Tag Archives: organic garden

Need Help With Organic Gardening? Try These Ideas

If you’re planning on eating healthier and saving a lot of money on groceries, growing an organic garden will accomplish that and much more. It can be a little daunting, however. From the type of mulch to use to the right equipment, there are many questions you need answered. There are numerous seed choices as well. With the following steps, you can make sure that you get exactly what you need for your organic garden to grow properly.

If you’re growing plants indoors, keep your thermostat around 65 or 75 degrees daily. Warm temperatures encourage plant growth. If you think it would not be comfortable to keep your residence that warm in the winter, consider purchasing a heat lamp to use on the plants.

Water containing some aspirin helps your plants fight illness. One and a half aspirin, dissolved in two gallons of water, can be a great addition to your plants. All you need to do is spray the plants with the solution in order to battle common ailments. Your plants should be sprayed one time each three weeks.

Spacing is essential when planting an organic garden. As plants grow and spread out, you will not always know how much space will be required. Your plants will need the space not only because of their physical size, but also because the space will provide air circulation for the garden. If you put enough thought into your garden, you will enjoy more impressive results.

Include both green and dry plant refuse in your compost. “Green” material refers to things like wilted flowers, weeds, leaves from your yard, and grass clippings. Sawdust, straw, cardboard, paper and wood pulp are all examples of dried plant material. Your compost pile should never contain meat, ashes or charcoal.

For in-home organic gardeners, you are looking for an ideal temperature of around 60-75 degrees for your plants. The plants need this temperature in order to effectively grow. If you wish to keep your house cooler than that, you may want to use a heat lamp just for the plants.

Do you prefer to eliminate weeds without the use of harmful chemicals? You should layer some newspaper to get weeds under control. Without exposure to the sun, weeds cannot thrive. The layers of newspaper will kill the weeds because they no longer receive any sunlight. Newsprint also breaks down well, incorporating itself into the compost. In order to improve its attractiveness, add one mulch layer.

One odd but apparently useful tip for growing organic plants, is to lightly brush your plants with your fingers or a piece of cardboard 1-2 times a day. However odd this may sound, research shows that this touching encourages seedlings to grow better than they would without touching.

Use approximately two or three inches of natural, organic material as some mulch in every single flower bed. A thick layer of mulch will prevent weeds, reduce watering needs and fertilize your garden. Also, the flower beds will look beautifully maintained at all times.

If you wish to honestly proclaim your produce to be truly organic, you need to secure organic garden certification. This will improve your sales and show your faithful customers that they are getting the best possible food that is grown.

While gardening organically requires more work than gardening with the help of chemicals, the rewards are worth it. Even though the claims of the chemicals may be astounding, the organic way is always going to provide the best reward to you and whoever is eating your crops.

Work properly in your garden. Do not waste your time looking for tools. Set up the tools you will need for your day prior to hitting the garden, then put them away neatly at the end of your gardening session. A good way to keep your tools at hand is to buy a tool belt or utility pants with many large pockets.

Be aware of the location you are in, and the seasonal and climate changes that occur. Make sure that you adjust your watering cycles to match these changes. The amount of water you use each time should be dependent on the water quality, the soil type and what time of day you are doing it. For instance, in warm and balmy locations, it is important not to water leaves, as doing so tends to foster fungus growth. Instead, water the root system well.

If you over-water your plants, they can’t get all the nutrients they need from the dirt. Before heading out to water your plants, check the weather to see if rain is included in the immediate forecast. When showers are on the way, you can save yourself the chore of watering.

It never hurts to keep a few bags around the house to protect your floors from dirty gardening shoes. This way, you can maintain your momentum and head right back to your garden so that you can finish what you were doing.

You may want to grow garlic organically. Plant individual cloves of garlic in the early spring or fall in moist, well-drained soil. Place them about one or two inches deep into the soil pointed upwards and four inches apart. You can cut the shoots of green garlic as they are growing and use them as an alternative to scallions and chives. The bulbs are ready to harvest when the tops start to turn brown. Leave the bulbs out to dry and exposed to the sun for a few days so that the skin hardens a bit. Store them in a cool place, tied in bunches or loose.

Organic Garden

Believe it or not, pine makes great mulch. Some plants are highly acidic, and like soil that is acidic too. 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. 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.

The more you read, the more you understand how great growing an organic garden can be and how important adding what you grow in your garden to your dietary habits can be. Use this advice to begin the process of growing the best organic garden.

Put Your Green Thumb To Work With These Organic Gardening Tips

You are ready to grow a healthy organic garden. Now’s the time! To follow is plenty of useful advice to get your organic garden underway.

Plant ever-bearing strawberries for your children in the organic garden. Your children will enjoy being able to pick strawberries and will be ready to help you if they can get something sweet to eat.

Strawberries are a great plant to grow in any organic garden, especially if you happen to have kids or any strawberry lover in your home. Children love to snap up these sweet juicy fruits for themselves and will be much more willing to eat other foods you’ve planted as well.

If you are growing plants inside of your home, you need to keep the thermostat set to 65 to 75 degrees during the day. Indoor plants grow best at these warm temperatures. If you don’t want you house to be really warm during the cold season, you could use a heat lamp on organic plants instead.

After seeds have sprouted, they require less warmth than they did prior to sprouting. As your plants grow, move them away from the source of heat. Make sure you remember to remove any plastic films that were on the plant containers to repel humidity and warmth. Keep a close watch on your seeds to know when to do this.

You can help to prevent your plants from developing diseases with aspirin water. One and one half aspirin crushed and added to a two gallon container of water will be a great help for your plants. All you need to do is spray the plants with the solution in order to battle common ailments. Try spraying your plants with this around every three weeks.

Green Plant

Keep your compost pile balanced with a combination of dried and green plant mulch. Green plant material can include items such as leftover produce waste, grass clippings and leaves. Dried material includes straw, shredded paper, and cardboard. Materials to avoid during composting include diseased plants, meat, ashes and charcoal.

One way to help your organic garden thrive is to leave an undeveloped area that is conducive to the wildlife around your area. The kind of birds and insects needed for pollination will be naturally present on your property and help with your organic garden.

Do you want to kill weeds without using commercial chemicals? A good thick layer of newspaper can be laid down to control weeds. Weeds require sunlight for growing. By placing newspaper over them, they will not get light and suffocate. Newspapers break down over time, and they make a great addition to compost. If you want it to look better, just add a layer or two of much over top of the newspapers.

When you plant the seeds in containers, be sure the planting’s depth is three times bigger than the seed. You should know that certain seeds need not be covered, because they need the sunlight. Petunia and ageratum seeds need direct sunlight, for example. Always be sure to check online or with the company you’re purchasing the seeds from as to their sunlight needs.

Keep the temperature in your home between 65 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit, if you are keeping or growing any kind of plant in your house. They need this type of warm temperature in order to grow. You can also buy a heat lamp to maintain ideal conditions for your inside plants during the winter.

If slugs are disrupting the balance of your garden, you can diminish their population by using a beer trap. Bury a glass jar in your garden so that its open mouth is level with the top of the soil. Pour enough beer into the jar to fill it below an inch from the top. Slugs will be attracted by the beer and fall into the jar.

Vegetable Garden

After sprouting occurs, you will not need to keep seeds as warm. Remove plants from the heated environment once they begin growing. You can now take off any protective coverings on your plants that were there to shield them from the elements. To know when it is time for this, keep a careful eye on your seeds.

Use untreated wood, stone, or brick to build a raised bed. Choose wood that is naturally resistant to rot and is untreated. Some good choices include locust, cypress, and cedar. It is particular important that you don’t use treated wood for vegetable beds, as the chemicals and toxins on the wood could leach into the soil and be absorbed by food plants. In the event your vegetable garden already has treated wood as part of its enclosure, consider replacing it, or painting it, or wrapping the treated wood in some protective covering. Keep in mind that if any of the untreated wood is below the ground, you should dig it up to make sure that you completely protect your vegetable garden from the chemicals in the treated wood.

Now you know a bit more about what you are doing in starting an organic garden. Even if you are a experienced organic gardener, you still should have learned something new from this article. These tips should have helped you get started growing a lovely organic garden.

Coat your flower beds with a few inches of an organic mulch. This is a good way to keep weed growth at bay and add nutrients that you need in your garden. A layer of mulch also creates a more attractive appearance.