Many people select organic gardening to avoid using pesticides or commercial fertilizers on their garden for fear of long-term damage to their health and the environment. Also, the majority of organic gardening strategies require very little money. The following tips will help turn you into a successful organic gardener in no time at all.
Trying to shovel through clay soil can be extremely difficult and tiresome. Coat the shovel with floor or car wax, and buff it with a clean rag to make the job a lot easier. This will keep the soil from sticking, and prevent rusting of the tool.
Check your soil before you begin planting your garden. An inexpensive soil report can be used to adjust soil nutrients to optimum levels, which will ensure your garden thrives. There are numerous places to find this service, such as your local Cooperative Extension office. The cost is well worth it to avoid a potentially ruined crop.
When you are tending your garden in the fall, be on the alert for stink bugs. They like beans, peppers, tomatoes and many fruits. Decrease their presence as much as possible to avoid them wreaking havoc in your garden.
It is very important to keep the weeds from taking over in your garden. If you’re not careful, weeds can take over your beautiful garden, ruining it. To help with weed destruction, use white vinegar. It can kill weeds. Load up your spray bottle with some white vinegar, and spray the weeds away instead of breaking your back removing them by hand.
Coffee Grounds
One way to correct your soil’s alkalinity is by amending your soil with used coffee grounds. Coffee grounds contain plenty of acid to get the soil back to a good balance. This can help your veggies and greens look more vibrant and taste better!
Always have a plan for the garden prior to the start of planting it. Use your seed packages to make fun markers that will remind you where each type of plant is growing. You can also avoid losing the smaller plants, or in larger gardens, the small plant groups.
Using natural materials in the garden will keep pests away. Plant marigolds or onions around other vegetables to keep slugs away from them. If you place wood ash around the base portion of a shrub seedling or tree, you will ward off insect pests. You can avoid using pesticides that contain harsh chemicals if you employ these techniques.
If your horticulture plans include pea plantings, try starting them off indoors rather than planting the raw seeds in outdoor beds. Pea seeds tend to germinate much better when planted indoors, before being moved to an outside garden. It will create heartier seedlings, which means they will more easily resist the pests and diseases they will encounter in an outdoor environment. You could transplant the seedlings outdoors once they are able to survive and thrive.
Consider planting evergreens in your garden that produce berries. These help to give your garden nice looking color, even during winter when most vegetation is colorless. Plants which you can purchase that offer color during the winter are the Winterberry, the Common Snowberry, the American Holly, and the American Cranberrybush.
To help them out, try poring leftover water from steamed vegetables on them. It is also possible to utilize coffee ground or tea to make the soil more acidic for gardenias, rhododendrons and other plants that prefer acidic soil. Chamomile tea is a natural way to rid your plants of a persistent fungus.
Utilizing the advice provided in this article in your organic horticulture efforts will produce great results. You will quickly see your garden becoming more productive and healthy, while being free of 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.
Originally posted 2013-07-15 20:41:47.
