If you want to be an organic gardener, you need a green thumb, but more importantly, you need a lot of patience. It’s an enjoyable hobby where you can grow your own healthy food. This particular hobby may not be as easy as it sounds. Check out the tips laid out below to learn what you must do to begin gardening organically like a professional.
Include your kids in growing an organic garden. You can provide a good learning experience that your children can appreciate the more they learn on how to grow healthy produce.
Organic Garden
One way to encourage an organic garden to be sustainable and healthy is to put aside a section to stay undeveloped, thus encouraging wildlife to approach it. Most likely, you will find your organic garden producing better once your property is home to the insects, birds, and other wildlife that plants rely on for pollination and the production and dispersal of seeds.
If you choose to use organic methods to care for your houseplants, you should bear in mind that certain plants require more sunlight than others. If you’re living in a home that doesn’t receive much sunlight, you should consider growing plants that thrive in environments with low to medium amounts of light. If you want to grow plants that need a lot of light, consider using artificial lighting.
Having a garden of perennials can be an easy and quick process. With a garden spade, slice under the dirt then flip it over. Next, spread out wood chips several inches deep. Give the area a couple of weeks, then dig into it and plant your new perennials.
Once your seeds have germinated they will not need to be kept as warm as before. Locate your plants further from your heat source as they mature. Uncover your containers; the plastic wrap traps humidity, so you need to remove it to stop your plants from overheating. You need to read the seeds to know the best time to do this.
Pine Needles
Don’t underestimate pine as a great mulch. Some plants need acidic soil to grow properly, because of their own acid content. When you have plants like this, nothing is easier than to gather pine needles for your beds. Cover soil beds with a few inches of pine needles, and they will disperse acidity to the soil below as they decompose.
You can kill weeds naturally. You can place newspaper in several layers, and it will help control your weeds. Weeds must have sunlight in order to grow. By placing newspaper over them, they will not get light and suffocate. Old newspapers are a valuable addition to your compost heap. Add visual appeal by placing some mulch over the top.
Raised Bed
If you’d like to create a raised bed, use materials like brick, stone, or untreated wood. Choose wood that is naturally resistant to rot and is untreated. Cypress, locust and cedar are all great examples of what woods to use when building a raised bed. If you use treated wood in your vegetable garden, the chemicals in the wood can make their way into the soil, and in turn, to your crops. If you are already using treated lumber, you can use plastic liners, or a different barrier, in order to protect your garden.
Organic gardening is a high-risk, high-reward activity compared to normal gardening, but the rewards certainly are sweet. While chemical pesticides and fertilizers may claim to do great things for your garden, organic methods will give you the best crops possible.
Over-watering your plants is not healthy because too much water may inhibit the roots from getting nutrients out of the soil. Before watering your plants outdoors, check to see if there is rain in the forecast. Skip watering your plants for a couple of days if a heavy rainstorm has descended; natural rainwater can be particularly good for your plants as well.
Most people favor organically grown fruits and vegetables for their cleanliness and the fact that they are not grown with harmful pesticides. Though this is certainly a great thing for the health of your loved ones, it is important to watch for additional pests and insects that may be present.
Rotate where you plant each type of plant each year. For example, if you usually plant corn in one area of your garden and flowers in another, switch which plant is planted in each section. Repeatedly planting the same greenery in the same place can cause fungus and disease. Plants of the same type will be vulnerable the next season. Different plants have different immunities and vulnerabilities. Changing what you plant where will naturally stave off fungus and disease.
If you want your starts to thrive, take the time to look underneath the ground. For example, you want to avoid tomato seedlings that have several green starts and a weak root system. These starts will stick to the seedlings for quite some time, which prevents the seedlings from growing until the starts are gone.
Organic gardening combines hard work, patience and nature. It is a hobby that uses the land to grow something delicious. If you are willing to put in the effort and if you follow the tips, you can become a great organic gardener.
