Handy Tips For Learning To Garden Organically

Handy Tips For Learning To Garden Organically

Organic gardening presents special challenges to overcome. If you decide to go the natural route, you may have to know about things like the pH balance of soil and natural bug-fighting concoctions. It might be challenging to grow organic. Be certain you do things the correct way, and get some help from the information offered below. A mixture of aspirin and water can protect your plants from common diseases. Crush and dissolve one and one-half 325mg tablets in two full gallons of plain water. You simply have to spray the solution on your plants to assist them in warding off diseases. Your plants should be sprayed one time each three weeks. Are you a parent? If you are, try planting some strawberries like everbearing strawberries in your garden. Children find it fun to pick strawberries and love to assist with the harvest if they get some yummy treats as they work. After seeds have sprouted, they require less warmth than they did prior to sprouting. Locate your plants further from your heat source as they mature. If you used plastic wrap to insulate your seedlings, you should now remove it. Watch your seeds closely to find the right time to do this. Prepare the ground for a perennial garden quickly and easily. You just need to use your garden spade for slicing underneath the turf, then flip it, and finally spread about three or four inch deep piles of wood chips. Allow for at least 10 days to pass, then plant the perennials that you just purchased. Organize your gardening so that you can work efficiently. Don't waste thirty minutes looking around for a tool. Keep your tools well-maintained and stored away in a designated place. That way you always know where they are and they are ready to use when you need them. You may also wish to invest in a tool belt to keep all of your tools within reach while gardening.

Pine Needles

To avoid tracking the mud and dirt that will get on your gardening shoes, use plastic bags. This allows you to keep going, getting back to your garden quickly. Pine can make for a great type of mulch. Some plants do better in soil with high acidity as they are highly acidic themselves. If that's the case, the easiest thing to do is use pine needles for beds. Covering your plant beds with a layer of pine needles will allow the pine needles to disperse their acidic nutrients into the soil for your plants. Pine can make a great mulch. Certain plants are acidic, and thrive in acidic soil. If this is the case, use pine needles to mulch your beds. Simply add a layer of pine needles a couple of inches deep to the plant beds. The needles will decompose over time and provide the soil with acidity. Add used coffee grounds to your garden soil. Coffee grounds will add nitrogen to your soil which will make them helpful for some of your plants. Coffee grounds as a source of nitrogen for plants are usually limited to acid-loving plants because coffee is acidic. A strong nitrogen source in your garden area is a wonderful way to have healthy and strong plants. Coffee grounds work great mixed in with your soil. They contain nitrogenous nutrients which are essential to plant growth. It is best for your plants to use coffee grounds that are part of a blend of ingredients in the compost or soil you are using for your plants, rather than directly adding coffee grounds to your garden plants. Tend your organic garden on a regular schedule. Even doing just a few small things each day can keep chores from piling up and eventually becoming unmanageable. This will save you a lot of time in the long run. For example, snatch out a weed or two whenever you pass by the garden, such as when you take your dog out for a potty break. An old laundry basket works great for gathering produce from your garden. Laundry baskets which have holes in them act as giant strainers for your home grown produce. Rinse your crops while in the laundry basket to strain the excess water.

Laundry Basket

Within your composting heap, ensure that there is an equal split of dried and green plant materials. Your green material can be made up of produce waste, used floral arrangements, lawn cuttings, leaves, and other yard waste. Dried plant material consists of sawdust, shredded paper, cardboard, straw, and cut-up and dried wood material. Avoid using ashes, charcoal, diseased plants and meat-eating animal manure. When the time has come to gather up the produce, you need to use an old laundry basket. An old laundry basket makes an excellent strainer for cleaning your produce. If you hose off your produce in the laundry basket, the water will leave the basket through the holes in the sides. Want to get rid of weeds naturally? Layer sheets of newspaper on the surface of areas where you are trying to control weeds. Weeds can't grow without sunlight. When you put newspaper on top of weeds they will suffocate because they are not getting enough light. As an added benefit, the newspapers will decompose over time, becoming organic compost. It can look more attractive by adding a mulch layer. If slugs are a problem in your garden, use a beer trap to kill them naturally. Take a glass jar and bury it so that the soil is even with its mouth. Next, add beer to the jar until it's about nearly full, with somewhere around an inch of space remaining. Beer attracts slugs and then they'll get stuck in the jar. It is a great idea to help your garden by ruffling seedlings, either with cardboard or with your own hands, a couple of times each day. This probably sounds like an odd recommendation, but research has shown that this technique encourages more plant growth, than no petting at all. Try using untreated stone, brick, or wood to create a raised bed. Make sure the wood you use is untreated and rot resistant. Cypress, locust and cedar are all very good choices. Treated wood has chemicals that can be harmful to a vegetable garden. If you already have treated lumber in use, line it with some plastic and replace the soil near it. You can get rid of slugs with a simple beer trap. Use a glass jar buried in the soil so the rim of the jar is at ground level. Pour beer into the container to within an inch of the jar lip. The slugs will be attracted to the beer, and will then become trapped within the jar. If you wish to honestly proclaim your produce to be truly organic, you need to secure organic garden certification. This should improve sales and attract customers who are environmentally conscious. A certification will easily communicate to them that they are getting the best products possible. Try using untreated stone, brick, or wood to create a raised bed. Be sure that any wood you use isn't chemically treated, and will be able to resist rot naturally. The most popular options for this type of project are cypress, locust and cedar woods. Do not use treated wood in your vegetable garden. If you have placed treated wood in your garden, line it with a coat of plastic. Gardening, especially organic gardening, helps you feel more "at one" with the earth. This kind of gardening keeps you more involved in planting, cultivating and harvesting, giving you a clearer picture of the entire life cycle of each plant. To be able to say you have legitimate organic and credible crops, you will need to be certified as having an organic garden. That way, you will realize greater sales volume and demonstrate the value of your produce to potential and returning customers. Rotate your garden annually. If you keep planting the same thing in a particular area every year, it can cause a buildup of disease in the soil. Those things can wait silently in the soil and attack plants the next year. If you change things up on a regular basis by varying your planting locations, you take advantage of a natural methodology to avoid fungus and disease problems. Organic gardening can be more difficult than gardening with chemicals, but the end result makes it worth it. While chemical pesticides and fertilizers may claim to do great things for your garden, organic methods will give you the best crops possible.

Entire Harvest

Organic foods don't contain any chemical pesticides. While this is great for your loved ones' health, still check for pests and bugs. Plant twice- three weeks after planting tomatoes in the organic garden, plant more seeds. This helps the entire harvest from being ready at the same time. This will also prevent the entire harvest from spoiling if there are any problems. When checking out tomatoes to buy, do a bit of poking in the soil. Tomato seedlings with green starts and poor root systems are something to watch out for. Look carefully at these before purchasing them for your garden. If starts don't have a good root system, they'll remain attached to the seedlings for a long time. The seedlings won't be able to thrive until the starts have been removed. Mulch your garden rather heavily. Remember, the mulch will compact and break down over time. Doing this will nourish the soil in your garden and improve its ability to retain moisture. It will also prevent weeds from growing, which will make your garden look neater and more attractive. When you start planting your organic tomatoes, stagger your planting time by planting two groups of plants, three weeks apart. Doing this will keep your whole harvest from popping up at the same time. Additionally, if one crop is damaged in some way, you will still have more to look forward to. You need to make a bed that is efficient for your plants. To start this, slice underneath your turf with a spade. Then turn it over and put wood chips on this area. Three to four inches should be enough. After a few weeks, you can cut in it and plant. There are all sorts of plants that you can plant in your garden. Acid-loving plants really love mulch. These kinds of plants need to be mulched with thick layers of pine needles during fall each year. When the pine needles are decomposing, they release natural acid onto the ground beneath them. If you are going to plant a shrub or a tree in your garden, dig an ugly hole for it to go in. If you create holes that have "glazed" sides created by shovels, it's possible that one of those holes will restrict any root from getting into the soil nearby. With healthy soil, plants remain healthier, therefore can withstand more disease and even damage caused by insects. Even though insects will be present, you will be able to avoid the damage they cause. 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. Weeds are irritating no matter what type of garden you have. This organic weed killer will not harm the environment or your family.