Tag: Animal Manures

Fundamental Organic Gardening Tips

And the race is on. On the right corner is an anything and everything goes garden which uses the best chemical fertilizers and pesticides the market today has to offer. While on the left corner is an organic garden that uses only the cycles of nature to cultivate the soil and grow the plants. If youre on the left corners side what will you do? Like a boxers second you should have a set of instructions for your fighter, but in this case a set of organic gardening tips will definitely come in handy.

Organic gardening involves growing healthy plants and having high quality produce without the use of chemicals whatsoever. There are a number of ways or techniques that you could use when going organic. The following are some general tips or guidelines that would help you begin and maintain an organic garden. Remember that you dont need a big area of land to go organic.

The first tip for you is to develop a great organic soil. And the first way to do that is to give your soil some compost material. Compost one of the major components of an organic soil. Without it, your soil will not contain enough minerals for your plants to grow healthy.

Aside from composts, you can add other organic materials into the soil to make it more suitable for your plants. If composts are not readily available, organic growers usually add different kinds of animal manures into the soil. This will act as your organic fertilizers to add to the useful soil nutrients that your plants will need.

The second tip would be to plant the right kinds of plants for the right kinds of soil. Also, take into consideration how much sunshine your garden receives and even the temperature in your area when choosing the plants you will have in your organic garden. It would be to your advantage to choose well-adapted plants in your organic garden.

Also, by choosing your plants wisely you would be able to plan how big, the layout, and the number the different kinds of plants you will have in your garden. We know for a fact that each vegetable, for example, requires different growing space than others.

Another useful tip would be positioning your garden so that it will fall under a shade. Or you can create a makeshift canopy to shade your garden. Shaded gardens are low maintenance, thats the main advantage. Under the shade, your garden will grow fewer weeds and definitely will not require more water than when it is constantly under the sun. Were not saying that a good garden is only a shaded one. Were merely citing the advantages and the benefits of growing your organic garden under shades.

For pest control, the best tip we could give you is to go down and get dirty. The organic way of pest management involves identifying which ones are pests and picking them off by hand. Yes, you read it right. You need to find the insects and pick them off your plants. However, if you dont feel like it, you can apply a number of organic solutions that you can easily make from common household ingredients. You can also introduce their natural predators to your garden to help maintain the pests into a minimum.

The key for both pest management and weed control is to act quickly. Once you have noticed that there are weeds growing or your plants are being damaged by insects, you should start pulling off the weeds or picking off the insects.

There you go. A few general organic gardening tips to get you started. With the right attitude, the right approach, and armed with the right techniques, you will be able to grow a healthy organic garden and you will be able to harvest all its benefits in the end.

Elements of Organic Gardening

Organic gardening in the truest sense means gardening without the use of any chemical substances, may they be in the form of fertilizers, pesticides, growth enhancers, etc. Some people think that if they use only small amounts of chemical fertilizers they still are producing organic. But they are wrong. Lets tackle some of the misconceptions and issues that surround organic gardens.

Dont get us wrong, organic gardens dont mean just leaving them to nature. It does need fertilization and pest management as well. However, you will use materials, techniques or approaches that are truly organic.

When it comes to fertilizers, for example, organic gardens obviously need fertilizers that are either plant or animal in origin and not petroleum or chemical based as most synthetic fertilizers are made of. So this means, organic gardens will have to rely on composts, animal manures, etc to provide added nutrients to the soil that the plants needs for growth. Its a good thing really, natural based fertilizers is less damaging to the soil in the long run that synthetic ones.

One of the many tips an expert organic grower will give you is that importance of maintaining a healthy soil. Some studies have found out that soils that are not treated with any chemical or synthetic fertilizers or herbicides grow plants that attract less pests. There are several ways to protect your soil. Covering it with vegetation or mulch will protect the soil surface from unnecessary damage from excess sun exposure and erosion from winds and rains. Remember that the top layers of the soil contain the living organisms that plants needs.

At times, organic gardens are also beleaguered by pests and you need to provide some sort of support or else your plants can easily be destroyed by aphids, worms, etc. There a number of effective alternatives for commercial chemical fertilizers. Some are readily available in your own kitchen which makes them really convenient.

Garlic and peppers for instance can be utilized as a spray against common pests. Extracts from the neem tree is also a great weapon against leaf eating, stem boring, or flower devouring pests. Also, you should note that spiders, ladybugs, and lacewings are three of the many insects that are on your side. These insets are natural predators of aphids, worms, larvae, and other pests so treat them nicely.

Another way to manage the pests in your garden is by thinking ahead. When you planted your plants, you could also place along side them plants that are natural repellants of insects such as marigolds which are very effective against nematodes.

Everything about an organic garden should revolve around nature.

Sometimes, it is nice to view organic way of gardening as a means where we can contribute to the protection of nature by helping minimize the use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers that are harmful to the environment. May it be a flower garden, your lawn and shrubs, a vegetable patch, or even a fruit and herbs garden, as long as you incorporate organic techniques you are helping build a better future for the next generation.

These are only a few elements that you will have to internalize when start your own organic garden. Just remember that organic gardening is a technique where emphasis is on the interaction of living organisms.

Organic Gardening is Perfect for Mother Nature

Organic Gardening is perfect for you and perfect for the environment. With the world’s problem now with global warming, one must wonder and suggest ways of helping find answers to such. Big or small, everybody can have their share in the solution.

Organic farming may be one because it is like recycling what is already available in the environment to be able to produce the greens. The gardener is helping the environment by growing plants and more so, by helping in diminishing waste in a natural way.

Synthetic is Out
With organic gardening, one must rely only on his/her ability and on whatever nature has for them to be able to come up with the crops. This requires more work, patience and long hours and trial and error procedures on the part of the farmers but once they see the results, they won’t feel bad at all.

With organic farming, the gardeners depend on the environment to supplement their crops. For example, composting fallen leaves, clipped grass, animal manures and other resources would create fertilizers. In making compost, one may opt to do it by oneself, periodically checking on the compost to see if it needs more water to it, or more materials should be added on it. Or they may just pile up what others may consider as trash and let nature, the microorganisms, earthworms and the soil itself do the composting naturally.

The latter is easier to do but takes longer period of time and the result will not be as good as the compost done the way that was first discussed. A good compost will serve as the plant’s fertilizer and likewise a pesticide. If you opt to do the latter, make sure to use only the decomposed materials from the pile so as to come up with better use of such with your crops.

Choose Your Plants
In organic gardening, it is best to know first the condition of the environment that you are in. Study the soil and weather before choosing the right produce fit for your site. This way, it will not be as hard maintaining the crops.

Gardening Systems
There are certain terms in organic gardening that has evolved through time because this is being done since the early years.

Rudolf Steiner quoted Biodynamic farming. While a no-till approach for small time production of grains was invented by Masanobu Fukuoka, a Japanese writer and at the same time, a farmer. This he also called the Natural Farming. Other gardening techniques for small scale production are the French Intensive, Biointensive and Small Plot Intensive kinds of farming.

The abovementioned are formal organic farming systems that have specific requirements and techniques.

Gardening Tools
To complete your gardening set-up, you would have to have tools. Now don’t be swept by the oh-so-many fancy gardening tools that are available in the market. Some are just to fancy as to having a real use with what you really need to do.

But to start with your organic experience, you might want to try having some or all of the following. A folding saw with a rubber handle is recommended as long as its blade is replaceable. A Moth-Blocker will be most beneficial, on the other hand, for crops like that cauliflower and broccoli because this will hinder the moths from laying its eggs on the produce. A Row Cover or Shade Fabric can be bought or can be done at home if you know how to do such. This will provide the needed shade for your plants. Of course, you have to invest on a good digging tool because you will need this a lot, just like a hat, which you should also have to protect yourself from the sun’s rays.

With everything ready and with the proper information that you are now equipped with, organic gardening is perfect so you may want to start with it as soon as possible. Mother Nature will surely thank you for doing so.