help create a great perennial garden. Cut under the dirt with a spade and turn it over. Next, cover the area with three to four inches of organic wood chips. Wait a few weeks and then plant your perennials into the brand new bed. While any kind of gardening can make you feel as though you're in tune with nature, organic gardening takes this to the next level. Approaching gardening in this way will enlighten you in the entire process from beginning to end. The mulch in your organic flowerbeds should be made of organic material and be no shallower than three inches. This will retain moisture in the soil as well as provide nourishment. It also inhibits weed growth, resulting in a tidier presentation of your organic garden.

Botanical Insecticides

If you are mulching your plants, you should use a layer of approximately three inches deep. This method will save you money by conserving water and is good for the environment, too. Mulching is not only frugal, it is also quite attractive. Try using botanical insecticides to help rid your garden of pests, without using chemicals. In many cases, organic insecticides work even better than commercial products that are full of chemicals. However, because botanical insecticides are biological, they often decay and disappear quickly. Weeds bother all garden types, regardless of whether they are organic or not. This organic weed killer is safer for the environment and you and your family. You can simply make a newer garden for perennials with a few steps. Simply use a spade to cut under the ground where you want to place your garden, flip it over and cover with wood chips. Wait a few weeks and then plant your perennials into the brand new bed. You are aware of how helpful compost is in growing your organic garden, but do you have any idea what is actually in it? Compost is comprised of a mixture of grass clippings, leaves, wood-chips, straw, twigs and produce scraps that have broken down into a kind of soil. It is recommended that you use this compost in place of commercial fertilizer on your organic garden. Now that you've read this article, you can see that there is much more to do with organic gardening than meets the eye. Getting your organic garden to produce rich results requires much effort and patience, but you will find the end results quite worth it. The next time you are working in your garden, use the advice from this article to grow things without the use of harsh chemicals. Know when to buy plants to be added into your organic garden. Keep this in mind when you are purchasing annuals, biennials, and perennials. Purchase plants that have budded, but have not yet fully bloomed. Buying them this way ensures that the root system will grow strong in your organic garden.