Tips And Techniques For A Great Organic Garden

Tips And Techniques For A Great Organic Garden

Organic gardening can really be an intelligent move for having a healthier diet. Consider your garden an investment of your time and hard work. This can leave you wondering where to start when it comes to organic gardening. Easily and quickly prepare your ground for a garden of perennials. Simple slice into the soil with a spade, flip the turf, and mulch the area with 3 to 4 inches of wood chips. Give the area a couple of weeks, then dig into it and plant your new perennials. If you have an organic garden and children, plant some everbearing strawberries for them. Strawberries are a favorite of children due to their sweetness. And since they're so easy and fun to pick, it's also a healthy, productive, safe activity that children can assist adults with. Have your gardening tools near you to minimize the time spent searching for them. Wear pants with multiple pockets or use a toolbox or large bucket. You will be much more productive if you can quickly get to your spade, pruning shears, trowel and watering can. A mixture of aspirin and water can help your ailing plants. Dissolve 1 aspirin per gallon of water for a plant disease fighting solution. Spray the plants with the aspirin water to assist plants in battling disease. Your plants should be sprayed one time each three weeks. After your seeds begin to sprout, it is not as important to keep them warm. Take your plants out of the heat once they start to grow. It is wise to take plastic covers off of the containers in order to eliminate humidity and excess heat. Watch your seeds closely to find the right time to do this. To keep your houseplants happy during the day, your thermostat should be set anywhere between 65 and 75 degrees. In order to encourage proper growth, they will need that warmth. Another option is the use heat lamps that will protect your organic plants. Pine can make a great mulch. Some plants do better in soil with high acidity as they are highly acidic themselves. For such plants, pine needles function both as a handy mulch and as a soil amendment to lower the pH. Spread the needles over the beds in a layer that is approximately 2-inches deep. Over time, the needles will begin to decay, supplying the soil with acid as they do. Having a garden of perennials can be an easy and quick process. With a garden spade, slice under the dirt then flip it over. Next, spread out wood chips several inches deep. Let the area have about two weeks, then dig it and plan the new perennials. Coffee grounds can benefit many types of soil. Coffee grounds are full of nitrogenous nutrients that growing plants need. Plants need an adequate nitrogen source in order to thrive. Adding coffee grounds, chemical fertilizer, or diluted urea to your soil increases the soil's nitrogen content and will help to make your plants grow faster, taller and healthier.

Laundry Basket

Use an old laundry basket to collect your produce. This will be like a strainer for all your produce. When you put your produce in a basket, you can then rinse it off and let it strain any excess water through the laundry basket holes. Use an old laundry basket to gather your vegetables and fruits. The basket will make a great strainer when you wash your vegetables. When you put your produce in a basket, you can then rinse it off and let it strain any excess water through the laundry basket holes. For container planting, be sure to plant your seeds at a depth around three times the radius of the seed. There are exceptions, however. Some types of seeds require more direct sunlight than others, and as such they should not be fully covered. Some typical examples are petunias and ageratum. The directions for how to handle the seeds will usually be found on the seed's package. You can also find this information online. Consider solving your weed problem without the use of toxic chemicals. Use a lot of layers of newspaper in order to achieve weed control. Weeds require sunlight to grow. When you put newspaper over them, they suffocate from lack of sunlight. As an added benefit, the newspapers will decompose over time, becoming organic compost. Put mulch over top to increase the attractiveness of the pile. When maintaining your organic garden, try lightly petting your seedlings -- either with the palm of your hand or something like a sheet of cardboard -- once or twice each day. It sounds weird, but research has shown that handling the seedling like this often will make them grow bigger than seedlings that are ignored. If slugs are an issue in your garden, a beer trap can make them go away. Take a glass jar and bury it in your garden so that the top of it is level with the soil. Fill the jar with beer within one inch of the top. The beer attracts these slugs, but traps them in the jar. Use untreated wood, stone, or brick to build a raised bed. If you are to use wood, you should make sure that the wood is not treated and is also naturally rot resistant. The most popular options for this type of project are cypress, locust and cedar woods. Don't use treated wood in a garden for vegetables because the chemicals contained in them can leak into the ground. If you have built a bed with treated lumber already, use a barrier such as plastic to line the bed.

Treated Wood

To be able to say you have legitimate organic and credible crops, you will need to be certified as having an organic garden. This should boost your sales while proving to your customers that they are getting healthy products. Create raised beds with stone, brick or untreated wood. If you choose to use wood to construct your bed, choose a species that is naturally resistant to rot and avoid treated wood entirely. Cypress, locust and cedar usually work best. Avoid using treated wood in an organic vegetable garden. The chemicals in the wood can leak into the soil, and eventually into the plants. If you have to use treated wood, you should line it with a bit of plastic to create a barrier. The lack of pesticides in organic gardens is a major benefit. Of course, organic produce is much healthier, but you should still thoroughly rinse it before consumption. Soil health can be improved by adding mulch. A layer of mulch can protect the soil beneath. Mulch will ensure your soil is kept cool on hot days and protect your roots. It helps the soil retain moisture longer by reducing the evaporation rate. This can also help control any weeds. Feeling in harmony with the earth is a benefit of gardening as a hobby, and this holds especially true when it comes to organic gardening. Organic gardening techniques allow you to be involved in the entire planting and growing process, while using only the safest and most sustainable resources. Too much water may hurt plants since extra water can keep roots from getting the nutrients they need from the soil. Before watering your organic garden, check weather forecasts to determine if it is likely to rain later that day. When showers are on the way, you can save yourself the chore of watering. Try cultivating organic gardening. Plant single garlic cloves during the spring or fall seasons in soil that is moist and well-drained. 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. You know your bulbs are ready when they turn brown on their tops. Harden the skin by setting the bulb in the sun, it usually takes several days. Store the garlic in an area that's cool, either tied up in bunches or loose. If you want your starts to thrive, take the time to look underneath the ground. If you're buying some tomato seedlings to use in your garden, keep a look out for starts that are lush and green, but have poor root systems. The reason that these starts will still look green with bad roots is because the seedlings will not grow until the starts are gone. Take a look below the surface to get a start. For example, tomato seedlings can develop bad root systems that will result in failed plants. These green starts will prohibit the plants from growing. The first start remains attached to the developing seedlings for many weeks. Until these sneaky starts fall away, the plant will not grow. You can make organic gardening much easier. Make use of flowers, native grasses, and bushes in your landscaping. You can reduce the use of pesticides and fertilizers by selecting plants that correspond to the soil you have and to the climate. Native plants and natural fertilizer work well together. Since the compost is made from native ingredients, plants react strongly to it. You can find a lot of information on how to keep any unwanted pests away by researching local botanical insecticides. These are frequently more effective than their chemically engineered counterparts. Keep in mind, however, that these insecticides have very short half lives. Since they are made out of all natural ingredients, they may decay and disappear soon after you use them. Try planting your organic garden in the shade. These types of gardens are incredibly low maintenance, which many people will be relieved to hear. They don't require much watering, which saves both work and time. This will also lead to slower growth, but at least there will be fewer weeds to eradicate. When setting up an organic garden, plant tomatoes three weeks apart. This allows your harvest to grow in stages. Also, if something goes wrong during one harvest, all your tomatoes won't be ruined. When planting trees and shrubs, dig irregular holes with rough sides. If, after digging a hole, you notice the sides look "glazed" from the action of the shovel, this could restrict plant roots from growing through to the surrounding soil. You can create a garden for perennials easily. Use a spade to slice beneath the turf and flip it. Next, the area should be buried in a three- to four-inch layer of wood chips. Wait a few weeks before planting perennials in the new bed. When deciding which plants you want to focus your organic gardening efforts on, you should be as specific as possible. Even within the family of a specific flower or vegetable, the different varieties available have differing environmental requirements. For instance, a number of kinds of roses are available, but some will grow and bloom in your garden whereas others won't. So you want to make sure you find ones that are suited for your organic environment. This is organic gardening made easier! Plan your landscaping with primarily native grasses, flowers, and bushes! Native plants will thrive in your soil type and climate, without the need for inorganic fertilizers or pesticides. By planting native plants that are used to growing in your location, you will see that they can gain their nutrients from the compost that is made from the surrounding plants and native ingredients. A healthy soil means healthy plants that can resist diseases and pests. When the insects are present, you're not having to deal with their damage, so you're all happy. You can plant your organic garden in a shady area. This kind of garden requires surprisingly little maintenance, which is a relief for those without much time to devote to gardening. The excess shade translates to less need for regular watering, saving you time and money. While the plants in shade gardens grow slower, so do the weeds. If you've spent even a little time gardening, you're probably well aware of how beneficial compost can be, but how much do you know about what it contains? 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. You want to use this type of fertilizer as opposed to one that is commercial. Be specific about what you would like to grow in your organic garden. You will need to cultivate specific environments for various vegetables and plants. An example would be seen in the many different varieties of roses, as some will grow well in your garden, where other varieties may not. You must make sure that any plants you purchase will thrive in the environment in which they are planted.

Organic Garden

You should use 3" or more of organic materials as mulch for your trees and flowers. This is a technique that provides benefits to the land itself, but that also minimizes water usage, allowing you to save money and the environment simultaneously. You'll discover it could also look really good. As you have read, a lot of hard work and homework go into producing a plentiful organic garden. For the best possible results, one must be willing to put forth a lot of energy into their gardening. By using the above tips, you will have a marvelous organic garden in no time. Weeds are irritating no matter what type of garden you have. This will help kill off weeds without harming you or the environment.