Organic gardening has gained popularity from people who no longer wish to consume produce that has been treated with chemicals and pesticides, which can damage the environment and a person’s health. Another benefit of organic gardening is that it is relatively inexpensive. Here are some helpful techniques to help you learn to garden organically.
During winter, you should take your favorite plants inside. You may want to save the most beautiful or expensive ones. Dig around the roots carefully and transfer the plant to a pot.
When you’re out and about in the garden, particularly in the fall, keep an eye out for sink bugs. Stink bugs prefer peppers, beans, tomatoes, and various varieties of fruits. Decrease their presence as much as possible to avoid them wreaking havoc in your garden.
Mix the grounds of coffee in soil that has a lot of alkaline. The coffee grounds are an inexpensive way to give some acid back to the dirt. The greens and vegetables need the proper balance and will grow bigger and stronger with the right mix.
Knee pads are a gardener’s friend when caring for plants low to the ground. Kneeling on the ground as you garden will eventually cause serious discomfort for your knees. Purchase a great pair of knee pads; they will provide a cushion for your knees while making horticulture more comfortable.
Be sure your garden is fertilized. Manure can help grow plants, but to eliminate risk of pathogens, try using a type of commercially composted product. The options for fertilizing are vast and include environmentally sound choices, so no matter which you choose, just be sure to use one.
The flesh of vegetables gets soft in the heat of the day, making them especially vulnerable to inadvertent damage with even the gentlest picking. Twisting off vegetables causes damage to the plant; always snip them at the base of the vine.
Young children will love it if you plant strawberries that bear continually, and organic gardens are the perfect place to do it. Kids really enjoy plucking snacks directly from the ground, and may have greater enthusiasm for the work if they see the results of their labor right away.
A good tip to help your plants stay healthy and fight diseases is to use 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. You can easily spray the plans with this concoction to help them fight of disease. Use this method to spray your plants every three weeks.
When growing plants inside of the house, you should ensure the thermostat is set at around 65-75 degrees in the daytime. The plants need this temperature in order to effectively grow. You can also buy a heat lamp to maintain ideal conditions for your inside plants during the winter.
Pine Needles
Pine makes a much better mulch than you might think. Many types of plants thrive in soil that has high acid levels. If your garden contains plants like this, there are few things simpler than spreading some pine needles across your beds. Sprinkle the pine needles over your beds. As the needles decompose, they add to the acid level in the soil.
Improve the value of your home. When you landscape, you can get one of the highest returns. Some plants can even raise your home value about 20%. The plants you buy should be able to withstand normal regional weather conditions.
Apply equal portions of dried plant material and green into your compost pile. Green plant mulches include everything from fresh grass clippings, to unwanted vegetables, to recently pulled weeds. Dried plant material consists of sawdust, shredded paper, cardboard, straw, and cut-up and dried wood material. Avoid meat, ashes, charcoal, plants with diseases and manure from carnivores.
A beer trap can help to eradicate slugs. Start by burying a wide-mouth jar in the soil, ensuring that the rim of the jar is just at the soil’s surface. Keep the jar filled with beer, up to about an inch from the top. Slugs are attracted by the beer and won’t be able to exit the jar once they enter.
Mulch is necessary for a healthy soil. The soil will be efficiently protected. It protects roots because it helps the soil stay cooler when it’s hot outside. Mulch slows down evaporation, thus helps your soil retain its moisture. This also helps control the weeds.
Watering Plants
Over-watering plants is counterproductive, as too much water reduces plants’ ability to absorb nutrients from the surrounding soil. Before watering plants outdoors, check with some weather stations to find out if it will rain anytime during the day. You may want to skip the watering during a day that will receive significant rainfall.
Make sure you actually take a look under the surface of the dirt at the roots of your plants before you transplant anything into your garden. When you are buying seedlings for tomatoes, look at the roots as well as the green parts. Lush green starts will remain on the seedlings and keep them from growing properly until they disappear.
A shady area makes a beautiful organic garden. A shade garden does not require a lot of maintenance from you. They also require a lot less watering, which could save you lots of time and work. Although your plants will grow slower because of this, there also won’t be as many weeds to pull.
Putting the advice you just learned to use in your organic garden will help you realize several benefits, including having healthy plants and a reduction in toxins. When you work to keep your garden in tune with nature, you’ll also see more birds and animals stop by for a visit.