1. Organic Gardening Idea Everybody Should Know
Are you getting into horticulture for the first time in your life? You probably don't even know where
to start. It's no secret that beginning to grow your own garden for the first time can be a bit
overwhelming. Below are some tips that can help make growing your own garden a bit easier.
Try planting seeds in pots, and then transferring the seedlings to your garden. Your plants will be
more likely to survive if you do this. Seeds can't always thrive in gardens, and are often eaten by
birds. As soon as the mature plants are removed, you can replace them with fresh seedlings.
Check for clean carpet weeds often in your garden as they will leech nutrients from the soil. Weeds
can grow at a high rate of speed and overwhelm the resources available to your plants. Take the
time to check for weeds at least twice a week to catch them while they are new shoots.
A tip to prevent dirt from accumulating under your fingernails while working in the garden, use a
bar of soap before starting. Rake your fingernails across a bar of soap and it will seal the undersides
of your nails so that dirt will not collect beneath them. When you are finished in the garden, just use
a brush to scrape the soap from beneath them and your nails will still be sparkling clean.
Be sure to water a tomato patch no more than once every five to seven days. However, when you do
water, be sure to give the ground a thorough soaking. Tomatoes do best if the soil is wet deeply,
unlike many plants which prefer a light misting more often. Also, be sure to water the ground, not
the plants.
Used tea and coffee grounds make good soil enrichers. Both coffee and tea grounds are great
additions when you need to raise the acidity of your soil. If your soil is pH balanced, adding the tea
and coffee is good, as flowers such as rhododendrons and azaleas, and fruits such as blueberry,
appreciate soil that is on the acidic side. You can work the grounds into the soil before you plant
your garden, or sprinkle a little around existing plants once a week or so.
Make sure that you are familiar with the level of humidity that your garden plants require. Some
plants simply cannot survive without proper levels of humidity. Some plants require high humidity or
tropical conditions, while others require arid or desert levels of humidity. Educating yourself will
help you to avoid poor plant choices.
Before you start planting your garden, plan it out. Having a planting plan will help you correctly
identify the young plants once they start to sprout. A good plan can also help you to place each plant
in the area that is most beneficial to them.
2. To be sure a tree doesn't become a
problem with age, think of what size it
will become before you plant it. The
perfect place for a sapling may not be a
great place for a tree several years
down the road. You should be especially
careful not to plant a tree too closely to
your house, as the roots can cause
damage.
Try placing evergreens that grow
berries around your garden. The berries
will provide a boost of color to your
backyard, even during the colder
months when most of the other vegetation has been drained of their color. Some evergreens that will
provide winter color are the American Holly, Common Snowberry, American Cranberrybush, and the
Winterberry.
Collect your dirt for a soil analysis to see the nutrients your soil needs. You can get this tested at a
local university's agriculture department, usually for a fee. The fee is well worth it usually because
then you will know what nutrients your dirt http://www.kktv.com/community/homeimprovement
needs to have a garden that is successful.
Keep a garden journal. The more information you collect about your site, your plants, and successes
or failures in the garden, the less likely you are to make costly mistakes in the future. Although there
are many resources to guide you, the most important resource is your own experience. Always be
sure to record important information, like the name and variety of the plant, the date it was planted,
and where in the garden it is located.
Do not waste your time and energy carrying a hose that is hard to put away. Get a couple or hose
reels to keep your hose neat. You can get a stationary hose reel to keep your hose on a wall, but you
can also find portable hose reels if you want to carry your hose around your garden.
In the middle of the day the vegetables have softened,
which means they are easily damaged. Use garden
shears to remove your vegetables from the vine to
avoid damaging the plant.
A great tip when beginning an organic gardening is to
add lime to your seed-starter mix. This is done to
reduce the acidity of your peat. Too much acidity can
damage it. You should aim to add around 1/4 teaspoon
of lime in every single gallon of your seed-starter mix.
To insulate the soil and protect against weeds, you should consider different types of mulches. Use
3. things like wood chips, leaves, hay, and lawn clippings. Protecting plants with a mulch helps them in
many ways, such as guarding soil against erosion. You can even look into living mulches, which are
plants that serve the same purpose as a mulch.
Stay out of your garden after it has rained or whenever it is wet. Diseases and bacteria thrive and
spread more easily in damp environments. Bacteria can easily attach to your shoes as you walk
through the wet garden and be transferred from plant to plant. Instead, wait until the soil is dry to
enter your garden.
It may seem tempting to want to use chemicals on your organic garden, but these will do more harm
than good, along with defeating the purpose of an "organic" garden. If you think about, all of these
types of pollutants run off and contaminate whatever they touch. By keeping your soil healthy, you
won't need any chemical fertilizers anyway.
While growing your own fruits and vegetables can save you money on produce and cut grocery
costs, growing flowers can give you a sense of pride. Watching something grow when you have taken
care to protect it, can make you feel useful. Remember the tips in this article to start your own
garden today.
