Organic produce is much more tasty and healthy than the mass produced fruit and vegetables normally found at the supermarket. You can bypass the supermarkets entirely if you grow organic produce yourself. Read this article and learn how you can grow your very own organic garden.
Properly put down your sod. Before you use sod, you need to prepare the soil. Get rid of weeds and tilth the soil finely. Gently compact the soil until it is flattened. The soil should be adequately moistened. Sod should be staggered in rows, the joints offsetting from each other. Tamp down the sod so it has a flat and even surface, then using some extra soil, fill the gaps between. Water your sod daily for a fortnight, which is enough time for it to root and be able to withstand foot traffic.
Select plant varieties capable of producing large yields. Normally, hybrid plants that are disease-resistant and cold-tolerant have a greater yield than traditional varieties.
When horticulture, be sure to look closely for stink bug infestation, especially during Autumn. They love to inhabit peppers, beans, tomatoes and all kinds of fruit varieties. If not taken care of, these pests can damage the garden, so take steps to cut down their population.
Regular weeding is essential to the health of any garden. Weeds can turn a thriving garden into a total wasteland. White vinegar has been known to kill weeds quickly. White vinegar will definitely kill the weeds! Try spraying some white vinegar in water when you are pulling weeds from your garden.
Bulbs planted in the spring can flower all the way into summer. Bulbs are usually very hearty and very easy to grow, and bulbs will grow year after year. 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.
Fresh mint is a wonderful addition to a herb garden, but it can quickly take over your entire yard. Keep your mint growth under control by planting them in pots and/or garden containers. You can simply put the container below the soil level. Once you do, the container will constrain the roots, preventing them from overshadowing all of your other plants.
Carefully read and follow the instructions that come with your chemicals and tools, especially when you’re just starting to garden. If you miss this easy step, you run the risk of harming yourself due to the chemicals that can irritate your skin. Keep your health intact and follow the directions to the letter.
If you want the best tasting vegetables, learn about the optimum time to harvest them. Different vegetables have different, ideal times that they should be picked for best flavor. As an example, zucchini and baby peas both have the best flavor when they are harvested at a young age. By contrast, it’s best to wait until tomatoes are fully ripe before picking them. So, it is good to learn about the best time to harvest your vegetables.
Fall Colors
Garden for fall colors. Fortunately, this doesn’t have to be. The fall season is probably the most colorful of the year in terms of foliage. Maple trees, Dogwood, and Beech trees exist in lots of Fall colors that range from deep crimson to yellow. Some vibrant shrubs include hydrangea, barberry, and cotoneaster.
Vegetables get softer as the temperature goes up, so you could damage your vegetables if you pick them during the hottest hours. Cut them with a tool rather than pulling or twisting, otherwise you could damage the plant itself.
Believe it or not, pine makes great mulch. Some plants have a naturally high acidic level, and therefore like acidic soil. If you are growing these types of plants, simply gather up fallen pine needles for use in your garden. Cover your beds with two inches of needles; acid will be dispersed into the soil as they decompose.
Don’t let all the little chores in your organic garden build up. Even if you’re to busy to focus on your garden’s needs each day, you could do small things that could prevent you from piling up work when you wish to work on your garden. You can pull a few weeds when you take your dog outside.
Laundry Basket
When the time comes to harvest your produce, collect it using an old laundry basket. The basket will make a great strainer when you wash your vegetables. Rinse off your produce while it’s in the laundry basket, and any excess water will be strained out through the basket’s holes.
Do you want to get rid of weeds in a natural way? A layer of newspaper, several pages thick, placed over the ground will do the trick. Without light, there can be no weeds. The layers of newspaper over the weeds will block out the light and kill them. Because newspapers decompose well with the passage of time, they make great additions to compost. You can add mulch on top for aesthetic reasons.
It is a great idea to help your garden by ruffling seedlings, either with cardboard or with your own hands, a couple of times each day. That may sound like a silly thing to do, but it’s been proven to help plants grow larger than they would otherwise.
Build raised beds with untreated stone, brick or wood. If you choose wood, ensure that it has not been treated with a sealant or other chemicals. Cypress, locust and cedar are all very good choices. If you use treated wood in your vegetable garden, the chemicals in the wood can make their way into the soil, and in turn, to your crops. If you already have treated lumber in use, line it with some plastic and replace the soil near it.
Stop wasting your money on inferior fruits and vegetables from the supermarket. Use the tips featured above the next time you are in your garden, and in the not too distant future, you could be harvesting your very own organic fruits, vegetables and herbs.