Mary Hanna asked:


The popularity of organic food and gardening has certainly increased over the last few years. Not only does it give you a sense of well being but people love the beauty of wonderful colored flowers and the taste of vegetables they helped create. Organic gardening tips on how to successfully start and care for an organic garden are becoming easier to find as this type of gardening continues to become more popular. Along with being relaxing, it is a very interesting hobby. Anyone can organically produce wonderful fruits, herbs and vegetables and know that they are healthy to eat and pesticide, herbicide and chemical free. There will always be garden pests but instead of using chemicals to deal with this problem, there are many organic gardening tips to get rid of them, similar to the way gardeners did many years ago before the use of pesticides and herbicides.

A good homemade pest deterrent to use in organic gardening is:

In a jar, combine 1 teaspoon dishwashing liquid and 1 cup vegetable oil. Shake vigorously. In an empty spray bottle, combine 2 teaspoons of this mixture and 1 cup water. Use at ten-day intervals (or more often if needed) to rid plants of whiteflies, mites, aphids, scales, and other pests.

 

Following a few organic gardening tips, you will produce fruits, vegetables and herbs that are healthy, taste wonderful, are less expensive than buying produce at the grocery store and give you the peace of mind knowing exactly how they were grown and what was used on them. Aphids are annoying little insects that often cause a lot of damage in your garden. If you plant marigolds near your vegetable garden, the aphids will quit bothering your plants. If you already have an aphid problem, spray the infected plants with diluted soapy water and then spray them again with clear water. Organic gardening tips you should try are; instead of buying compost for your garden, which could contain chemicals, make your own while you cut down on garbage at the same time. Using your garden and kitchen waste is an excellent and very easy way to make your own compost. In your compost pile use peelings from carrots, potatoes and other vegetables, dead weeds, coffee grounds, egg shells and even the pruning from roses and other plants. The different textures help break down the compost quickly. Compost improves the soil texture, structure and aeration while enriching the soil, which stimulates root development. When choosing plants for your organic garden, make sure you choose ones that are well adapted for your area.

Here are a couple of great organic gardening tips that not only help keep your garden free of weeds but also keep the soil from drying out too quickly. Grass clippings and pine needles mixed or old newspapers make very good mulch, which keeps your garden weed free and the soil moist. Organic gardening tips help you grow healthy organic fruits and vegetable that you, your family and friends will love.

Most important of all, is to enjoy your organic garden and the fruits of your labor. Not only will you have the satisfaction of growing vegetables and herbs organically but you it will also inspire you in your culinary tasks.

Here’s to a great organic garden and fabulous, healthy meals.

Copyright © Mary Hanna, All Rights Reserved.

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Peter Finch asked:


A garden adds beauty to the surroundings with its colorful treasure of trees, plants, flowers, butterflies, fruits and more. Gardening is an infinitely pleasurable exercise and a hobby for some. If you have enough space to plant herbs or small plants, it becomes your garden. So, it is not a tough task, even if you do not have the experience. Here is a gardening tip for amateurs – start small instead of overdoing things at your first shot.

Gardens tend to have a soothing effect on our minds. You can just sit or lie on your back on the lawn you mowed or in your garden to relax and unwind. The garden should not only look good, but should also be in a place easily visible to everyone. Here is a gardening tip – Build your garden in front of the house. It not only adds to the beauty of the place but also creates a delightful impression on people entering your house.

Basics Of Gardening

The first important gardening tip is to learn the basics of gardening. Most people are very taken in with the idea of creating a garden but you need to know the basics before taking the plunge. One would start dreaming about flowers, fruits and vegetables all over the place even before beginning to build the garden. Which plants to grow, where to plant it, how to do it, and when to do it are common confusion areas for novices.

Selecting The Right Place

Another important gardening tip is to choose the right location for your garden. You should get a great view of the chosen place from inside your house. Now that the problem of where to garden has been dealt with, you have to think of what to plant. If you want to grow any particular plant, you should first check out whether the climatic and other conditions are conducive to its growth. If you live in a place that is hot, then make sure you do no plant in areas exposed to afternoon sun, which is hotter and drier than the morning sun. Also, ensure that the chosen place is not directly exposed to heavy, dry winds.

Selecting The Plants

After the location is finalized, the next gardening tip for you is – choose the right plants. Select appropriate plants in accordance with the environmental conditions in your area. You can grow roses or vegetables – it is up to you. Herbs are ideal for any place as their growth can be controlled, if there is not enough space.

Common Problems

Lastly, here is an important gardening tip for you on tackling the common problems. If your garden is attractive, you can expect unwanted visitors like pests, insects, animals, children to cause damage to your plants. You should be careful and safeguard your garden. You cannot keep watch 24 x 7. However, while you water your plants, make sure that you check for changes in the color, or if insects have damaged the stems, leaves, or the plant itself.

You should also prune the extra growth of the plants so that they are not only healthy but also serve their purpose.

With a helpful gardening tip or two, your green thumb, care and attention, you too can create a beautiful garden at home.

Abhishek Agarwal asked:


Organically grown plants have gotten quite popular in the last few years. Almost every gardening enthusiast is shifting onto the organic method due to the wide spreading awareness about the quality of flowers and vegetables that it results in. Go organic and your flowers will bloom with a new found hue and the vegetables will taste like never before!

With its rising popularity, the organic gardening tips are finding a huge market and almost every other big publishing house is banking upon to opportunity by coming up with guides to help the ever-eager gardeners. Organic gardening is a very relaxing as well as involving hobby. Just with little help, anyone can produce tasty fruits, vegetables and herbs. People can relish them with 100% assurance they are the best that nature can produce in a pesticide, chemical and herbicide free manner.

Garden pests are an inevitable reality. Organic gardening doesn’t mean that they will no longer fancy your gardens. Instead, what will happen is that you will be countering them in the same natural manner like old time farmers used to, before the invention of herbicides and pesticides.

We are outlining here a few organic gardening tips that will be priceless in your endeavor of cultivating vegetables, herbs and fruits that are full of taste, health and economic value. Moreover, you will sleep well with assurance that your children are no longer consuming chemically infected food.

Aphids, as every gardener would know, can cause a lot of damage to the garden. A very good preventive measure one can take is to plant marigolds close to the vegetable garden. This will keep aphids at bay. In case your garden is already doomed with an aphid attack, you can spray diluted soap water followed by clear water on your plants to get rid of them, organically.

Another organic gardening tip you can use is to produce your own compost naturally at home. We all are aware that the market compost contains many harmful chemicals. As an alternative, you can utilize your kitchen and garden waste to produce organic compost at home. It will normally consist of vegetables, coffee grounds, potatoes, dead weeds, rose or other plants pruning, egg shells, carrots etc. that have landed up in the trash bin. Compost enriches the soil by providing good texture, ventilation and structure. Various ingredients in organic compost help to break it down quickly. Overall, it is an excellent way to catalyze the root development process.

Before starting on with organic gardening, you must do good research and analysis to find out the best plants suited for your garden. Following is another organic gardening tip that will help you get rid of weeds quickly and make your soil dryness-free. Pine needles, old newspapers and grass clippings when mixed together, make effective mulch that is potent enough to keep the soil moist and your garden weed-free. Organic Gardening is the new age mantra to attain most optimum levels of chemical free and environment friendly gardening produce, and these organic gardening tips will make that goal much easier to achieve!

Eric Samms asked:


It’s often overlooked that Container Gardening can be a life long passion, a creative and artist hobby, and a simple and effective way to create a stylish, clean and inviting home, a great way to eat healthy organic foods, and an amazing way to connect with nature.

So if you’ve got itchy green fingers, and want an amazing collection of plants and flowers, fruits, vegetables and herbs – just simply follow these key Container Gardening Tips!

The 7 Steps Process to Great Container Gardening

1. Get Your Lighting Right

2. Choose Your Soil

3. Monitor humidity levels

4. Water as required

5. Check temperature

6. How to Choose the right container

7. Food & Nutrients

Lighting

Via photosynthesis, plants absorb sunlight and carbon dioxide to create food. As such light is a very important factor. Try and keep your container plants and flowers near a natural source of light during the day. If you have a dark corner at home or your home does not receive much natural light, use a 150 watt incandescent bulb about 4 – 5 feet away during the day. An even easier way to get some light is to buy a plant stand equipped with a built in lighting system. This is a great way to keep container gardens anywhere around the home. And remember light is only important during the day!

Humidity

The humidity required depends on the nature of the plant. Jungle plants need about 90% humidity, sub-tropical about 50%, temperate zone plants (such as North America and Europe) require 30 – 40% and desert / cacti about 5 %.

Cheap humidity indicators are great at monitoring moisture in the air, however obvious signs of low humidity levels are dry topsoil and wilting leaves. Excess humidity is not often a problem except for desert plants such as cacti. Low humidity levels can be quickly rectified by a spray on the leaves once or twice a day, and by placing a pot on a shallow try of water and small pebbles.

Temperature

Jungle plants thrive at higher temperatures, temperate zone plants thrive at between 90 – 100 F. Container plants, flowers and edibles are able to handle relative lower temperatures at night, as long as they are not too low i.e. near freezing. Tropical plants can handle a minimum of 65 F at night, sub-tropical plants about 55-60 F and temperate zone plants about 45 F.The exception to this are the desert plants such as cacti, which have adapted to the plunging evening temperatures of the desert.

Soil

The vibrant organic environment of jungle plants makes them more conducive to leaf mold and moss, and therefore a more acidic environment. A ph of 5.5 is ideal. A good potting ratio for jungle plants is :

25% organically enriched garden loam

50% leaf mold

25% coarse sand or compost

Temperate zone plants have less organic material to cope with, and a therefore more comfortable with a ph of near neutral i.e. 7.0.

Desert plants prefer a slightly more alkaline soil.

Containers

The material from which the container is made – will affect the rate at which water is ****** out of the soil. Some container gardening enthusiasts can’t stop raving about clay pots, as they remove water at a generally faster rate, preventing water clogging of the roots, and keeping the pot cool. What ever the material , just make sure that their are water holes at the bottom, or material at the base which raises the pot and allows excess water to drain.

Get creative and indulge those container gardening ideas. Choose a variety of container colours, materials and styles to add a bit of sophistication and pizazz to your home.

Water

The amount of water required by a container plant, flower or edible will depend on it’s make up and size, and environmental factors such as temperature, humidity, and type of soil, as well as the nature of the container it’s self.

Always check the surface of the soil, and about 1 – 2 inches deep to determine moisture levels and top up as required. Too much water will drown your roots, and too little will dehydrate your plant.

To prevent excess moisture loss, keep a layer of rich top soil or moss on the surface of the soil.

A useful container gardening tip is to never use cold water! This may be too much of a shock to a delicate system. Go with room temperature or slightly above.

Food & Nutrients

Slow release plant-food granules can be added to the compost or potting mix in the recommended quantity before filling the container, or at the sprinkled on the surface of the soil. Pelleted granules can be added about 1 -2 inches under the soil surface. If the soil is nutrient rich, additional food may not be required, however a little extra will go a long way!

Now that you have the 7 key tips to great Container Gardening you are on your way to growing great plants, flowers, fruits, and vegetables.