If you love organic gardening here is some excellent advice and growing tips that will help you increase crop yields and garden production.
Below are some tips and suggestions that will hopefully assist you into making better decisions about your organic garden and to start applying strategies to help increase your yields. You need to work hard (but also smart) so it is to your benefit to learn something from these tips.
So let’s get started sharing some helpful organic gardening tips that will help you increase your harvest.
- Keep your soil healthy, when you keep your soil healthy, you won’t require chemical fertilizers. Residential users of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides apply more pounds per acre of these chemicals than farmers do. As these pollutants run off, they get into the water supply and become harmful to other plants, animals and humans. Also, chemical and synthetic fertilizers harm the natural balance of the nutrients in your garden area. Over time, your crops will become more-and-more deficient of the healthy nutrients that are vital.
- If tomato plants are a part of your organic garden, you need to water them properly to ensure maximum productivity. Tomatoes gather all the water they require from their roots; you do not need to water the stems and leaves. Soak tomato beds with water thoroughly about once a week to provide the moisture the plants need.
- If your garden includes plants that prefer acidic soil, such as begonias, roses, and strawberries, you should mulch with a generous layer (two to three inches) of discarded pine needles at the beginning of the autumnal season. As the pine needles slowly decompose, they will release trace amounts of acid into the soil.
- Make sure you grow only heirloom plants. Heirloom plants produce viable seed – seed that will produce a plant of the same qualities and characteristics as the parent plant. Most seed that you get today from commercial sources is hybrid seed. That means that the seeds will not produce predictably. Therefore, it is not encouraged that you save them from year to year.
- When building or maintaining a compost pile, it is important not to add coal ash or charcoal to the pile. Both ash and charcoal have high amounts of iron and sulfur, as well as other unwanted chemicals, that may pollute the soil and potentially harm the health of your plants.
- A great tip that can help you improve your organic gardening is to pull weeds the old fashioned way. If you’re truly looking to keep your garden as organic as possible, you should refrain from using any herbicides to kill weeds. Pulling weeds is the best way to go.
- Compost is a key component in many organic gardening plans. The wise gardener can minimize his or her effort by composting in small batches directly adjacent to the planting beds that will require compost. This saves the time that would otherwise be required to cart compost out of a single, centralized pile.
- Collecting rainwater is the natural way to supply yourself with water for all your organic gardening needs. You can simply build your own system of rain barrels or buy them ready made. That way, you won’t have to pay for water for your garden or lawn maintenance. Caution is needed! Covers are suggested to cut down on mosquitoes and other pests that can be attracted to standing water.
These tips should have given you some much needed insight on where to start and how to begin growing your own personal organic garden. These tips were thoughtfully compiled to help the new organic gardener learn the basics and some other cool techniques that are simple enough to use for their garden.
