Make Your First Organic Garden A Success

Take the time to research the variety of all-natural methods that can hep your organic garden flourish. First, you must learn the methods, and then choose which ones you would like to implement.

Before planting any perennials, you have to make the ground ready. Slice under the grass with a spade, flip the layer you have lifted over, and spread three inches of wood chips on top. Allow a few weeks to pass by before you dig down into the applied soil.

When a seed actually sprouts, it doesn’t need to be in as warm an environment. Locate your plants further from your heat source as they mature. You can now take off any protective coverings on your plants that were there to shield them from the elements. You need to read the seeds to know the best time to do this.

Pine Needles

Don’t underestimate pine as a great mulch. Certain plants are acidic, and thrive in acidic soil. For such plants, pine needles function both as a handy mulch and as a soil amendment to lower the pH. Simply add a layer of pine needles a couple of inches deep to the plant beds. The needles will decompose over time and provide the soil with acidity.

Coffee grounds are a good addition to your soil. Coffee grounds are rich in nitrogen, an essential nutrient for plant growth. A strong nitrogen source in your garden area is a wonderful way to have healthy and strong plants.

You need to avoid chores in your organic garden stacking up. While you may not be able to spend time in the garden on a daily basis, there are still many things you can do to keep things from snowballing out of control. For example, if your family is cooking out on the grill, you could clear a few bunches of weeds between checking on the burgers.

Use an old laundry basket to bring your fresh produce in from the garden. The laundry basket will function as a makeshift strainer for the fruits and vegetables. Rinse your crops while in the laundry basket to strain the excess water.

Compost Pile

Be sure your new compost pile contains roughly the same proportion of dried and green plants. Examples of green plant material are spent flowers, fruit and vegetable waste, grass clippings, weeds, and leaves. Dried materials are things like hay, wood shavings, cardboard and paper. Never use ashes, meat, charcoal, diseased plants or carnivorous animal manure in your compost pile.

If slugs are a problem in your garden, use a beer trap to kill them naturally. Get a clean, empty glass jar to use as a trap. Bury it with its mouth facing upwards. Keep putting dirt over the jar until the mouth is at the surface of your garden. Next, fill up the jar with beer until there is around one inch between the liquid level and the jar top. The beer attracts these slugs, but traps them in the jar.

A raised bed can be built with untreated wood, brick or stone. Be sure that any wood you use isn’t chemically treated, and will be able to resist rot naturally. Cypress, cedar or locust wood are appropriate selections. Avoid using treated wood since they contain chemicals that could disperse into the soil or the crops. If you already have treated lumber in use, line it with some plastic and replace the soil near it.