The main reason people decide to go organic when gardening is that they think commercial chemicals, including pesticides and fertilizers, may degrade soil quality, harm the environment and cause long-term damage to their personal health. Also, many organic gardening techniques are quite inexpensive. The following tips will help turn you into a successful organic gardener in no time at all.
The ideal temperature to set your thermostat for indoor plants is between 65-75 degrees Fahrenheit during the daylight hours. They need the temperature to be that warm so that they can grow. If you don’t want you house to be really warm during the cold season, you could use a heat lamp on organic plants instead.
Create a space perfect for any perennial garden with this easy method. Use a spade to dig up some soil, flip the soil over, and finally, sprinkle around 3-4 inches of wood chips on the soil. Wait for a few weeks and plant new perennials in this area.
Cover your muddy shoes with plastic bags. This lets you be able to return to the garden without interrupting your work.
Pine Needles
Don’t underestimate pine as a great mulch. Some plants are more acidic, and prefer soil that contains higher acidic levels. Pine needles are an excellent form of mulch for these types of plants. If you spread a few inches of pine needles around your garden beds, when they break down, the acid they contain will leach into the soil.
Spacing is essential when planting an organic garden. You will most likely underestimate how much space plants will need as they grow. The plants need space due to sheer size and also for air circulation. Therefore, ensure that you allow for ample spaces between your seedlings.
When you’re making a compost pile, you should use fresh and dried plants to get it started. Examples of green plant material are spent flowers, fruit and vegetable waste, grass clippings, weeds, and leaves. Dried plant material includes straw, sawdust, shredded paper, cardboard, and dried and cut-up woody material. However, stay away from meats, manure from carnivores, charcoal and other potentially harmful substances.
A useful technique for organic gardening, is to gently disturb your seedlings by using your fingers or a piece of cardboard one or two times daily. This probably sounds like an odd recommendation, but research has shown that this technique encourages more plant growth, than no petting at all.
If you are building a raised bed utilize stone, brick or wood that is untreated. If you choose to use wood, make sure it is naturally rot resistant and untreated. Some good choices include locust, cypress, and cedar. In a vegetable garden, never use treated wood, as the chemicals can leach out into the soil and food crops. If you’re using treated lumber, line it with a barrier, or some plastic.
It is a good idea to get organic garden certification so as to reaffirm your claims that your products really are organic. This should boost your sales while proving to your customers that they are getting healthy products.
Hopefully the useful advice in this article will help you create and maintain your own beautiful, healthy, and toxin free organic garden. You will also see more animals in your garden, because organic gardens are more attuned to nature.