Organic Gardening How To
What’s an easy way to start growing my own herbs and veggies?
I am about to move and would like to start organic gardening. Any tips on composting, making beds, watering, planting times and tips? I have a dog too and am not sure how she’ll act. And i’m pretty cheap(read-broke)
I would suggest the first thing you do is read all you can on square foot gardening. You can get the book “The New Square Foot Garden” by Mel Bartholomew at your public library.
Also, look up information on the EarthBox growing system. They are self-watering containers that enable you to grow lots of produce (I’ve seen a picture of a very large tree growing in one) in a confined space. There are also knock-offs that you can build yourself with comparable results.
I would also suggest you read all you can on the internet about composting. The best time to start composting is yesterday ;o). I’ve always bought bags of compost from the store, but there’s a great amount of satisfaction you get from doing it yourself.
I don’t know how much space you’re working with, but if you have a relatively large amount of space, I would suggest you grow your own seedlings. The biggest investment you’d have to make would be buying a florescent light fixture and a rack to put your plants on. You’ll save big bucks over buying a lot of plants from the garden center. You will need to research planting times for your area. The biggest mistake people make (me included) is getting too excited and starting their plants too early.
One last comment. Check out the Gardenweb website. It’s a wonderful community of knowledgeable folks who are glad to answer whatever questions you have.
Good luck.
Organic Gardening How To
Organic gardening – General Notes on Pest Control Approaches in horticulture
Pest Control Approaches
Chemical horticulture fights off invasive pests with specific insecticides. They may be effective and fast-working at the beginning, but their long-term use may result in the raise of the insects resistant to the used insecticide. To kill those, more efforts will be needed, and the use of the different and stronger chemicals may be necessary. Moreover, killing enemies in the garden, any insecticide will inevitably eliminate predator insects (natural control bugs). And their lack will cause multiplying of the harmful pests. Consequently, a gardener will have to search for some other options to defeat the invasive populations.
Organic horticulture, on the other hand, offers pests control through the studying and understanding their life cycles and peculiarities, as well as through the combined use of such methods as:
- plants selection (pests and disease resistant plants are chosen for a garden);
- companion plants growth (planting those crops that fight off pests and insects);
- annual changing of the plants location to disrupt the reproduction cycles of the invasive species;
- the use of row covers during the periods of pests migration;
- employing insects traps to reduce the population of the pests;
- increasing the number of predator insects and beneficial organisms.
In addition, organic gardeners usually allow some pests to live in the garden, carefully controlling their level though.
All of the mentioned methods have also additional benefits in the organic garden, as fertilization, soil protection, pollination, season extension and water conservation, despite of the fact that their influence and results usually take some time to become obvious. To sum it up it is possible to say that biological and organic pest control can be constituents of the integrated pest management (IPM). Nevertheless, the latter can also utilize chemical pesticides to eliminate harmful insects, although these do not belong to the biological or organic means.
Soil
Soil control and management are the important things in gardening. They offer the possibility to keep the garden healthy and strong, which is the key factor in the prevention of diseases and pests invasion onto the plants. One of the ways to success is providing the garden with humus and organic matter.
About the Author
My name is guy. I am the founder and owner of the urbangardenershop.com.au . I fell in love with hydroponics gardening. As time went by I gathered a vast knowledge base and 2 years ago I decided to find a way to make hydroponics gardening a hobby that anyone can peruse. I added a hydroponic gardening information center to our hydroponic supplies site that offers a large range of hydroponics articles. Thank you for your interest and feel free to ask questions on hydroponics gardening in our site
http://www.urbangardenershop.com.au/page/Hydroponicspestcontrol/default.asp
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I have little flies around my indoor organic garden soil that is expensive, in a big pot, how can I kill them?
What if, since I live in Phoenix I could put it outside in the sun lets say when its a 112 degrees outside will that kill them or will they come back when the soil gets wet again when I start to grow indoor veggies.
We forget with the enhancement of technology how to live in a world without it. The same can be said for pest control. We have forgotten that pest control on farms and in home gardens used to be organic. We invented “better” methods for pest control when we began spreading pesticides over our crops. This method of pest control was supposed to save us time, save our crops, and help us produce more food, but as luck would have it this method is dangerous. The pesticides can be toxic to more than just the bugs. It can harm people and the land. It should come as no surprise to most people that organic garden pest control has been around for centuries. In fact the first crops ever placed on a farm had organic pest control.
People from the past taught us what types of bugs were harmful to crops and what types of bugs could eliminate these pests. Today many farms are going back to the organic garden pest control method in order to kill the pests and save the humans and land. We are demanding organic foods not only because they taste better, but also because we don’t have to worry about toxic substances hurting us or our family.
Organic Garden Pest Control – http://www.perennial-gardens.com/flower-articles/organic-garden-pest-control.htm
As part of organic garden pest control, you should take care of the soil in the garden and make sure it stays fertile and healthy throughout the year. You can do this by working on your garden throughout the year by adding compost and rearranging your plants. You should make sure that all the planting is done when conditions are not conducive for the growth of pests. Another useful strategy is to allow the growth of bugs that eat pests in your garden. This is where the use of chemicals can be disadvantageous as the bugs that are useful can also get killed.
More on Organic Pest Control – http://www.perennial-gardens.com/flower-articles/organic-pest-control.htm
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