In the world of organic gardening, there are plenty of great resources available to both new and experienced organic gardeners alike. There are many e-guides, books, videos, and other resources available. This set of tips contains some of the best advice for helping a good organic gardener become a great organic gardener.
Clay soil is hard and will also stick to a shovel, making it difficult to work with. To ease the digging, apply some car wax or floor wax to the head of the shovel and buff. The clay won’t stick to it, and the end will not rust as an added bonus.
When choosing plants, pick those that produce a high yield. Many times, hybrid plants tend to resist disease, and tolerate the cold weather better than their traditional counterparts, resulting in higher yields.
Having healthy soil in your garden is your number one defense against pests! Healthy soil leads to healthy plants with more strength to deflect those insects and various diseases. For healthy plants, start with healthy soil that is properly amended and free of chemicals in order to avoid salt accumulation.
Brighten up your flower beds with annuals and biennials. You can use biennial and annual flowers to brighten the bed, and let you change how it looks. Sunny areas in the middle of shrubs and perennials can be filled in nicely with these plants. Some examples include sunflowers, marigolds, petunias, hollyhocks, cosmos, and rudbeckia.
You don’t need a costly chemical solution to deal with powdery mildew in your garden. Plain water with a bit of liquid soap and baking soda will do the trick. Spray this mixture on your plants weekly until the mildew is gone. The baking soda is harmless to your plants and a very effective remedy.
If you want your garden to sport flowers in the spring as well as summer, plant bulbs. Bulbs are easy to grow and hearty, and they keep growing in years to come. Plant bulbs that will bloom at various intervals to ensure beautiful flowers are growing in your garden all year long.
As the weather turns colder, it is important to prepare your sensitive shrubs for the change. Shrubs that are planted in containers are especially susceptible to frost and must be carefully protected. Join them together at the top, and use a blanket or old sheet to cover them. Using fabric, rather than plastic, allows air circulation and prevents rotting from moisture build up.
You should make sure to divide your irises. You can increase the number of irises you have by splitting clumps that are overgrown. When you see the foliage is definitely dead, lift up the bulbous irises. The bulbs will then split naturally in the palm of your hand and if they’re re-planted, they can flower next year. For plants with rhizomes, use a knife to divide them. Throw away the center after carefully cutting new sprouts from the exterior. Divide your pieces carefully; they should each have one good quality offshoot apiece. Replant your new rhizome pieces as soon as you have finished the cuttings.
Pouring the excess water from your dinner of steamed veggies on them can help. In order to help acidify the soil for plants like gardenias and rhododendrons, you can use coffee and tea grounds. Chamomile tea applied to plants can be an effective remedy for fungus problems.
Keep your garden free from broad-spectrum pesticides. These kinds of pesticides kill the helpful insects that destroy the pests. The bugs you need are often more fragile than the ones you don’t: a pesticide could actually kill the beneficial insects while leaving the pests unaffected. When this happens, you will spray another round of pesticides to get rid of the pests, thus creating a never-ending cycle for yourself.
For visual interest, make one plant a focal point of your garden. In any great garden design, a good focal point captures the eye. Focal points in gardens are normally a plant specimen that no one else in the neighborhood has in their landscape.
Try planting some heather to draw beautiful insects to your yard. Heather is great for getting bees to stop by at the beginning of spring, as heather plants have nectar available early in the season. Since a heather bed is normally left undisturbed, ground beetles, spiders and other beneficial insects tend to live inside it. Because of this, you should put on a pair of gloves when it’s time to prune the heather.
Increase the worth of your investment. One of the best things you can do to increase property value is to have proper landscaping. Adding certain plants to your yard can raise the resale value to as high as 20% or more. Put plants in your front yard as well as your garden that need low moisture, and are ideal for the environmental conditions that you face.
If you have recently planted seeds in your organic garden, you should regularly aerate the soil by using your hands to gently sift it. Even though it sounds strange, it will help plants get bigger.
Research the local botanical insecticides which can be useful in deterring the pest population. Some natural insecticides are stronger and more effective than the chemically engineered synthetic pesticides that are commercially available. The distinguishing factor of botanical varieties is that they will decay much more quickly and will be eliminated from your environment faster.
If you’re planning on adding some tomatoes to your garden, try planting a new set of tomatoes exactly three weeks after you plant the first batch. You will not have to harvest the tomatoes at the same time. This will also prevent you from losing an entire harvest if some type of problem arises that kills off a batch.
In conclusion, the tips that you have read above should have you well on the path towards becoming the best organic gardener you can be. This is a field of endeavor where a wealth of useful information exists, and you have to delve into this knowledge. Using this advice, you will find the best way to create your dream organic garden.
