Environmentally-conscious horticulture requires dedication to following best practices at all times. This is where you need to think smart about organic horticulture. Educating yourself on this topic will help you create a garden that offers healthy and tasty produce. If you apply the tips from this article, you will have a lush, green organic garden.
Digging in clay soil with a shovel can be very difficult. The clay isn’t easy to work with and will adhere to the shovel, which only makes the problem worse. Try applying a coat of wax onto your spade prior to working with clay soil, and then buff the spade head with a cloth. The wax will enable the clay soil to simply slide off the shovel, and will also prevent the shovel from rusting.
Healthy Soil
Beginning your garden with healthy soil is your first defense against pests! Healthy soil leads to healthy plants with more strength to deflect those insects and various diseases. If you want to get the best plants, begin with a soil that has hardly any chemicals, and that will bring salts.
Use climbers for covering fences and walls. Climbing foliage is a great way to disguise unsightly features on your property, sometimes in the span of just one season. You can also train climbers to cover arbors and other things that you want covered, and they will even grow right through trees and shrubs. Some climbers you plant will have to be tied off and supported, but others have no problem attaching themselves to any surface using their tendrils or twining stems Some of the most reliable varieties are wisteria, clematis, jasmine, honeysuckle and climbing roses.
Make sure your soil is healthy enough before you start planting anything. An inexpensive soil report can be used to adjust soil nutrients to optimum levels, which will ensure your garden thrives. Several Cooperative Extension locations offer this service, and it’s advantageous for you to know what type of soil you have, in order to avoid growing faulty crops.
If you want your garden to sport flowers in the spring as well as summer, plant bulbs. Bulbs are hardy, easy to grow into flowers, and will blossom for several years. Specific types of bulbs usually bloom at specific times of the season, so if you make appropriate selections, you can be rewarded with blooms from the early part of spring to the later part of summer.
Ensuring your plants are both dry and aerated is a great way to keep them healthy. Moisture on your plants is a sure way to attract parasites and disease. A common parasite found in the plant kingdom is fungi. You can control fungi with fungicides, but you must remember to use it before you notice any problems in order for it to work.
Don’t you hate it how fresh mint leaves take over all of your garden, even though you love them? You can stunt the growth of mint by planting it inside a container or super-sized bowl. You can then plant the container down in the ground if you like, but the walls of the container will hold the roots captive, and keep the plant from taking over your garden!
More Gardening Ideas & Resources
As the above article’s tips have demonstrated, organic gardening can make a huge difference in your produce’s freshness and nutrients. The gardening process itself requires hard work and dedication, but the end results are worth the effort it takes to grow an organic garden.