In the green horticulture world, it is important to take the best care of your organic garden that you can. Maintain your garden smartly by using efficient methods. By employing your knowledge you will be able to more efficiently and reliably produce healthy, tasty food. Follow the tips provided for a successful organic garden.
Digging in hard clay soil is made even more difficult because it sticks to the shovel. To make digging clay soil easier, try applying a light coating of wax, either car wax or floor wax, and then buff off and commence digging. This will keep the soil from sticking, and prevent rusting of the tool.
Use both annuals and biennials to add a splash of color to your flower beds. Fast growing biennials and annuals can enliven a flower bed while letting you change up the look each season and year. They can be used to fill in gaps in your garden between the perennials or shrubs so your garden looks fuller. Some flowers you can use are rudbekia, petunias, cosmos, marigolds, or sunflowers.
Baking Soda
If powdery mildew appears on your plants, don’t purchase expensive chemical solutions. Mix a little liquid soap and baking soda in water. Use a spray bottle to apply to your plants weekly until the issue clears up. Baking soda treats the mildew effectively and gently and it won’t damage your plants.
Take the time to remove weeds. Weeds steal nutrients from plants, robbing a garden of its potential harvest. To help with weed destruction, use white vinegar. Weeds can be killed by white vinegar! If you are too busy to pull weeds by hand, make a white vinegar solution and keep it handy for a quick spray when needed.
Plant cool-weather edibles in the fall. Why not plant lettuce and kale inside a hollowed-out pumpkin? Simply cut the pumpkin open at the top, so you can remove the seeds and insides. After that, spray Wilt-Pruf along the edges and on the inside of the pumpkin, so it doesn’t rot. Once the pumpkin has been prepared, it is ready for planting.
When mowing your lawn, avoid mowing the grass too short. If you let your grass grow, the roots will go deeper and make your lawn more resistant to dryness. The shorter the grass, the shallower the roots, which makes the lawn more likely to develop brown patches.
Don’t plant a garden without planning it. Use this to remind you where certain things were planted, later when they start sprouting. A good plan can also help you to place each plant in the area that is most beneficial to them.
Knee Pads
Knee pads are absolute miracle accessories if you work in a garden with plenty of low-growing plants. Weeding, watering and picking through your vegetation can cause a lot of damage to your knees if left unprotected. Wear knee pads meant for gardeners so that you’ll be more comfortable when kneeling in your garden.
There is always a best time to pick your garden’s vegetables, and you should know them. Every vegetable has a proper time to be picked in order to capture the perfect flavor. Some vegetables are best when fully ripe and others taste better when harvested early in their development. On the other hand, tomatoes taste best when they are as ripe as possible from the vine. Find out what the best harvest time is for your vegetables.
If you pick vegetables around high noon when it is very hot, you are likely to damage them. Twisting off vegetables causes damage to the plant; always snip them at the base of the vine.
Plastic bags can be kept on hand and reused to slip over your dirty horticulture shoes. You’ll be able to keep your momentum going without needing to take off your shoes, and stay on track with your horticulture project.
One odd but apparently useful tip for growing organic plants, is to lightly brush your plants with your fingers or a piece of cardboard 1-2 times a day. While this appears strange, research shows it can help plants grow larger, versus not petting them at all.
Rotate the plants that you grow each year by switching up where you plant them. Keeping plants that belong to the same family in the same place can eventually spark fungus growth and disease. These plant enemies can become stored in the ground, ready to attack your plants the following year. If you change things and plant your garden in a different area, you will have a way to keep fungus at bay.
You may want to grow garlic organically. You can place garlic cloves directly into the moist, fertile soil during spring or autumn months. Plant them two inches into the soil with the ends up, and leave four inches between each clove. Green garlic shoots could be cut as it grows, and it can be used to substitute scallions or chives. Harvest the garlic bulbs when the tops of the plants turn brown. You should dry them outside in a sunny spot for a couple of days to harden the skin. The garlic may then be stored within a cool location tied together in bunches or simply loose.
Green Starts
Always give your garden the benefit of looking beneath the upper portions of a plant. When buying tomato seedlings, avoid the ones with a bad root system or green starts. Some green starts can last for several weeks, which will actually inhibit the growth of new seedlings that are delayed.
While horticulture, be careful of what products you use. Try using organic substitutes for the typical chemical fertilizers. Compost is one thing you can use. One advantage to using organic gardening methods as opposed to non-organic methods is that non-organic methods have a small chance of reducing soil quality or poisoning the water table.
As these suggestions have shown you, anyone can have a successful organic garden. It does take some effort and not a little patience. In the end, though, it is a rewarding and healthy hobby that can offer you benefits that last a lifetime.
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