Tag: Weeds

Some Organic Gardening Advice

Most people who cultivate their own gardens miss the fact that the whole gardening activity is actually a good opportunity for strengthening family bonds. Organic gardening should be a family activity enjoyed from the parents to the youngest sibling. Therefore, our first organic gardening advice for gardeners is to engage the whole family to make the experience more meaningful and worthwhile.

For gardening, it has been popular lately for growers to go organic especially with regards to growing vegetables. People are looking for a healthy lifestyle and eating vegetables free from toxins of chemical fertilizers and insecticides are becoming more and more the ideal.

If youre just starting out, or if its your first time planting a garden and you encounter problems like weeds and pests, you might have this inclination to go to the store and get yourself a can of chemical herbicide and pesticide. Dont succumb to this internal need to spray to kill. Most of the time, you garden dont even need such strong chemicals in the first place. All they need is some assistance from you and they will grow fine. For simple weeds, you just need to pull them out by hand especially when they are still just sprouting out of the soil. By removing them while they are young, your plants can grow stronger and in time will be strong enough that weeds or no weeds, it doesnt matter.

The same goes with pests. When you see some bugs in your garden, some damage on the leaves, or a few flying beetles here and there, dont be alarmed and drop that can of pesticide spray. Remember that by using pesticides to your gardens, youre killing not only the pests but the beneficial insects as well.

Beneficial insects? There are insects that feed on fellow insects or other animals whose diet consists of insects. If you allow the beneficial insects to enter your garden or allow friendly animals in, the percentage of damage from other insects will be at a minimum. Also, you wont have to deal with insects growing immune to chemical pesticides.

If things, however, still do not improve and your garden plants are receiving more and more damage from pests, what you can do is to apply environment friendly concoctions that you know off to effectively drive the insects away from your priced plants. A diluted mix of water and soap has proved to be quite ingenious way of getting rid of those pesky pests.

What you can do is mix a tablespoon of liquid dish soap into a half gallon of water and spray the solution to your garden. Bear in mind that this is not a very powerful one unlike most pesticides. You will have to spray the garden a couple of times to make this homemade solution to work.

Another useful piece of advice: as much as possible, get your seeds from organic workers. This will ensure that your seeds will grow into free from disease making a better chance to provide a good harvest.

Also, another good organic gardening advice is to plant your garden directly to the ground. Although creating a garden from containers is highly possible and can really be successful, you will eventually need to take care of your plants more often when they are placed in garden containers. Your plants will eventually outgrow its containers and will require more time to maintain and care for.

Organic Gardening Containers

Organic gardening isnt just for people who have backyards. This is because you can also do it when you live either in an apartment or a condo with the help of organic gardening containers.

Organic gardening containers have advantages despite their limitations. They may serve as dcor when this is placed in the balcony or patio, it can easily be brought indoors during the winter and you will not encounter that many problems normally found in the garden like weeds, insects or soil borne diseases.

When you decide to buy organic gardening containers, you should also use premium potting mix instead of soil since it is much lighter and provides excellent draining for whatever you are growing. Chances are you will also be using nutrients so make sure you follow the directions since too much organic fertilizer will burn the roots.

Organic gardening container plants require more water than those you plant. This should be given in small amounts half an hour after initial watering so you avoid drowning your crops. It is best to hang them instead of putting them on the ground and if there are no holes, go ahead and make a few. Since it gets pretty hot during the summer, you can add mulch which really helps prevent it from drying out.

What plants or herbs work well with organic gardening containers? Some examples of these are capsicum, carrots, bush beans, eggplant, lettuce, onions, peas, radishes, spinach and tomatoes. Strawberries will also grow well here so if you want to know more ask someone at the local gardening shop or do your own research online.

Plants inside organic gardening containers need sunlight. Ideally, this should be about six hours everyday preferably in the morning rather than the later afternoon. If the area where you plan to put them is quite windy, it is best to group these together with the tallest along the walls to give cover for the others.

What is the ideal organic gardening container? Fortunately, it can be made of clay, plastic or wood. The important thing is that it can drain the water because your plants will die if it is unable to. Since they come in different sizes, you have to know the right one to get from the store.

Your basis should be the average root depth as well as the diameter of the plant. If your plant has 6 inch deep roots and grows about 10 inches wide, the ideal organic gardening container should be 8 inches deep and 10 to 12 inches wide. There must always be a small room for allowance because it is possible that whatever you are growing will grow to be bigger than you anticipated so better to be safe than sorry.

Should there bugs like hookworms around your plant, bring them to the sink and wash the leaves. If there are slugs, sprinkle diatomaceous earth on the soil so you can get rid of them.

If there aphids on your plant, get some other insects to kill them by buying a pack of ladybugs so they will eat it without causing any collateral damage to your produce.

You could say that organic garden containers are an innovation to gardening. This is because you can do it almost anywhere like in a condo or an apartment so that you no longer have to buy organic fruits or vegetables from store when you can just get it from the balcony or the window.

Organic Gardening At Home

Organic gardening at home is not that different from what they do in the farm. This is because the same techniques are used to make your choice of plants and vegetables grow even if you have a smaller area to work with.

The first thing you have to do is choose the location. It is important that it gets at least 6 hours of sunlight everyday and it has access to water. You should also check if the spot has good drainage otherwise you will have to build a raised bed garden instead.

When the location has been found, it is time to prepare the land. This is the time you bring out your gardening tools and gloves so can get rid of weeds that are present. All debris must also be removed so do this for a few days to make sure the area is secure.

The moment of truth will come when you test the soil. For that, you will need some compost from the store and then mix it with the soil. If it is able to integrate and stabilize itself, then you can begin planting your crops in the next 2 to 4 weeks. During such time, you can already add fertilizers into the soil to make sure that the nutrients hold.

The fun part is when you put in the seeds. Dont forget to start your own compost pile at the same time by using coffee grounds, dead leaves, grass clippings, manure and vegetable or food waste that become organic fertilizer for your crops. By doing so, you will no longer need to buy these from the gardening store.

If you dont already know, not all fruits or vegetables planted in one area are the same for another. This is because some may not survive due to the conditions of the region such as the weather, pests and other plant borne diseases. You can check at the store, do some research or get advice from fellow organic gardeners.

It will also be a good idea to plant a variety of fruits and vegetables. Some protect the rest from pests while others can only be grown during a certain season. In short, you get to practice crop rotation so you do not use up all the nutrients in the soil. Aside from plants, the use of birds, insects and toads can also help protect your garden.

Although you already removed the weeds before you planted, you still have to check for them again because they do some back. You will have to inspect the area and then pull them out which is one of the responsibilities of owning a garden.

Since larger animals not only insects could do damage to your organic garden, you should also protect it by putting up some fences. Some gardeners have also used animal hair, baby powder and deodorant soaps that act as deterrents.

Surely, you have noticed that organic vegetables being sold at the grocery are quite expensive. They cost a few dollars more than the regular kind so instead of putting this on your list, why not cross it out and simply get this from your backyard.

With some practice, you will realize that organic gardening at home can be challenging and at the same time fun. It is your way of going green and being environment friendly.

Planting Vegetable Gardens For Beginners

Planting vegetable gardens can be a very rewarding endeavor, not to mention that its good for your body because of all the exercise you will get, and the vegetables that youll get to eat. These days, its really ideal if you can plant your own vegetables to make sure that theyre pesticide free, but a lot of people feel intimidated by the idea of planting vegetable gardens especially in a city.

Vegetable gardens are typically easier to maintain than flower gardens because vegetables are more resilient, especially in different types of weathers. Flowers are typically more delicate to changes in the weather, and dont adapt as easily. Planting vegetable gardens usually demand a lot of space, although some vegetables can also survive in plant boxes. It really depends on what kind of vegetables you will plant, and what you expect out of your vegetable garden.

Planting Styles The more traditional way of planting vegetables is laying them out in straight, organized lines. Some people prefer to plant alternating rows of different types of vegetables so that when one type of vegetable is about to be harvested, the rows in between them have vegetables that are not yet in season. The soil structure quickly becomes ruined because gardeners have to walk between rows, though.

A popular way of planting vegetable these days is planting them in beds rather than the traditional rows. The beds have to be small enough in size so that you can reach into it and pull out the weeds that will grow among your plants. Beds can also be raised a bit higher off the ground so that the heat will be kept inside longer during cold weather. It also makes for a good drainage system around the beds.

Another planting style that is popular is potager which combines vegetables with flowers and herbs and are planted in a way that is aesthetically pleasing.

For people who have constrained living spaces (especially those who live in the city), vegetables and herbs can grow in smaller plant boxes and containers. Vegetables will need a lot of sunlight and open spaces. If you want to reap a lot of vegetables, you should invest in bigger real estate.

Preparing the soil A very important aspect of planting vegetable gardens is preparing the soil. It doesnt matter whether you plan to raise vegetables in a small plot of land or in a plant box. Soil preparation is an essential step. Soil can be categorized as sandy or clay-like, with silt being a fine mixture of both sand and clay. Clay particles in sand help retain water longer as well as make the soil absorb water faster. Sandy particles in soil makes the water flow through it easily and lets the air in so that the roots can breathe.

The best way to go when preparing the soil for your vegetable garden it to make try and make the soil be a good balance of clay, silt, and sand. Ideally, it should be 40% silt, 40% sand, and 20% clay. To test it, you can scoop up soil and form it into a ball using your hand. It should not be too hard as to not crumble when you poke at it, but it should also be sticky enough that it retains its shape even if you dont press it too hard with your hands.

Planting vegetable gardens require a lot of patience. You have to find what works for you, and experiment on getting the right type of soil for the right type of vegetables. All the hard work will be worth it, though, once you experience eating something that grew from a garden that you planted yourself.

Planning Before Planting Vegetable Gardens

In periods of financial difficulty, planting vegetable gardens becomes a viable option that achieves two things: it helps the family reduce expenses related to buying food, and it offers the opportunity to sell excess yield to friends and neighbours. Starting a vegetable garden is not particularly difficult, for so long as you put enough thought, time, and effort.

The first decision you have to make is the location of the vegetable garden. You must place this vegetable garden in an area where it is exposed to at least 6 hours of sunlight. The location must also be near where you will source the water you will use to water the plants. It must be near enough for you to make a short trip if you are carrying a pail of water, or it must be near enough to be easily accessible to the hose you will connect to a faucet inside your home. Also, check if the area has soil conducive for growing plants. It must have good drainage, and must be free of silt, stones, and other hard objects. Lastly, the location of your vegetable garden must be somewhere accessible, so that you can frequently check for pests and weeds when you walk by.

Included in your plans should be the sort of plants that you intend to plant, and how many of them you intend to grow. This will help determine the size of the plot you will need. Afterwards, make a list of all the plants you want to grow in your garden. This decision cannot be completely random, especially because the yield of the garden will be what you will consume as a family. Make sure to plant vegetables that your family would love to eat, or vegetables that you often use for cooking. This way, you are ensured of a direct benefit from growing your own vegetable garden.

Make a plan for the arrangement of the vegetable plants in the garden as well. The first consideration is the frequency of yield. Perennial plants, or those who yield vegetables for constantly throughout the year must be placed at the back of the garden, where it will be undisturbed by whatever gardening activities you may have in the rest of the garden. Put the crops that produce early yield together. These crops include radishes, spinach, carrots, beets, and the like. Make some space for replanting successively. Once these crops have seen their yield, you can plant in their place crops that produce yield later in the season.

The last consideration for arrangement is the reality that there are plants that cannot grow beside other plants. For instance, there are those plants that enhance the growth of another when planted together; there are those that inhibit the other. It is important to take into consideration which crops inhibit the growth of the other. For instance, potatoes are capable of inhibiting the growth of both squash and tomato plants. Broccoli also inhibits tomato growth. Beans, on the other hand, inhibit the growth of onions. Carrots also inhibit the growth of dill plants. This does not stop you from planting all these plants in the garden. This only acts as a reminder of which plants you should separate from the other when planting vegetable gardens.