organic materials

Curious About Horticulture? Read The Following Article

~ craigb

TIP! Your tool handles can double as measuring sticks. You can convert any large handle tool, such as a hoe, shovel, or rake into a measuring tool.

You must have both patience and skill to grow an organic garden. It is a good way to grow healthy fresh foods in an environmentally friendly, chemical-free way. Although this may sound easier than it is. Keep reading to learn what you can do to make your garden succeed.

Healthy Soil

TIP! When you are tending your garden in the fall, be on the alert for stink bugs. They like to feast on all kinds of fruits, as well as peppers, tomatoes, and beans.

The first thing you can do to ward off garden pests is to ensure you are using healthy soil in your garden. Healthy soil encourages vigorous plant growth and makes your garden more resistant to common diseases and insects. Begin with a high-quality soil with less chemicals to avoid salt accumulation, and you give your garden an excellent chance of growing healthy plants.

TIP! Protect your delicate shrubs from harsh, wintry elements. If you have some tender shrubs that are in planters, you need to protect them from cold weather.

For flowers throughout the spring and the summer, be sure to plant some bulbs. These are hearty choices, choices that will reward you for years despite the little effort that is involved in their care. Various bulbs do not all bloom at the same time, and if you employ this knowledge wisely, your garden can provide freshly blooming flowers for half the year.

TIP! Your plants should always be kept in an aerated, dry area. If you have excess moisture, this can attract bugs or diseases.

Get some horticulture knee pads if you find yourself kneeling on the ground a lot to do your gardening. Excessive time spent kneeling often results in significant stiffness and pain. Cushion your knees with a pair of horticulture knee pads.

TIP! Broad-spectrum pesticides should be avoided in your garden. These pesticides can also kill useful insects that eat your pests.

Start a new garden from seeds. The most “green” way to create a new garden is starting from 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.

Beneficial Insects

TIP! Make sure that you take time to properly plant any seeds that you buy. First, add moisture to the soil where you will be planting.

Keep your garden free from broad-spectrum pesticides. These types of pesticides also kill the beneficial insects that eat the pests. In fact, beneficial insects are more likely to die than pests if you spray these types of pesticides. As the population of “good” bugs dwindles, your garden may become overrun with pests. In the end, you may resort to using even more pesticides in order to erase the problem.

TIP! Seeds that have sprouted don’t require the extra warmth that was needed before they sprouted. It’s important to move the plants away from any heat source as they grow larger.

Plant things that will give you color for the fall. But, that does not have to be the case! The foliage of autumn makes for perhaps the most colorful season of the year. For example, maple, beech, and dogwood trees all change from their usual green to a vibrant spectrum of yellow, orange, and red. As you select your shrubbery, consider hydrangea, barberry or other similar plantings.

TIP! The optimal amount of organic mulch to use in your flower beds is 2-3 inches. Covering the beds with mulch serves multiple purposes; it helps the flowers by retaining moisture and adding nutrients, and it discourages the growth of unwanted plants.

If you know that you’ll be in the garden for an extended period of time, protect yourself from the sun with proper attire. Choose hats with overlapping brims, don those sunglasses and smear on the sunscreen. If you shield your skin from the sun correctly, your risk of sunburn and cancers will go down.

Include your kids in growing an organic garden. They will enjoy learning about nature and bonding with you.

TIP! You can use something like a laundry basket to gather all of your produce together when the time comes. Laundry baskets which have holes in them act as giant strainers for your home grown produce.

It’s simple to quickly prepare your soil for the planting of a perennial garden. With a garden spade, slice under the dirt then flip it over. Next, spread out wood chips several inches deep. Wait for a few weeks and plant new perennials in this area.

TIP! Do you prefer to eliminate weeds without the use of harmful chemicals? To control the growth of weeds, all you need is last week’s Sunday paper. Without exposure to the sun, weeds cannot thrive.

Planted flowers will benefit from organic materials that are built up to as much as three inches. This is a good way to keep weed growth at bay and add nutrients that you need in your garden. In addition, your flower beds will have a beautiful, finished appearance year round.

TIP! If you have problem slugs in your organic garden, get rid of them naturally with a beer trap. Bury a glass jar in your garden so that its open mouth is level with the top of the soil.

Put coffee ground into your soil. Coffee has a lot of essential nutrients that plants need. Nitrogen is generally a way to make your plants grow bigger, better and faster.

Laundry Basket

TIP! Think about what types of products you can use on your garden. Instead of fertilizers with caustic ingredients and potentially harmful chemicals, opt for all-natural or organically grown products.

When the time comes to harvest your produce, collect it using an old laundry basket. A benefit of using something like a laundry basket is that it can strain for you, as well as hold a large amount of produce. You can clean and rinse the harvest when it is the laundry basket and the water will go out of the holes.

TIP! Make your organic garden easier to maintain. Plan to use mainly native flowers, grasses and bushes when creating an organic garden.

Keep your compost pile balanced with a combination of dried and green plant mulch. Examples of good green material to use for compost include grass clippings, flowers, leaves, and weeds. Examples of dried plant material are sawdust, shredded paper, straw, cut-up woody material, and cardboard. Certain substances will undermine your composting efforts and cancel out any benefits; these include meat, charcoal, ash or plants that have diseases or fungal growths.

TIP! A healthy soil means healthy plants that can resist diseases and pests. Even if the insects still remain, your plants will not be affected as much as before.

When planting seeds into a container, the depth of your planting should be three times bigger than the seed. However, it is important to understand that some seeds require sunlight and should never be covered. Some common examples include ageratum and petunias. If you are unsure about your seed’s requirements for sunlight, the resources are often provided along with the seeds, or you can find out online.

TIP! You might be aware of the many benefits that compost provides to an organic garden, but do you have any idea what materials are actually in it? Compost is actually a mixture of grass clippings, wood-chips, leaves, produce scraps, twigs, and straw which all breaks down to “psuedo-soil”. Make some compost, and start using that rather than costly commercial fertilizers.

A raised bed can be built with untreated wood, brick or stone. Be sure that any wood you use isn’t chemically treated, and will be able to resist rot naturally. Cypress, cedar or locust wood are appropriate selections. Avoid using treated wood since they contain chemicals that could disperse into the soil or the crops. If you’re using treated lumber, line it with a barrier, or some plastic.

TIP! W

Successful organic horticulture incorporates quite a few elements, such as patience, knowledge and nature. When you enjoy this hobby, you can find new opportunities to grow healthy and nutritious foods. This article is full of advice that you can use, along with a little old-fashioned hard work, to get off to a great start in organic horticulture.