As the organic movement gains momentum, increasing numbers of people are being attracted to holistic lifestyles. Many people who appreciate the benefits of this lifestyle enjoy growing their own foods using safe, organic horticulture methods. Check out fantastic organic gardening tips here in this article.
Flower Garden
Plant a variety of flowers to keep your flower garden colorful and interesting. Annuals and biennials can add excitement and interest to your flower garden every season. Fast-growing annuals and biennials can brighten up a flower bed, and allow you to change the look from season to season and year to year. Use them to fill gaps between shrubs and perennials in the sun. Notable biennials and annuals include marigold, sunflowers, hollyhock, petunia, and cosmos.
Transplanting plants and bringing them indoors can protect them from harsh winters. Choose the plants that are most likely to survive. Use caution when digging around the roots of your plant. You need to keep the root structure intact for it to thrive after being potted.
A set of knee pads are a life saver if you’re an avid gardener and a lot of your plants sit close to the ground. Long hours spent in the garden will wreak havoc on your knees. Purchase a great pair of knee pads; they will provide a cushion for your knees while making horticulture more comfortable.
Aerate and dry your plants each day. Moisture not only attracts parasites, but also makes it easier for your plants to contract diseases. A commonplace plant parasite is fungi. Sprays and liquids exist that are perfect for killing the fungi, but be sure you use it on the area before the fungi actually appear.
The best gardens will evolve from original seeds rather than transplanted items. Starting with your own seeds is more environmentally friendly than buying plants from a nursery. Plastics from nurseries aren’t recycled often, which causes them to go into landfills; so try starting with seeds, or buying from organic nurseries.
Always fertilize your garden. While a lot of people use manure, it is better to choose fertilizer from a reputable company, as this will reduce the risk of any pathogens getting into your soil. There are many fertilization methods out there; the type is not quite as important as actually using something.
Consider planting evergreens that produce berries in your yard. Your yard will then have bright spots of color all year round, which is especially cheerful in the winter when all of your other flora is bare or colorless. Some evergreens that will add life to your yard in the wintertime are the American Cranberrybush, Common Snowberry, Winterberry, and American holly.
Aspirin water will strengthen your plants against diseases. One and one half aspirin crushed and added to a two gallon container of water will be a great help for your plants. Then spray your plants with this mixture to stave off diseases. Use this method every three weeks.
You need to avoid chores in your organic garden stacking up. If you can’t get out in your garden every day, there are still a number of things you can do to keep things from falling into disarray during your absence. For example, if you have a dog, pull a few weeds while you are outdoors with the dog. Over time, you keep your garden weed free without adding any additional time on to your day.
Consider solving your weed problem without the use of toxic chemicals. Take layers of newspapers and use them for weed control. Weeds must have sunlight in order to grow. When you put newspaper over them, they suffocate from lack of sunlight. Newspapers tend to break down into compost nicely. In order to improve its attractiveness, add one mulch layer.
Be careful with the amount of water that you’re giving your plants when horticulture. Roots need to draw in nutrients via the soil, and they cannot do this if they’re flooded with water. Check the weather for the next couple of days to see if you actually need to water your plants. Make your decision about watering dependent on the weather.
To get a good start, look below the surface! For instance, if you buy tomato seedlings for an organic plot, be cautious if you find green, lush-looking starts that have underdeveloped root systems. These starts will stick to the seedlings for quite some time, which prevents the seedlings from growing until the starts are gone.
This is organic gardening made easier! Plan your landscaping with primarily native grasses, flowers, and bushes! Plants that are naturally suited to your environmental parameters are unlikely to require the degree of fertilization and chemical pest protection that would have to be expended on other plants. Native plants will thrive if you encourage growth with organically made compost.
Incorporate shade elements into any organic garden area. These gardens are low maintenance, which will make many happy. This type of garden requires only a small amount of water, which makes it especially easy to maintain. While this may mean slower growth to an extent, there will be much less weeds to deal with.
There are all sorts of plants that you can plant in your garden. Mulch is a must-have for plants that require acidic conditions. You can mulch these plants with pine needles in the fall. As the needles begin to decompose, they’ll start depositing natural acid to the soil.
The healthier the soil the healthier your plants are, and when they are healthy they become that much more resistant to insects and disease. You won’t be killing off large amounts of insects, but good practices can help avoid the damage they can cause.
You are aware of how helpful compost is in growing your organic garden, but do you have any idea what is actually in it? Compost is a mixture of scraps, grass clippings and leaves that have been allowed to break down which results in new rich soil. Making your own compost is much safer than using commercial fertilizer.
Use these tips and think about some ideas of your own. Organic horticulture can become a part of your life. Keep in mind that this advice is the beginning of your organic gardening knowledge.