My Vegetable Patch

If you have been curious about organic gardening for a long time, you may now be familiar with how things are done. But even so, you must not stop learning new things to help you.

It is important to keep up to date with how things are being done. You should be talking with the gardeners in your area so that you can talk things out with enthusiasts like you. If your goal is to help nature, then you are on the right track. For sure, nature itself will find ways to help you out and for you to be able see solutions to your problems just around the corner.

This is how generous nature is. And this is also the basic idea of the organic process of gardening. It is to give back to nature what nature has bestowed upon you. In gardening, you will have to move away from synthetic materials. You only have to use what can be found on the ground or the environment around you.

For example, in fertilizers, you have the option to make your own compost. You also have to remember that you must be picky with your plants. Ask a local dealer what plants will grow easily on your location. You must not opt for something you like that will not survive the site’s conditions.

Learn the art of mulching. You have to do this periodically in your garden beds. This will kill the growing weeds. You’ll be able to monitor the unnecessary pests and get rid of them. This also moderates the temperature of the soil. And by mulching it, you’ll prevent the soil from eroding.

Have a variety of plants in your garden. This way, you will be able to attract beneficial insects. These are the types that would feed on the pests that your garden may incur.

And the most important thing to do in organic gardening is to befriend your plants. You must know all them fully well. This way, you will have an idea as to what to do in cases where a problem struck and you have no one to help you.

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Now that you have decided that you want to compost, there is a list of items that you will need to get started. Most of these items will be available to you already and all that’s needed is a small amount of planning ahead of time.

After you pick a location for your compost bin or pile (ensure it is in an easily accessible location) you are going to need approximately four inches of leaves as a base. If you are able to chip the leaves prior it will make things progress and breakdown faster but it is not a requirement. The quantity of leaves you will need to make a four-inch base will vary depending on the size of the bin you have chosen.

Your next layer should be about one inch of high-quality soil. If you cannot find this in your own garden a small bag purchased from your local nursery will work fine.

Then start layering the food for the microbes to eat. There are two types of food you are going to need: brown (yard waste) and green (food scraps or other organic waste). A common ratio is two parts brown for every part of green.

You are going to need a spade or heavy-duty pitch fork to rotate the compost at least weekly. If there is a dry-spell, you will need a hose or other means of adding water to keep the pile moist.

With such simple materials and start-up instructions, anyone can start their own compost pile in half a day. If you choose to not use a bin, consider buying some wire mesh to contain the pile as it can be wrapped around the base of the pile in a circular shape. You will be able to start using the compost after a couple of months.

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Beside being a free and nutrient-rich benefit to your soil and plants, there are many other
benefits to composting:

• Composting will reduce or eliminate weeds in your garden as it prevents weed from sprouting and prospering and is a natural alternative to pesticides.
• Mature compost material can stop or prevent erosion in certain areas. The binding capability in the compost can keep the soil in place and prevent drop-offs.
• It reduces the amount of organic material that goes to a dump unnecessarily, which in turn reduces the amount of methane gas a dump creates during decomposition.
• In wetlands areas that are in trouble, compost has been used to revitalize the soil
  and surrounding plant life.
• Compost material strengthens the soil and can prevent your plants from contracting diseases that kill or spread to the rest of the crop or garden.
• If your soil is overly dry, adding compost to the soil and thoroughly mixing can help the soil retain more water keeping it moist.
• If your soil is clay-like, you can make the dirt easier to work with and less dense by adding mature compost.
• Provides important nutrients and micronutrients to the soil and plants.
• Increases the temperature of the soil creating a conducive environment for plant
  growth and health.

These are just a few of the benefits that can be derived from using compost. It helps the environment, your garden, your plants and the planet. The small amount of time that it takes to set-up and maintain a compost bin or pile is well worth the time and effort.

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If you are wondering about beginning to garden organically, keep doing so. Not many people think of such causes for the benefit of nature. Nature will be smiling at you now.

Organic gardening takes a lot of hard work, so you will need to be prepared for it. Do not give up just because of a minor problem. Just think of it like nature is testing you how big your love for it is.

What makes this hard? Unlike the ordinary kind of gardening, going organic will remove from you the freedom to use just about anything that is commercially available as long as it will help you with your venture. No way. You cannot use synthetic materials on this one. Everything must be organic. It must come from nature itself. You must have done it using elements that can be found on the ground. Or you can also buy those available in the market as long as they claim to be organic.

By going organic, you’ll be able to help nature replenish its resources. You will get the dried leaves, the sawdust, some vegetable peels and other materials from the ground. This is also your way of cleaning your surroundings. But such materials can be used as elements in compost.

You can actually do your own compost by going over some books on how this can be done or reading some of our articles on this blog. You can also turn to someone who is successful with this type of gardening and ask that person for tips and tricks. You can use the result of that compost as fertilizers on your garden.

Finding somebody who gardens organically already will help you enormously. By having the aid of an expert, especially if you are only beginning on this task, you will be better at helping nature. You will quickly pick up the basics, such as what type of plants you can grow in what type of soil. You will have a clearer view as to how the elements of the ground can contribute to the success of your project. You will know what to do in cases of trouble with regards to the growth of your plants or the emergence of pests on your garden.

Nature will really love you for the way you will only utilize organic materials for the purpose of growing green things on your garden. And you will benefit a lot in the process of organic gardening. You will be able to become a guru of this type of task. You will be able to produce organic sources of food.

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A gardening guru knows that weeding is effective for growth control. Weeds are your garden’s most persistent and deadly enemy. You need to be able to know how to handle weeds in order to foster growth control for your organic garden. If you let weeds take over, they will completely obliterate your capacity to yield a rich number of vegetables.

They are the number one stealer of nutrients and sunlight, so the earlier you try to eliminate them, the better it will be for your gardening. This can take up a lot of your time during certain seasons, but monitoring weeds and eliminating them is definitely worth it to ensure an effective yield.

Weeds are usually much harder to remove when they have matured. So it is best to keep a keen eye out anrd regularly inspect your garden for the earliest appearances of weeds. Cultivating your soil regularly will help eliminate the younger weeds, which is the best approach as once you let those young weeds take hold and be firmly established in the garden, it will become a more herculean task to try to remove them.

Seasons also affect the appearance of weeds. Different types of weeds proliferate at different times of the year, and it will be your advantage to recognize which weeds are in season so you can more easily expect them in your garden and prepare your anti-weed arsenal more effectively.

Make sure that your ground remains filled up with the good stuff. If you leave any portion idle or bare, the weeds are more likely to invade that area and secure its nutrients for their growth. If you are unable to fill the entire area with plant outgrowths, try to use a good cover to keep the weeds from invading your vegetable patch.

In the case where weeds have already grown, chopping them off from the root is the most efficient way to remove them. The use of herbicides and pesticides is also possible, but it is not entirely necessary when you are able to cultivate your land. The pesticides and herbicides, especially the commercially available ones, may prove to have other harmful effects and pose a threat to other useful organisms living in your garden. If you do need to use herbicides and pesticides, do so sparingly.

Mulching and composting are also good ways to help maintain the soil and ward off the weeds. Ultimately, you will not have to encounter huge problems in weed management if from the start, you are able to keep them from thriving in your garden in the first place.

If you are really consistent in digging up your space, you will have made the most out of your vegetables’ garden and have exercised true growth control against weeds that can steal, kill and destroy your organic garden.

Filed in Gardening, Tips by Robin Fisher