Switch To Organic Gardening With The Help Of These Essential Tips!

Switch To Organic Gardening With The Help Of These Essential Tips!

Gardening is a complex process. Once you have decided to garden organically, you need to learn about your soil's pH balance, as well as things like natural pesticides. Organic gardening can be quite challenging for anyone with limited experience. Follow the tips in the article below, and you will be a pro in no time. Include your kids in growing an organic garden. A garden can teach your children about the joy of rewarding work and nutrition while bonding. After your seeds have sprouted, heat lamps are not needed. After growth begins, you can remove plants from any excessive heat sources. This also includes removing any plastic that you had covering the plant or container. You need to read the seeds to know the best time to do this. Try using aspirin water for fighting plant diseases. An aspirin and a half, combined with a couple of gallons of water, will do amazing things for your plants. All you have to do is spray the plants with this solution and you should see good results. Use this method every three weeks. Coat your flower beds with a few inches of an organic mulch. A thick layer of mulch will prevent weeds, reduce watering needs and fertilize your garden. Mulch also completes your garden, giving it a finished appearance. The ideal temperature to set your thermostat for indoor plants is between 65-75 degrees Fahrenheit during the daylight hours. Plants need to be in an environment that is neither too warm nor too cool for them to grow. If you do not want to keep your home that warm during the winter months, you can get a heat lamp for the organic plants instead. When working in the garden, try to work as efficiently as possible. Wasting time finding tools is inefficient gardening. In addition to keeping your gardening tools in one location, you should also clean your tools after each use. Even something like a carpenter's tool belt or some cargo jeans work well to keep tools organized. Having a garden of perennials can be an easy and quick process. Turn over the soil in your garden so it will be soft and easy to plant before spreading wood chips around your garden. Allow for at least 10 days to pass, then plant the perennials that you just purchased. Keep plastic bags handy to cover your muddy gardening shoes. This way, you can get in and out quickly, and get back to work in the garden. Spend your time working efficiently in your organic garden. By having your tools in one location, you will not spend hours looking for them. Prepare them all ahead of time and have them handy before you need to garden, and then put them back in their place when done. You can keep your garden tools in a tool belt, or in your pockets. Another good idea is to keep them all in a bucket that you carry around with you.

Pine Needles

Mix used coffee grounds into your soil. Coffee grounds are filled with nitrogen, that is a nutrient required by plants. Plants need nitrogen in order to thrive, so give it a natural source with coffee grounds, then watch everything come to life much more quickly. Believe it or not, pine makes great mulch. Acidic soil is a favorite of garden plants that are high in acidity. There is no better, or easier, way to make your acid-loving plants happy then to use pine needles you already have on your beds. If you spread a few inches of pine needles around your garden beds, when they break down, the acid they contain will leach into the soil. In your compost, use green and dried plants in equal parts. Green plant material includes grass clippings, spent flowers, vegetable and fruit waste, weeds and leaves. Dried plant materials are things like shredded newspaper, cardboard, sawdust, straw, and any cut up wood materials. Avoid using animal manure, charcoal or diseased plants in your compost. Use a laundry basket to help you collect produce from your garden. This type of basket can double as a large colander for the fruits and vegetables you pick. Doing this allows you to both rinse and drain your fresh produce. A useful technique for organic gardening, is to gently disturb your seedlings by using your fingers or a piece of cardboard one or two times daily. While it seems a little odd, it has been reported that this can encourage plant growth. One unusual tip in organic gardening, is to "pet" your seedlings often. Use your hands or a piece of cardboard and lightly ruffle the seedling about one or two times a day. This will make your plants grow faster and they will get bigger than they would have without this practice. Mulch your garden to keep the soil nourished. The right amount of mulch in a garden also works to protect the soil underneath. On hot, dry days, mulch keeps the dirt underneath cool and moist. This protects and nourishes plant roots. By reducing the evaporation rate of your soil, you will not need to water as often. This is also a good way to control the weeds.

Treated Wood

Over-watering your plants is not healthy because too much water may inhibit the roots from getting nutrients out of the soil. Always be sure to check the weather and keep a tight watering schedule. It's important that your plants do not take on too much water. Make your decision about watering dependent on the weather. Build raised beds with untreated stone, brick or wood. Any wood you use needs to be untreated and resistant to rot. Cypress, locust and cedar are all very good choices. In order to avoid toxic substances from getting into the ground and perhaps into your vegetables, avoid using treated wood to enclose or demarcate different sections of your vegetable garden. If you have placed treated wood in your garden, line it with a coat of plastic. Grow garlic. Wait until early spring or the fall to plant cloves in a moist soil. Plant them two inches into the soil with the ends up, and leave four inches between each clove. Green garlic shoots, which can be cut while growing, can substitute nicely for scallions or chives. The bulbs are ripe for harvesting when the tops area turns brown. You should dry them outside in a sunny spot for a couple of days to harden the skin. Store the cloves in a cool area. They can be tied or left loose. Organic gardening may sometimes require more effort than resorting to chemicals, but the payoff in the end is well worth the work. Chemicals are extremely efficient, but the organic method is the best way to get healthy produce. When setting up an organic garden, plant tomatoes three weeks apart. This way, all of the tomatoes will not be ready to harvest at once. Additionally, if one crop is damaged in some way, you will still have more to look forward to. Now, you shouldn't get your hopes up and believe that a few tips are going to turn you into an instant professional gardener. However, these tips are a great starting point if you do plan to grow organically. As you implement these tips and hone your skills, you'll be a professional green-thumb-holder in no time. Be cautious of what you are using on your garden. There are many organic fertilizers and pesticides available which are much better options than chemicals. One way to naturally feed your plants is through the use of compost. One good thing about using an organic method is that the use of inorganic fertilizers contain lots of chemicals that can build up and end up in the drinking water.