Organic gardening is the alternative to using toxic products such as fertilizers or pesticides on the food you are going to eat and the environment you live in. Also, organic gardening is quite cheap on the whole. This article provides several useful tips that will help you improve your organic horticulture techniques.
Prior to planting anything in your garden, check your soil. A soil analysis is inexpensive and can be used to figure out which nutrients should be added to provide a healthy garden environment. It is worth having this information so that crops do not get ruined. Most Cooperative Extension offices provide this service.
Take the time to remove weeds. Weeds steal nutrients from plants, robbing a garden of its potential harvest. White vinegar can be used as a natural herbicide. It can kill weeds. Use a spray bottle full of white vinegar and you won’t have to use your hands.
If beautiful flowers throughout the warmer months are important to you, make sure you put bulbs into the ground. Bulbs are hardy, easy to grow into flowers, and will blossom for several years. Find out which flowers will bloom when and then plant a variety, so that you can have fresh blooms all the way through the spring and summer!
Fertilize your garden. Choose commercial compost instead of homegrown manure to keep toxins out of your plants. Of all the fertilizing options available, it doesn’t really matter which one you choose as long as you use something.
Know the perfect time to harvest the vegetables in your garden. Every type of vegetable has a different moment of ripeness. Harvesting zucchini is best done when they are small and baby peas should be harvested when they are young. Contrarily, tomatoes should be left on the vine until maximum ripeness has occurred. So, it is good to learn about the best time to harvest your vegetables.
When you water your garden, do it with care. To save time, use a soaker type hose so each plant doesn’t need individual watering from the nozzle of a hose or a little watering can. To avoid damaging delicate plants, you should water them with low pressure. Allow the soaker to stay on for a few hours, so your plants can receive water while you tend to other tasks.
Vegetables are softest during the warmest hours of each day, so picking them then, no matter how gently, runs the risk of damage. Use garden shears to remove your vegetables from the vine to avoid damaging the plant.
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. This is the optimum temperature to ensure strong growth. If your home isn’t that warm during in winter, try a heat lamp to use on your organic plants instead.
Plastic bags can be kept on hand and reused to slip over your dirty gardening shoes. You’ll be able to keep your momentum going without needing to take off your shoes, and stay on track with your gardening project.
Believe it or not, pine makes great mulch. Some plants need acidic soil to grow properly, because of their own acid content. 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. Lay a few inches of needles over the beds to allow them to decompose and add some acid to your soil.
Be sure your new compost pile contains roughly the same proportion of dried and green plants. Green plant material comprises leaves, weeds, spent flowers, grass clippings, and fruit and vegetable waste. The leaves you rake in the fall, straw, sawdust and the like are dry material. You should not use things like meat scraps, charcoal, blighted plants or the manure of meat-eating animals in your compost.
You can kill weeds naturally. Layer sheets of newspaper on the surface of areas where you are trying to control weeds. It is a fact that weeds cannot thrive without light from the sun. If the weeds have already sprouted, you can place the newspapers over them and they will die due to lack of sunlight. The paper will break down quickly and cleanly, adding to your compost. You can then add a mulch layer right on top so that it looks more attractive.
When maintaining your organic garden, try lightly petting your seedlings — either with the palm of your hand or something like a sheet of cardboard — once or twice each day. However odd this may sound, research shows that this touching encourages seedlings to grow better than they would without touching.
Treated Wood
Use untreated wood, stone, or brick to build a raised bed. If you choose to use wood to construct your bed, choose a species that is naturally resistant to rot and avoid treated wood entirely. Some good choices you might consider are locust, cedar, and cypress. Never use compost from treated woods in a veggie garden; the chemicals can contaminate your food. If you have placed treated wood in your garden, line it with a coat of plastic.
Applying the knowledge you learned here to your garden will help ensure you have a thriving, toxin-free garden of your very own. You should notice more wildlife present in your garden if you use natural methods.