Many people, while favorably considering the practice, never actually commit themselves to organic gardening. Some people think horticulture is just too complicated and are intimidated by the many details. You can prevent that from holding you back, and find renewed passion for your gardening activities, by reading the easy tricks and simple tips in the article below.
Stay Outside
The quick and drastic change in the weather conditions can shock your plants and cause them to die. It’s important that you gradually change temperate conditions over time, so that your plants can adjust. Try to place them in the new area for a couple of hours at a time the first day. Over a period of several days, slowly increase the time they are allowed to stay outside. After a few more days, your plants will be more resistant and ready to stay outside all the time.
Clay soil can be a real pain to work with as it often sticks to the end of the shovel. To make digging clay soil easier, try applying a light coating of wax, either car wax or floor wax, and then buff off and commence digging. This will make your task easier because the clay won’t stick to the shovel. It will also keep your garden tool from rusting.
Choose perennials that won’t be taken out by slugs. Snails and slugs can do irreparable damage to your garden in a single night. These garden vermin prefer plants with tender, herbaceous stems and leaves, particularly seedlings and young plants. Slugs and snails will leave some perennials alone, particularly those with a bad taste or tough, hairy leaves. Wonderful varieties of such perennials include euphorbia, campanula, helleborus, achillea, and heuchera.
For the right results, get the right type of soil. Dependent on the type of plants you are choosing for the garden, the soil may not be right for them. You can also create an artificial area with only one kind of soil.
Tempt your cat away from the plants he has been bothering by planting catnip or wheat grass near them. You could also repel your pet by planting rosemary or placing citrus fruit peels around your garden.
Vegetable plants should be planted where they can benefit from a minimum of six hours of sunlight every day. Almost all vegetables need this much sunlight, so that they can grow correctly and in a shorter amount of time. Some flowers also require direct sunlight for a portion of each day.
Come up with a horticulture plan before planting anything. This will help you to remember where you planted the different plants when sprouts begin to shoot up from the ground. With a plan, you will also be less likely to lose track of small groups or individual plants within a large and ambitious garden.
Apply organic mulch generously around your vegetable plants. The mulch will help keep the soil moist for longer periods of time. This is also efficient in preventing weeds from growing. That helps you save a great deal of effort and time in weed eradication.
Be aware of the optimum time frame for harvesting vegetables. Each type of produce has unique time frames for harvesting at the peak of flavor. Veggies such as zucchini or baby peas, for instance, taste their best if they get picked young. Tomatoes, however, are best picked from the vine later when they are very ripe. So, find out the best time to harvest your vegetables.
Make sure you consider adequate spacing when planting your garden, so that each plant is given room enough to grow and flourish. It is easy to underestimate the amount of space that the plants will take up once they start to grow. Plants need room for physical growth and for the air to circulate within the soil. Plan your garden accordingly, and make sure the right distance is between the seeds.
You need to avoid chores in your organic garden stacking up. You may not have a lot of time to exclusively devote to your gardening hobby, but you can make the most of the time you do have. Even if you’re just taking the dog for a walk, bend down and pick a few weeds.
Laundry Basket
Old laundry baskets are handy tools at harvest time. The laundry basket can be used as a colander for your produce. Rinse the product off whilst it’s in the basket so that any extra water can strain through the laundry basket’s holes.
In your compost, use green and dried plants in equal parts. Green plant material consists of spent flowers, veggie and fruit waste, leaves, weeds, and grass clippings. Dried material includes straw, shredded paper, and cardboard. Charcoal, meat, ashes or other diseased plants should not be included in a compost pile.
Use a beer trap to get rid of unwanted pests, like slugs. Take a glass jar and bury it so that the soil is even with its mouth. Pour beer into the container to within an inch of the jar lip. Beer is especially attractive to slugs; they will lured to it and trapped.
While organic horticulture costs more and requires more effort, the produce that will come out of your garden will be healthier for you. Chemical giants claim miracles, but those miracle crops come at a price to whoever eats the produce.
The information you’ve been given in this article should have done a great deal to ease any apprehension that you have about starting your own organic garden. Follow the tips you have studied here, and your yard will soon be yielding a terrific amount of delicious wholesome food for your kitchen.