Growing organic vegetables and fruits is both healthy and delicious and much better than produce you can get at the supermarket. Why not save your money and grown your own veggies? Below is a selection of organic gardening tips that will help you to start harvesting delicious, healthy produce at home.
Slug-proof your garden with smart perennial choices. Slugs and snails are voracious eaters that can destroy a plant literally overnight. These pests normally go after plants with thin little leaves and plants that have yet to fully mature. There are perennials that slugs do not want to eat, the ones that they hate have hairy leaves, or are unappealing to their taste. Some perennial families that snails and slugs won’t eat include achillea, campanula, and helleborus.
Healthy Soil
Having healthy soil in your garden is your number one defense against pests! Healthy soil leads to healthy plants with more strength to deflect those insects and various diseases. To give your garden the best chance of yielding the healthiest plants, start with a high-quality soil that has fewer chemicals which over time will accumulate salts.
For a garden that thrives, choose the right type of soil. Dependent on the type of plants you are choosing for the garden, the soil may not be right for them. You can also make an artificial area with one variety of soil.
When fall has arrived, it is time to plant the edibles for the autumn. Clay pots are boring, so replace those ordinary lettuce and kale pots with pumpkins. Clean out the pumpkin just like you would if you were making a jack o’lantern. Spray Wilt-Pruf inside the pumpkin and along its edges so that the pumpkin won’t rot. Once the pumpkin has been prepared, it is ready for planting.
If a test indicates that your soil is very alkaline, you can mix the dirt with used coffee grounds. This affordable trick will give back the acid that your dirt requires. This solution will make the vegetables you grow healthier and more flavorful.
Knee Pads
A set of knee pads is a great investment if your garden has a lot of low-growing plants. The amount of time that you spend horticulture on your knees can make your knees hurt by the time you are done. Cushion your knees with a pair of gardening knee pads.
Fresh mint is a wonderful addition to a herb garden, but it can quickly take over your entire yard. Stunt their growth a little by planting your mint into a garden container or large pot instead. 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!
Split up irises. Overgrown clumps of irises can be divided up to increase your numbers of this lovely flower. Lift bulbous irises when the foliage is dead. The bulbs will then split naturally in the palm of your hand and if they’re re-planted, they can flower next year. For plants with rhizomes, use a knife to divide them. Discard the center and cut pieces from the exterior. There needs to be a minimum of one healthy offshoot on each of the new sprout sections. Replant your pieces right away.
In order to rid your garden of pests, take advantage of plant materials and other organic matter. Slugs who want to enter a vegetable garden, for example, can be repelled by a simple border of marigolds and onions. Wood ash also makes a great insect deterrent; simply use it as mulch around your shrub and tree seedlings. Using these natural methods will reduce the need for potentially harmful chemical pesticides.
More Gardening Ideas & Resources
Don’t settle for produce that is inferior. Apply what you’ve learned in this article today, and start growing your own produce.