Gardening Pleasures

Archive for the ‘Organic Gardening’ Category

If you listen carefully and keep your ears close to the ground, you’ll hear the latest buzzword loud and clear: Organic Farming! Organics are the ideal way in which to protect your loved ones, your domesticated pets, and even the environment from damaging chemicals. Roses are pretty, elegant, and a real treasure to have around the house.

In case you like roses, try to grow them organically – it is cheap and easy. The real secret of a successful organic rose garden is a quick look at how the natural world works. Once you understand this, then looking after your own organic rose garden will be a piece of cake.

The first thing you need to do is to plan, plan, and plan. Start with where you wish to see your roses grow, what colors and hues they must sport and envisage what they will look like when they are fully grown. Evaluate the other colors in your garden or your window will, see the colors of the walls, the other flowers, etc.

Contrast works very well with roses. Brighter shades look nice in front of darker walls, and roses must set your walls or your house in sharp profile. Don’t even begin to think of large size, award winning organic roses.

Naturally grown roses don’t grow so big. But they are safe, they are healthy, and they don’t pollute your environment which is saying a lot! A yard full of organically grown roses, setting off the house that it encloses, aah, that is the home one dreams of coming back from work to. Don’t you agree?

Some of us may be hesitant making and using compost. We may find the task troublesome and time consuming. Or we might have the idea that a compost pile smells and don’t like the idea of having such a messy process going in our backgardens. Although some people will still prefer to buy their fertilizers, soil conditioners, and mulch from a garden centre, they can actaully save a considerable amount of money by learning how, and actually making, a compost pile of their own. And, by the way, when done correctly, they do not smell and are not messy.

Here are some of my reasons for making and utlising composting. So, once you’ve read all of them, please think about, and then actually start, making your own compost.

The first reason I find composting worthwhile is the fact that the raw materials needed are free and readily available. Compare that with the ever rising costs of commercial fertilizers and other gardening products. All you really need to do is find some materials with which to build a containment structure for your compost pile, after that everything that goes into it is free.

The second one is that compost provides the same nutrients and minerals needed by my plants as commercial organic or synthetic fertilizers. The overall effect of good compost lasts longer than commercial fertilizers. Plus, depending on what ingredients you put into it, you can get quite a large range of nutrients back out for your plants. It’s free and it works just as well, if not better - who can argue with that?

Another good reason is the benefits of using compost for the soil structure. When applied to the soil, compost can help reduce erosion, improve water retention, and in heavy soil like clay, compost will lighten the soil and reduce soil compaction. Using your own compost can also make the soil easier to till.

The right composting process can kill troublesome weeds as well as pests and disease-causing organisms present in the vegetable matter being composted.  Although the technique I’m talking about here is high temperature composting and this is a technique regularly used on an industrial scale rather than what we normally do on the backgarden level, I think this actually adds to the reasons for making our own compost.

There have been studies that indicate the use of compost can suppress the incidence of diseases in crops. Other studies have shown that crops grown in compost-rich soil are more resistent to pest/insect attacks. Likewise, some field trials have shown crops grown using compost produce fruits and vegetables that store better.  Those are pretty good reasons for me.

For the environmentalists and conservationists in the group, compost has a lot going for them. Using compost with soil can actually build soil carbon which will eventually reduce the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. While, to have a truely positive effect on current greenhouse gases, it will require quite a lot of people using composting regularly,  it’s useful to know we all can still have a global impact.

Using compost also helps soil that has become toxic with agricultural chemicals. It’s been found that the use of compost can result in soil acidity levels coming back into balance and for farmers wanting to go organic after years of using synthetic agricultural chemicals, it can shorten the time necessary to acquire true organic status.

The widespread use of recycling our vegetable/kitchen waste through the use of a compost heap would mean that without all of the biological waste going into landfills, they would no longer fill up as quickly, and as a society we could use fewer chemcials thereby making the whole environment safer for all living creatures.  These are only two very good reasons for regularly using composting for dealing with garden and kitchen waste.

 

Organic food products are the trend these days after studies have shown that the age old practice of using fertilizers and pesticides happen to be harmful to our health. This means that we have to change our approach and try something else.The concept of organic vegetable farming is not new given that ancient civilizations have been doing it for years. We somehow forgot that thinking that modern science could help us produce better crops.

 

But if we go back to the basics, we realize that the resources need to make this work is right before our eyes.

First is the soil. Although 2/3 of the Earth is made up of water, the remainder is what we use for infrastructure while a certain percentage of that is devoted to agriculture.

 

The second thing you need is water. The ancients used an efficient irrigation system so that water from the rivers would go to the land they planted on. These days, we have the technology to divert water to these areas using pipes. When it has not rained for a long time, we are able to make artificial rain.

 

Third is sunlight. We may not control its movement but if we are able to plant our crops in an area that has sufficient exposure to the sun, whatever we plant will grow.   But between the period of putting the seeds in the ground and before these are harvested, farmers have to be on their guard. The crops are threatened by insects. This is why people are advised to use other insects, birds and toads.

 

Organically made fertilizers also come to play here and some examples of them include the application of compost, manure and cover cropping.

 

The soil where the vegetables were grown and harvested may not be ready to plant the same crops so maintain its fertility, farmers are also encouraged to rotate their crops.   To make sure that farmers who practice organic vegetable gardening are doing it right, the Department of Agriculture together with the International Federation of Organic Agriculture or IFOAM that has been in operation since 1972 sees to it that certain standards are in place.

 

Some people will argue that organic farming is not able to produce the same amount of yields as compared to those who use fertilizers and pesticides. This is true however, in times of drought, these crops are still able to survive because there is still enough water underground. This means farmers will still be able to harvest and there is a steady supply of goods in the market.

 

It is expected that the demand for organic vegetables will grow in the future. This is as more people become of food safety issues and how this affects the environment.

 

You can do your share by trying organic vegetable gardening in your backyard. The things you need are very affordable. You just need to practice what farmers do in the fields.

 

In fact, such information can now be found in books and online so do some research and put this into practice. It is fun and rewarding to see that what you worked on for weeks is now being served on your dinner table.

 

Back then, you have to remember that there were only a few skilled jobs and one of them was being a farmer.

 

Once you have picked what garden you want, there are many other factors you need to decide before you actually get to work with your gardening tools. Mainly you need to choose its location. This is usually decided by several factors: How you will water it, how much shade it needs, etc. Some of these questions can be very important in deciding whether your garden lives or dies, so don’t take them lightly. You need to take each one into special consideration.

 

Choosing the garden’s location within your yard is one of the more important things to decide. You want to choose a location that will provide an ideal climate for the plants in your garden. I don’t know what type of garden you’re dealing with so I can’t give you specific advice, but if you do a Google search for the plant you’re dealing with then you’ll find a plethora of sites informing you about the perfect conditions for its growing. After this, it’s just a matter of finding the most shaded or most sunny spot in your yard.

 

Another deciding factor is how you plan on watering your garden. If you have a sprinkler system already installed for your grass, then it could be a good idea to put your garden in the middle of your yard. Then it will get watered at the same time, and require no extra work from your part. But if this doesn’t provide for a good location for your garden, then you might end up watering it by hose or dragging a sprinkler out there. In this case, just make sure your garden is within the ideal distance for a hose to reach. While this might not seem like a good thing to base the entire location of your garden on, you’ll be surprised at how nice it is to plan out in advanced.

 

Getting the perfect amount of shade for your garden can be a difficult endeavor. Once you have a basic idea for where you want your garden, you might want to watch it and record how many hours it spends in sunlight and how many it spends in shade. Compare your findings to an online web site, and you should be able to determine whether the spot you chose is ideal or not for planting and starting your garden in. Of course the amount will change as the seasons change, but this should give you a good idea of what to basically expect for the rest of the year. If necessary, later you can put up some kind of shade to protect your garden from getting too much sun.

 

After you’ve determined the ideal place for your garden and whether it has the right amount of sunlight, and whether you will be able to conveniently water it, you’re one step closer to actually starting your garden. Of course there are other factors that I have overlooked here, but mostly you should be able to decide whether your location is good or not based on common sense. Just think: If I were a plant, would I be able to flourish here? If you can honestly answer yes, then I think its time for you to head out to your local gardening store and buy the necessary soil and fertilizer to get started! Have fun!