An organic garden provides you with a much healthier diet. However, you should be aware that organic gardening is hard work. Knowing this might make you ponder where you should start and what aspects of organic horticulture are most important.
If you work with clay soil, you have probably found using a shovel very frustrating and exhausting. Get better results in clay by rubbing car wax or floor wax onto the shovel, then buff off and dig. The wax prevents the clay from sticking to the shovel, and stops rust from forming.
Make garden tools do double duty as handy makeshift rulers. You can use shovels or rakes as measuring sticks. Just run some measuring tape right on the floor next to the handles. It’s a good idea to label distances with a permanent marker. When you are horticulture next, you’ll have a ruler beside you at all times.
Get a slug-proof variety of perennials. These mollusks are capable of consuming an entire garden full of flowers in a single night. They gravitate towards perennials with smooth thin leaves, particularly on younger plants. You can discourage snails and slugs from eating your perennials by choosing plants with tougher or distasteful foliage. Some of these plants include achillea, campanula, euphorbia, hellaborus, and heuchera.
Healthy Soil
The first thing you can do to ward off garden pests is to ensure you are using healthy soil in your garden. Healthy soil leads to healthy plants with more strength to deflect those insects and various diseases. If you want to get the best plants, begin with a soil that has hardly any chemicals, and that will bring salts.
If your plants have a powdery mildew, don’t use expensive chemicals on them. Mix plain baking soda with a small bit of liquid soap and water. Spray this mixture on your plants weekly until the mildew is gone. Baking soda is safe for use on your plants and is a gentle, but effective way to care for your plants.
Prior to planting anything in your garden, check your soil. A soil analysis is inexpensive and can be used to figure out which nutrients should be added to provide a healthy garden environment. A lot of Cooperative Extension locations offer this service, and you can prevent ruining a few crops by identifying the specific steps to take.
Be sure to weed your garden. Weeds steal nutrients from plants, robbing a garden of its potential harvest. White vinegar is a pesticide-free way to battle weeds. Weeds can be killed by white vinegar! Keep a solution of vinegar diluted with water on hand to spray on weeds.
Soak your seeds in a dark spot during the overnight hours. Soak the seeds by placing them in a container where they are covered with water. This lets water soak into the seeds, giving them an extra boost of hydration when they start growing. The seeds will then have a greater chance at lasting and blossoming.
Place a two inch layer of organic mulch at the base of your tall vegetable plants. When you place mulch around your plants, it keeps the ground more moist. In addition, mulch will help you to prevent weeds. You’ll find this is a time saver since you won’t have to pull them later.
If you have a cut, be careful about exposing it to soil or gardening chemicals. Cuts that are infiltrated by soil or other substances have the potential to breed serious infections. Get a bandage that seals the cut properly.
If you are planning to grow plants within the house, the temperature should be maintained between 65 and 75 degrees within the daylight hours. Plants need to be in an environment that is neither too warm nor too cool for them to 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.
So, as you have seen, it is true that organic horticulture requires research, work, and effort to start growing your own organic plants. You are also aware now that dedication and consistency will go a long way toward success. By using the above tips, you will have a marvelous organic garden in no time.