Are You A Real Organic Gardener?
FREE! Get your Rose Care Basics Mini-Course Today! Limited Time Only, Please.Gardeners can often claim to be organic, but if you actually lokk closely at their gardening habits, you will discover that they still use certain pesticides on their lawn, or eradicate weeds using herbicides.
To claim to be an organic gardener, you ought to be 100% organic in all of your garden habits. You do not resort to useful and inexpensive fungicides to help tidy up unsightly weeds, or kill off irritating pests. The garden should be left alone to evolve along with nature, and control over the growth should be measuredl, and properly planned in advance, so that unwanted plants are kept out. You cannot be partly organic! You can of course be ‘more’ organiic, but don’t boast about it until you avoid pesticides and fungicides altogether!
One good habit to start is to grow your own compost, as this is a great way to be certain of the make-up of the fertiliser you are using. Have one compost set aside for grass cuttings, and the like. Then invest in a wormbinto compost the cooked waste, which produces great nutrition for your plants.
For many years gardeners felt that nature had to be tamed, in order to allow the desired plants to flourish well. There was no such concept as ‘organic gardening’. While some gardeners may well have toiled with nature to develop their gardens, it was not necessarily the norm.
Whether you are limited to organic ‘container’ gardening, or you want to grow your herbs indoors, try to be organic – you will be rewarded with healthy, chemical-free garden produce.
Don’t waste all your money on buying insecticides, buy new plants instead. While I may not be expert in all facets of gardening, I do know what I want, and I do have a good idea of what constitutes building a successful ‘organic’ garden. An organic garden is really a healthy garden, bred and developed in a timely fashion, no unnatural shortcuts allowed!
Colin West is a full-time gardening enthusiast. He has been gardening all of his life, and has recently completed a new ebook on how to Grow Herb Garden At Home – which is available as a download.
Start An Herbal Tea Garden
FREE! Get your Rose Care Basics Mini-Course Today! Limited Time Only, Please.Starting a herb garden is a great hobby and can help save you money on herbs and tea. Get ready to learn about herb gardening.
Herbs can grow either inside of outside your home. It is recommended that beginner herb gardens should begin their gardening experience indoors with just a few select plants.The reasons for this is simple.Outside your plants are subjected to climate conditions such as wind, rain, frost and other conditions that you will be unable to control. When your indoors you don’t have to worry about the weather and you can also control how much sun the herbs get.
Having control over these conditions will make you experience easier and you likely won’t get as frustrated. As you become more comfortable you can try moving your herbs to a deck or porch, and then eventually a garden.In addition you can enjoy fresh herbs year round.
Most new gardeners find that starting from starter plants purchased from a nursery allows them a better chance for success than does growing herbs from seeds.That is because seed germination does not always take place if the seed is too old or simply not a good a seed.
So by starting with a plant that you know is healthy it increase the chances of your seed growing.
Selecting Plants
The best way to choose the plants for your indoor herb garden is to start by making a list of those herbs you would like to grow the most.After you have a list of ten check with your nursery to see which ones are available in starter plants. Next you’ll need to determin how many of the available starter herbs you want to grow.
A good number for the first time gardener is 3 to 5 plants. Fewer plants will help you focus and observer which will improve your gardening skills. A few suggestions for starters are oregano, chives, or mint. You can also ask for recommendations from your nursery.
Use a Book
One of the best things you can do before beginning your first herb garden is to purchase a book or download articles on herb gardening and read as much as you can about this hobby. You can also talk with your nursery and others who have successfully gorwn herbs. The more you know about herb gardening before you start the more confident you will feel in this venture and the more likely you are to enjoy your gardening experience.
Learn how to make your own loose tea with an herbal tea garden.
How Can You Formulate Your Own Natural Fertilizer?
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If you’re looking for free or reasonably priced organic materials to use as natural fertilizer, you need only to look at the things piling up in your own patch (leaves, dung and manure to name a few). All the ingredients for an organic fertilizer scheme are available to you if you look closely. To be specific, check out the fallen foliage, the animal feces and even the seaweed on the beach; all these can be turned into natural fertilizer for the coming of planting season.
All organic ingredients qualify as organic fertilizers. You just need to process these to create a complete fertilizer containing all three of the primary nutrient elements, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. When these organic materials rot, the nutrients become obtainable to plants.
Animal dung is a natural fertilizer, but it has changeable nutrient content. Nutrient concentration changes according to the diet of the animal. Moreover, pasture farmers are advised not to use any type of chemicals that could disturb an animal’s diet to make sure the resulting fertilizer is free from the same chemicals. Think about these carefully if you are thinking of using droppings as fertilizer.
Fresh manure has higher nutrient content than aged or composted dung, but fresh dung has a high salt percentage that could injure crop roots. Composted manure has less nutrients in comparison to the fresh counterpart, but nitrogen content in composted manure can be saved by mixing it with soil.
If you live near the coastline, you might want to try converting seaweeds into organic garden supplements. Take the seaweed that has washed up on the beach and turn it into compost. It might help keep the soil salinity percentage low if you clean the seaweeds thoroughly before application.
Fish emulsion works well on immature crops that need a stable supply of fast acting supplements to develop rapidly. This supplement is made from fish residue, so you can get this directly from fish processing companies.
If you have a lot of fallen leaves on the ground, you can add those to your compost pit for fertilizer production. Let the leaves dry for a day then put a thin layer of these leaves on your compost pile.
Compost enhances soil pH and enhances the over-all nutrient content of your soil. Compost comprises a mixture of nutrients and decomposed plant and animal waste.
You can add wood ash to your compost pile in small amounts. This holistic fertilizer is a great source of potassium.
