Organic Gardens
How many of you have organic gardens?
What types of veggies do you raise?
I’m not an organic gardener but I haven’t needed to use pesticides or inorganic fertilizer in years. My strategy is abundance, tolerance and biodiversity. I always plant enough flowers and veggies for a few pests to share and if they chew a few holes in a leaf or two I take comfort knowing I’m just fattening them up for my predatory friendly ones. If however I’m having a really bad day, I might nuke them with every chemical known to man and regret it in the morning. It’s the farmer in me. When planting thousands of acres of mono-culture small grains as I have, it’s how things are done or go broke. I’ll be the first to admit the system is flawed and that subsidies fuel the beast. RScott
Organic Gardens
Organic Gardening Gifts Online
Organic gardening gifts online are plentiful and, with a bit of imagination, can be found in highly unlikely places. You can, of course, give organically grown flowers – a bunch of roses or a wildflower bouquet. You can give an organic live plant, nicely displayed in a natural basket. You might even give a gift of organic tea.
Organic gardening gifts online don’t stop there, though. As the popularity of organic gardening grows, the number of gifts for the gardener also grows.
Organic Gardening Tools
Organic gardening calls for tools that chemical gardening does not. Anyone doing organic gardening will enjoy receiving unique tools. For example:
1. Compost Container: Small-scale organic gardening does not require a large compost pile. A compost container, made from recycled plastic, can recycle kitchen waste into organic compost without a compost pit or pile.
2. Worm Factory: This organic gardening gift is another efficient way to compost. Just put worms, their bedding, and some scraps of food in the worm factory’s bottom bin. Stack other bins on top, with more food scraps in each. As the worms finish their meal on the first floor, they move upward to get more food. Their castings in the bottom tray, an excellent organic fertilizer, can be harvested. A handy spigot on the bottom tray drains off compost tea.
3. Compost Crank: If your gardener does use a compost pile or pit, a compost crank makes a good organic gardening gift. He or she will simply have to crank the corkscrew tip into the pile and pull out to aerate the pile.
Earth-Friendly Organic Gardening Tools
Organic gardening gifts online also include some regular tools that are earth-friendly. Think of mowing the lawn with a push mower to reduce pollution. While pushing, wear lawn aerator shoes to keep the lawn aerated so that nutrition and water get down where the roots can use them. Someone who is “into” organic gardening will also appreciate a tree and shrub root irrigator kit. It saves water while being sure organic fruit trees and shrubs receive deep watering.
Ergonomic Organic Gardening Tools
Organic gardening requires more work than chemical gardening. Ergonomic tools will be appreciated by an organic gardener. Sets of ergonomic tools with a convenient canvas bag can be found at many online gardening supply stores.
We found a unique organic gardening gift online – an ergonomic gardening tool called a detachable ergonomic gardening tool set. One handle can be used with every tool in the set.
A wearable gardening stool lets your organic gardening friend rest feet and back while gardening. Even with hands full, the stool is always available.
Organic Gardening Seeds or Seedlings
Organic gardening gifts online include organic seeds or seedlings, too. A home window garden kit set we saw would be a great gift for an organic gardener. Each set has four window garden cans, with everything you need to grow organic seedlings on a window sill. You add water and sunlight, and transplant the plants when they are big enough.
Any organic seeds or seedlings would be a good organic gardening gift. Herbs are always nice – fragrant and useful.
Organic Gardening Books
A book or two on organic gardening is a good idea, especially for the beginner. Find a beautiful and informative book, and your organic gardener will spend happy hours reading.
Organic Vegetables Mail Order
An ongoing gift of organic vegetables by mail order is also good. Find one of the online organic sites that ship via next day in the U.S.
Just for Love
One organic gardening gift we found online would be fun to give, especially to someone you love. The “Amazing Message Plant” comes in its own planter, ready to grow. The recipient pops the lid, waters the plant, and places it in a sunny location. As it grows, the plant reveals the message “I love you” on its leaves.
Can’t Decide What to Buy
It can be hard to choose just the right organic gardening gift. Everyone has their own likes and dislikes. If you can’t decide what to buy, check online gardening supply retailers for gift certificates. You can often get them in denominations of $25 or $50. Order one or more, and place them in a nice organic gardener’s greeting card.
About the Author
© 2007, Anna Hart. Anna Hart invites you to read more of her articles about organic gardening at
http://www.organicspringtime.com
. Anna is posting new articles regularly on that site, each article dealing with some facet of organic gardening. If you want information on locating
organic vegetables by mail order
, you won’t want to miss Anna’s article on the subject.
what is the best organic solution to kill Japanese beetles in vegetable gardens?
Japanese beetle: Larvae is a grayish-white, 1 inch long, has a dark brown head and has two rows of spines. They lie curled up in the soil and burrow into deep soil to overwinter, pushing upward as the weather warms up in the spring. The adult is 1/2 inch in length, very fine hairs all over the body which is shiny bluish-green. The wing covers are a metallic copper, which shines various colors in the light and the head is bluish-green (they are hard to miss!) One generation every 1-2 years is produced. They eat and fly only during the day. They can cover an area up to 5 miles! The damage is seen as the familiar lacy looking skeletonized leaves on everything they attack. Several years of this destruction can seriously compromise a plants chances for survival.
The adults will eat most anything however their food of choice includes: flowers, fruit trees, roses and raspberries. They skeletonize foliage giving it the characteristic lacy look. The grubs chew on the roots of plants which is often seen in turf area damage. If you encounter a dead area of grass and can lift it right up you will probably find the Japanese beetle grubs to be the culprit.
Predators: Starlings…yes, those pesky starlings love to dine on Japanese beetles! Tachnid flies and tiphia wasps kill them. Native birds and chickens will feed on the larvae. You can help the birds along by turning the soil in autumn to expose the larva.
Repellent plants: Catnip, chives, garlic, tansy and rue.
Resistant plants: Box elder. Common lilac, Firs, Hemlocks, Hollies, Pines, Rhododendrons, Spruces, Scarlet oak, Tulip tree, White ash, White poplar and Yews.
Control Methods:
* Good plants for trap crops include: evening primrose, soybeans, wild grapes, African marigolds, borage and knotweed!
* Make bait traps of water, mashed fruit, sugar and yeast. Place on the perimeter of the garden at least 1 inch off the ground in plastic jugs with an entrance hole cut at the top. Choose sunny spots and strain the bodies out of traps every evening.
* For easier handpicking : In the morning spread out a sheet under infested plants. Shake the plants and the beetles will fall onto the sheet. Dump them into a bucket of soapy water. Dew on their wings in the morning keeps them from flying away. The cooler air also makes them more lethargic.
* Use pheromone traps keeping them at a distance from victim plants so you won’t attract new beetles.
* Use interplantings of four o’clocks (Mirabilis), larkspur, white geraniums, red (and dwarf) buckeyes whose flowers attract and poison the beetles. The leaves of the castor bean plant also poison them. These plants are poisonous to people to so be careful using them around children or pets!
* Milky spore disease known as Bacillus popilliae can be used against the grub stage as a most effective long term control. This is best done on a wide scale treating entire infested areas in neighborhoods or grasslands. Complete control may take a few years. Once it does take effect the control can last up to 15 years!
* Japanese Beetle Trap and Bait
The following bait and trap method is to be used during the height of the Japanese Beetle season.
Ingredients:
1 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
1 mashed banana
1 pkg yeast
Dissolve sugar and yeast in the water. Mix the well maxhed banana into the sugar water. Put all ingredients in a gallon milk jug. Place the jug (with the top off) in an area where Japanese Beetles gather. The fermentation and odor of the bait attracts the beetles which get in but not out.
* Trap crops for the beetles are African marigold, borage, evening primrose (oonthera), four o’clocks, knotweed, soybeans, white roses, white and pastel zinnias, wild grapes and blackberries.
* Nematodes: Another control for the grub stage is to apply beneficial nematodes to the infested area. These are applied at a ratio of 50,000 per square foot of targeted area.
* Botanical Control: Pyrethrin, ryania or rotenone.
* Bug Juice spray: If you can handle it this is supposed to work. Harvest about 1 cup of beetles, put them in an old blender and liquefy them. Thin this with enough water to make it pass through a sprayer. Spray it on any plants they victimize. NOTE: If you make this out of beetles infected with the milky spore disease you will actually infect more grubs with the disease. So…if you can handle it give it a try!
http://www.ghorganics.com/JapaneseBeetle.html
SCOD Organic Gardens: SPRING SOIL TILLING