Organic Gardening Supplies to Help You Get Started

April 8, 2012 mhmsirag Organic Gardening

Every gardener enjoys puttering around, taking care of beloved plants. Everyone has their own favorite organic gardening supplies, depending on how they prefer to do things. However, there are a few basics that any garden must have. Here are some organic gardening supplies to get you started if you’re just taking up the hobby.

Everyone needs a shovel. It might be the most important of all the organic gardening supplies, but many people forget about it. It allows you to prepare the ground, dig up roots, transplant larger plants, and unearth tubers, such as potatoes, for harvesting. A smaller spade or trowel is also important, since they’ll let you work in a smaller area and be more precise than you could with a shovel.

Spading forks, three pronged hand tools that are commonly seen at garden supply shops, are essential for working in harder soils. They help you open and break up touch clumps of dirt that could stunt young plants. You’ll also need a hoe or two. The traditional flat edged on will help you kill weeds and spread soil. For chopping tough roots or getting into small spaces, try an arrow-head or triangular hoe instead.

Those who are digging their plot by hand will benefit from the help of a mattock, especially if you have rocky or clay-filled soils. A mattock will help you easily break these up and remove roots and stones. Add a prying tool to help you get rocks out of tight spaces without putting strain on your back. To further prevent injuries, transport those rocks with a wheelbarrow. This tool is also useful for lugging compost, bags of dirt, and mulch. Be sure that you get a well balanced, sturdy one.

Protect your hands from dryness, dirt, and blisters using a pair of sturdy cotton gloves. Be sure that you pick gloves that fit your hands well, or they’ll cause as much damage as they prevent. Too tight, and they’ll pinch. Too loose, and they can rub and slide while you’re trying to work.

Be prepared to spend a little extra to get organic gardening supplies that won’t wear out. While that ten dollar shovel might seem like a bargain, chances are that it won’t stand up to much abuse. Be willing to pay enough to quality tools, so that you’ll be able to keep gardening happily for years to come.

Don’t forget that some soils need to be enriched, so compost and manure are important organic gardening supplies, too. Avoid chemical fertilizers in favor of natural options, so you’ll know that your food is being grown in a healthy, sustainable way. Choose supplies to control pests and diseases over conventional types – much of the time they’re cheaper to use. The right supplies mean you’ll have less trouble getting your organic garden started.


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Organic Gardening Principles

April 8, 2012 mhmsirag Organic Gardening

The reasons why you should learn organic gardening principles are many. It might be because you want to start a new garden, but you do not want to damage the environment. Maybe you want to transform your current garden. You may want to serve some delicious, organic fruits and vegetables to friends and family. Whatever your motivation maybe, you should always consider certain things when planning a garden.

Your goal as an organic gardener should be to produce high quality products while using no outside resources. Following organic principles, means you should not use any nutrients, fertilizers, or pesticides. Better yet you should avoid using water tap, instead you should use rain water. You should try using natural materials, it’s a challenge, but it will worth your while.

You should start a compost heap instead of throwing away vegetables and other waste food. This is one of the best way to manufacture your own nutrients for your garden. You will discover that there is not really shortage of materials for you compost heap. When the lawn is mown, all of the grass should be put into the heap. All of your waste food should be added to the pile, and once it is ready you can spread it on your garden and watch the plants grow.

Some people use chickens as part of their organic gardening. The allow the chickens to roam their garden. Chickens are easy to sustain. The will spread there manure in your garden, and you probably will never have to buy them food. The use of maggots is popular. Everything that cannot go into the compost heap such as leaf over meat products and dead animals, could be place in the maggot bin, and in a couple of weeks it will be full of maggots that you can feed your chickens.

With these systems in place, almost none of your leftovers are put to waste. You simply have to start thinking along the lines of saving all of the nutrients you can, and converting them into energy that your garden can use to grow healthy, delicious fruits. It’s a cheaper way to maintain a garden, it’s healthier for the environment, and it creates better, more natural products.

With this system in place, none of your leftover go to waste. You should now be thinking along the lines of saving all the nutrients you can, and converting then into energy for use in your garden, so as to enable you to have a healthy garden. It’s a cheaper way to maintain a garden, and it is healthier for the environment. It also produces a better product which is of course natural.

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How Do I Go About Starting An Organic Garden

April 8, 2012 mhmsirag Organic Gardening

1. Choosing the location.

It is vital that when choosing the location for your organic garden that it is in a place where it gets the sun for at least half of the day, but it also has easy access for watering. Also it is important that you make sure that the ground drains well or you may have to build raised bed gardens instead.

2. Removing the Weeds.

Now you have chosen the location for your organic garden you now need to mow, pull and dig out all the weeds that are there. Then you need to till the land (either by hand using a fork or by using a tiller, but this will depend on how big your garden is going to be). Then you need to remove any further debris by raking the soil over. Now you need to wait a few days and then remove any more weeds that sprout up.

3. Testing the Soil.

Before you begin planting you need to test the soil and then starting building it up using organic matter. You can add compost, bone meal or rock phosphate to the soil. But only add those that are of an organic nature. Also when sowing any plants you should add compost to it about 2 to 4 weeks prior to planting. This gives the compost time to integrate and stabilize itself within the soil.

4. Fertilizers

Now you can start to till and dig in fertilizers and leave it for about a month in order for the nutrients to take a hold.

5. Preparing a Compost Pile

When starting an organic garden it is a good idea to start your compost pile at the same time. You can place in it leaves, grass clippings (so every time you mow the lawn do not forget to add them to the pile), coffee grounds, eggshells and other organic kitchen waste (fruit and vegetable peelings etc). As it slowly breaks down the compost becomes a great organic fertilizer for your garden. So no longer will you need to search your local garden center for organic fertilizer, as you will always have some close at hand.

Now that we have shown you how to start an organic garden you can go and choose a spot in your garden and get started. Soon you will be on the way to producing all your own lovely organic products.

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Tips and Advice for Organic Gardening

April 6, 2012 mhmsirag Organic Gardening

Organic gardening is becoming more popular as people are tending to move away from the harsher chemicals involved in artificial gardening and towards a more natural product. Organic gardening greatly reduces the use of pesticides and harsh chemicals, trying to keep the garden as natural as possible, and keeping the nutrients in the soil.

There are a lot of advantages to organic gardening. One advantage is the fact that you can enjoy a wide diversity of garden insects, birds, and mammals which are otherwise affected by artificial gardens; for the most part, it is considered that organically grown food tastes better all around; you can do your part to stop waste and environmental pollution from avoiding fertilizers and other chemicals that have been proven to harm the environment. Another advantage is that you can be assured completely that absolutely no pesticides whatsoever will go into the fruit, vegetables, or herbs that you eat.

If you are thinking about going into organic gardening there are some tips and advice you may need. One of the most critical is to be sure and avoid the planting up large areas with the same plants. Instead, grow plant companions, especially those plants which repel insect pests.

There are also some tips that every organic gardener should know. Garlic is used as a natural antibiotic and antifungal remedy and when garlic is combined with mineral soap and oil, it then becomes a very effective pest control product. Milk is used to help control powdery mildew on cucumbers just as effectively as a synthetic fungicide. Beer is used to attract slugs, which are actually beneficial to gardens. Floating row covers are used for preventing insect pests from reaching the plants, and newspaper is used to smother and rid the garden of weeds.

Protein fertilizers are available almost everywhere these days, and besides that, there are numerous household recipes for starting and maintaining a fresh and healthy garden – without the use of harsh pesticides.

Organic gardening has become so popular that there is so much information available on the issue of organic vegetable gardening. Whether you are interested in starting in on this trend yourself, or you have already begun and simply want more information on the subject, it will not prove difficult to find.

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Organic Gardening Methods: No-Till Gardening

April 6, 2012 mhmsirag Organic Gardening

Did you know that a garden that requires less tilling could save you a lot of time? It sure can! It can be very beneficial on your end since you’ll be relieved from doing much of the backbreaking organic gardening functions. So in preparation for planting an organic garden, with a no-till garden that is, digging and turning over the soil’s top layers, and ridding the yard of weeds won’t be much of a task anymore. Learn more about no-till gardening by reading further of this article.

Why digging the soil isn’t always a good idea

Digging may help with aerating the soil especially when starting an organic vegetable garden. But the other major thing about digging into the garden bed is that the act itself can cause a disturbance to the ‘natural growing environment’. Other than potentially delaying the natural process to take place, digging may also lead to soil erosions or compactions.

No-till gardening benefits

Any garden bed can experience a ‘no-tilling gardening’. Even after it has been created, any form of interference with the garden bed’s surface will no longer occur. No digging, no turning, no nothing. This is where soil amendments and other natural fertilizer products simply come into the picture.

Amendments such as organic garden fertilizer products (worm castings, compost from leaves, days old manure from plant-eating animals, etc.) are typically used to help compensate with the no-tilling effect. The nutrients that these components provide are then absorbed into the ground, sustaining all the living things embedded into the system.

No-Till gardening process

The no-tilling gardening starts by planning your garden bed, and by determining the shape and size for it. The best ones are usually built a few months prior to using it to let the nutrients (from decaying materials) to settle well into the bed. Now, if there are any grass or weeds that’ll need to be mowed or cut from the garden bed, make sure that you do so. And as soon as you’re done with this, proceed by covering the bed with at least 6 layers of presoaked cardboard or newspaper. This will enable to block of the light needed by weeds that sprout from the ground.

In this kind of organic gardening, the next step would be is to add compost into the ground (your choice of soil amendment and organic fertilizer). This organic product should also be more or less three inches high; and should be layered alternately with a mix of carbon and nitrogen-rich materials (create a layer height of at least 24 inches). Your carbon or browns can consist of dead leaves and straws. Your nitrogen or greens on the other hand are usually made up of grass clippings and animal manure. After this, water thoroughly.

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