iris bulbs

Organic Horticulture Advice To Grow The Garden Of Your Dreams

~ craigb

Organic horticulture may be a major pain, or a joyous hobby. Use the tips presented here to make the most out of your earth friendly organic garden.

TIP! Create useful rulers from your tool handles. Tools with long handles such as hoes and rakes can double as measuring sticks.

Use slug-proof varieties of perennials wherever possible. If slugs or snails find their favorite perennials in your garden, they’ll snack all night. When you wake up in the morning, there will be very little left of your plants. These pests prefer plants with thin smooth leaves. Plant some helleborus or euphorbias along with your other perennials. There are some perennials that do not appeal to slugs, such as those with leaves that are hairy and tough with a bad taste. Examples of these include euphorbia, hellebourus and achillea. Others you may want to consider are campanula and heuchera.

Iris Bulbs

TIP! Save some plants in the winter by bringing them indoors. This is especially useful if you have a particular plant that you love or was expensive.

Separate irises. You can increase your stock of irises by dividing up overgrown clumps. When the foliage has died off, it is time to harvest the iris bulbs. The iris bulbs should easily split apart in your hand. Once you replant them, they will have a good flower show the following year. Make use of a knife to split up rhizomes. Cut out new pieces from outside the bulb and throw away the old center. Each piece needs one strong offshoot. Replant each one immediately.

TIP! Draw up a garden plan before you plant the first seed. This is a good way to remember which plants have been planted in each area before they grow.

The best gardens start with seeds, as opposed to plants. The environmentally conscious way to start a new garden is to start with seeds. Very few nurseries recycle the plastics that they use as containers for their plants, so the majority of these containers are thrown away and dumped in landfills. Therefore, it is better for the environment to plant a garden with seeds or to find a nursery that packages its plants using organic materials.

TIP! If you have a lot of low-growing plants to take care of in your garden, purchase gardening knee pads. You will end up spending a good deal of time on your knees and this can cause a lot of pain by the end of the day.

Always fertilize your garden. Composted manure is effective in raising healthy plants, and commercial fertilizer products are safer and more convenient. Choosing a specific type of fertilizer is not particularly critical; as long as you’re using fertilizer, you’re improving your soil.

Organic Mulch

TIP! Place a few inches of organically based mulch around your vegetable plants. Mulch has a nice moisturizing effect on the soil it’s spread over.

All of your vegetable plants should have approximately two inches, just outside the stem, of organic mulch placed around them. The organic mulch will keep moisture in the soil for a little longer. Mulch will help a lot in preventing weeds from growing. Every gardener can appreciate pulling fewer weeds.

TIP! Learn the proper way to handle chemicals, and the right way to use garden tools. You might end up damaging your plants or getting a skin irritation.

Invest in a kneeling stool, and a wheelbarrow to work in the garden. Spending time on the ground is rough on the knees, a portable and light stool can help make gardening easier. Because gardening means transporting a lot of heavy things, a wheelbarrow will also come in handy.

Beneficial Insects

TIP! If you want the best tasting vegetables, learn about the optimum time to harvest them. Each type of produce has unique time frames for harvesting at the peak of flavor.

Make sure your pesticides are focused on only what you’re trying to kill. Besides killing the insects you don’t want, this type of pesticide will also kill beneficial insects. Beneficial insects are more susceptible to strong pesticides than the insects you are actually trying to get rid of. This will lead you to end up killing off the good bugs in your garden, leaving the field wide open for the harmful ones. This may then lead to using even more pesticides to eliminate this new problem.

TIP! Pine is a surprisingly good source of mulch. Some plants need acidic soil to grow properly, because of their own acid content.

Make a plant you love the focal point of your garden. When you design your garden, think of a great focal point that will grab attention and add interest. Usually this is a big plant that is somewhat different from the other plants in the garden.

TIP! Consider solving your weed problem without the use of toxic chemicals. Put down old newspapers in several layers for controlling weeds.

If you are growing plants inside of your home, you need to keep the thermostat set to 65 to 75 degrees during the day. They need the temperature to be that warm so that they can grow. If you do not want to keep your home that warm during the winter months, you can get a heat lamp for the organic plants instead.

TIP! While gardening organically requires more work than gardening with the help of chemicals, the rewards are worth it. Chemical giants claim miracles, but those miracle crops come at a price to whoever eats the produce.

When your plants begin to sprout, they can survive in somewhat cooler temperatures. You should move your sprouted plants farther from the heat when they are past the sprouting stage. You must also take away plastic films from your containers in order to keep the warmth and humidity out. Check on your seeds periodically to make sure you know when to remove the films.

TIP! You may be able to find botanical insecticides locally, which are often very helpful for preventing pest infestations. These natural insecticides can often be more effective than synthetically engineered pesticides.

Work efficiently in your garden. You do not have the time to spend an hour looking for each tool you need. Have all of your tools gathered and prepared for use before you work in the garden, and make sure to put them away neatly. If you use lots of tools, consider using a tool belt or even just some pants that have lots of pockets.

TIP! Plant your tomatoes in intervals of three weeks, starting from the original strain and they will grow in a more organized structure. Doing this will cause your harvest to come in at differing times, allowing you to gather up the majority of them and cut your losses.

When planting seeds in containers, remember that the depth should be at least three times bigger than the seed. There are exceptions to this rule though, as some seeds need direct sunlight to grow. These seeds include petunias and ageratum. If you do now know how to plant your seed, consult the information that came with the seed when you bought it or check online for helpful information.

TIP! Organic gardening has been made much easier! Stick to native plants, grasses, flowers and bushes when you plan out your landscape. 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.

Every year, you should plant different things and in different places. Repeatedly planting the same greenery in the same place can cause fungus and disease. These kind of enemies to plants can stay underground ready for the next year to cause harm to your plants. If you change things up on a regular basis by varying your planting locations, you take advantage of a natural methodology to avoid fungus and disease problems.

TIP! While you may have heard a few things here and there about composting, how much do you really know about it? Compost is a mixture of scraps, grass clippings and leaves that have been allowed to break down which results in new rich soil. Use this instead of commercial fertilizer.

Organic horticulture, while requiring a good effort for great results, is a great way to live a greener life. With hard work and patience, you will be happy with the end result–a fabulous organic garden. Using the tips that you just learned you can improve your skills in organic gardening.