Secrets of the Garden

Here is a great new book that you will enjoy.

The Green Gardener's Guide was written by Joe Lamp'l, host of PBS series GardenSmart. (one of my favorite shows). The Green Gardener's Guide imparts information on reducing water usage by using rain barrels, fixing leaking faucets, etc.-using less chemicals and pesticides, how to recycle and compost to save the landfills.

Joe is a passionate gardener who is committed to resolving environmental issues and providing comprehensive information in straight forward, plain terms that any experience level gardener can understand. Joe explains why environmental friendly gardening will make a difference in our world and how you can do your part to help.

At the same time he shows how you can help, he explains why it will help without being preaching. His ways can take your garbage from 3 bags to 1 bag per week. He gives you many ways to use things like your coffee grounds and newspapers to help your garden grow. Even if you live in an apartment or condo. Very good book...

This is one book that will stay in my gardening library for a long time and I'm very picky about my gardening library. If you want to check it out on Amazon.com (they have the least expensive price)-click on the link below.

The Green Gardener's Guide: Simple, Significant Actions to Protect & Preserve Our Planet by Joe Lamp'l

Winter gardening is an excellent solution for keeping your garden producing delicious vegetables through the winter at a fraction of the cost of produce purchased from the supermarket. The weather and type of winter you live in will be the factors of when, how (how late), and what to plant for your winter garden.
Winter garden can include kale, lettuces, spinach, mustards, and any herbs, along with garlic, shallots artichokes, broccoli and Brussels sprouts. Cold hardy carrots and onions also make excellent winter garden crops. Most places begin planting in mid August to mid September but you can start seedlings indoors up until spring.
Choose plants that are hardy to your region-your local nursery can tell you what will grow best in your area.
Think about creating your garden in rows covered with fabric or clear plastic. You can also create a mini greenhouse out of a cardboard box that will last the winter.
By have a winter garden you'll have a fresh, healthy harvest throughout the winter months

This method was invented by people who do not have sufficient place to have their own open garden. The container vegetable gardening is a novel way to grow plants - and it is mostly used to grow vegetables, though some people use it to grow flowers too.

What You Should Know Before Starting Container Vegetable Gardening? Basically, gardening rules are the same always - whether you grow your plants in the indoors or indoors you will need the same basics, i.e. soil, water, nutrients and sunlight.

1. Soil - When you are going for container vegetable gardening you will need soil with perlite in to help get air to the roots. Any bagged soil will work, just add some perlite to it and it will be fine. Since containers rarely have worms in them you should "fed" the plants once or twice a month so the plant has sufficient nutrients for its growth. Use compost tea or a time released fertilizer.

2. Container - choose a container that is large. The weight and overall size should be able to support the plant. Choose a light color for your container or it will overheat when the sun falls on it. The material of the container does not really matter as long as it holds the soil that is required for your plant. The smaller the pot the more you will have to water. Growing plants require lots of water.

3. Fertilizer - the soil will need to be fed at least twice a month because the plant will deplete the soil of its nutrients. You can use the compost that is created from your own kitchen (vegetable peels and other biodegradable waste), used teas dust, or powdered egg shells, don't forget to put in used coffee grind plus the filter and so on. Just bury them in the soil about 4 to 5 inches. Or you can use an organic time release fertilizer.

4. Location - your container should be placed in such a place where sun falls on it at least eight hours per day; though ideally it should have some 12 hours of direct sunlight. The more (longer) light they have the bigger they will grow. Some plants don't require 12 hours especially if you live in a hot summer areas like Florida or Arizona. Give them the afternoon shade.

5. Water - You need a lot of water. The plants' comfort and growth rate (as well as yield) will be dependent on the amount of water, nutrients and sunlight it gets. Water is one of the main ingredients for a healthy plant. The best plants to grow in your container vegetable gardening would be tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, cucumbers among vegetables, and a good variety of herbs and other flowers depending on your preference.

Most people plant flowers in their gardens. But instead of just doing it for aesthetic purposes, you can do something healthy with it by getting into vegetable gardening and here are some great ideas.

The difference between conventional vegetable gardening and ideas mentioned is that this is great to do regardless of your age. You can put this all together so you can see the fruits of your labor all the way to your dinner plate.

The first is idea is called the vegetable pizza garden. You are not planting vegetables to make a pizza but you are using different varieties to make it look like a pizza. For this to work, you need to plant basil, green peppers, selected herbs, jalapenos, oregano, thyme and tomatoes or you can mix and match ornaments (flowers) with vegetable or herbs.

You surely know what an ornament is and with the right vegetables, you can also accomplish this as another option. Some people like to make sure that the colors compliment each other but it is not necessary. You can plant whatever you want with whatever colors, fruit, vegetable, herbs, flowers or shrubs and trees you want.. Some gardeners like formal gardens, others like the jungle look. There is no right or wrong way to do it.

The third idea is to make a rainbow vegetable garden. You know the colors of the rainbow and although you will never find produce to make up all the colors, having at least three or even four is more than enough to still make this work.

In planting vegetables, you might be surprised to know that there are such things as purple beans or white carrots when you often see them as colored green or orange. These weren't painted but they came out naturally which are still safe to eat. Experiment a little with the seeds you get from your produce. Just stick them in soil and see what grows.

Planting your own vegetables is much cheaper than buying them from the store because you don't have to deal with markup costs. You just have to make sure that the soil is fertile (use lots of compost), watered regularly and the crops are rotated every quarter so the land can be used again for the next season.

Most garden insects do more good than harm. Butterflies, beetles and bees are known pollinators. They fertilize plants through unintentional transfer of pollen from one plant to another. 80% of flowering plants rely on insects for survival.

Worms, sowbugs and dung beetles together with fungi, bacteria and other microorganisms are necessary to help in the decomposition of dead plant material, thus enriching the soil and making more nutrients available to growing plants.

Other insects like lacewings, braconid wasps, ladybugs and dragonflies are natural predators of those insects that do the real damage, like aphis and mosquitoes.

Of the million species of bugs, only a small fraction are pests. They are all lumped together as creepy crawlies and at the sight of them most people run for the spray can. Instead of spraying them, value them for the role they play in our gardens and environment.

Learn to recognize the good bugs as they are essential to keeping the bad bugs in check. Welcome them into your home with open arms...well, maybe not in your home but definitely into your garden. Plant a few extra plants for the bugs to chew on.

Here are a few way to help the bugs in your garden:

Plant nectar-producing flowers to further increase the food supply. Plants in the cabbage, carrot and sunflower family are especially attractive to beneficial insects.

Don't use broad-spectrum, contact insecticides. Use natural sprays that will not harm the good bugs like garlic water or pepper water spray. Insecticides will kill the good guys and when their enemies are gone; the bad guys may soar and become more of a problem than before they were sprayed.

Cover your garden with mulch of dead leaves, grass clippings, or newspapers, thick enough to shade the soil surface. This provides shelter for spiders, which are the number one predator on insects.

Don't forget the birds
Birds can also be very helpful with controlling pests in your garden. Trees, shrubs with berries, birdhouses and water features all encourage birds to visit your yard.

An occasional application of compost tea when plants are flowering will keep them blooming for longer and in return good bugs will take care of the bad bugs.

How do you prevent your garden from being a 24-hour diner for every insect that passes through the neighborhood?

There are any number of chemical products on the market that will kill bugs but they kill the good bugs with the bad. Most insects prefer a bland diet, so by making your garden spicy you can encourage insects to dine elsewhere. A hot pepper or garlic spray works great as a repellant and can actually prevent insects - and even hungry rabbits - from nibbling on your plants. It might even work on squirrels except my squirrels. I caught one eating my jalapeños so I don't think it will work on them or maybe my squirrels, I should say squirrel, just likes hot stuff.

To make hot pepper spray, toss a couple of hot peppers, such as cayenne's or habaneras, in a blender with about a cup of water. Puree the mixture, strain out any solids, and then add enough water to make a gallon of concentrated hot pepper juice. To use the hot pepper spray, mix a quarter cup of the concentrate with a gallon of water and a tablespoon or two of liquid soap. The soap will help the spray stick to the plants.

To make a garlic spray, roughly chop one or two garlic bulbs, place them in a quart jar and pour boiling water over the garlic, enough to fill the jar. Close the jar and let it sit overnight. Strain out the chunks of garlic and add the garlic water to your sprayer along with a few drops of liquid soap. Leftover garlic water can be kept frozen for later use.

Once you've made your insect repellant concoction, test it on a few leaves first before spraying your plants. Sometimes a plant will object to the spray and drop all it's leaves. The hot pepper and garlic smell will be strong when first applied but will fade, and your flowers and vegetables won't take on their odor or taste. The spray should be reapplied every week or two, or after a rainfall.

Organic gardening does not just mean no chemicals, fungicides, insecticides, or herbicides, it means creating a natural balance in our gardens. Organic gardening starts with soil and that means recycling; recycling plants, weeds, flowers, vegetables, kitchen waste, newspapers and anything else that will break down into compost. Compost is the heart of organic gardening. What goes into the soil comes out as beautiful vegetables, flowers, shrubs and trees. Building and maintaining soil quality is the basis for successful organic gardening.

It is important to know your soil, as soil is the life of your garden. Plants require light, air, water, and nutrients. Your soil is the life force that feeds a balanced diet of nutrients to plants that help them fight off insect and soil born diseases.

An organic gardener strives to work with Mother Nature to keep harmony within the natural growing cycle. There are many ways to start organic gardening. Here are five quick and easy ways to start organic gardening.

Getting Stated

Improving your soil is the first step to organic gardening and that means compost! Compost is not hard once you know how. Just look at our forests and grasslands. Mother Nature composts material everyday to keep a natural balance, yet our forests and grasslands are not buried beneath mounds of uncomposted material. The more time and trouble you put into composting, the less natural it becomes.

Start simple. Every garden has composting material. Start by making a pile of weeds you pulled, add trimmings from plants, grass clippings, kitchen waste, spent flowers, straw, hay, newspaper, cardboard boxes, and yes, even your junk mail. (To bad we can't put our junk email into our gardens). The smaller the pieces the faster it will decompose. Compost really contains all the nutrients plants need for their life cycle. Notice how Mother Nature doesn't use fertilizer, just good old fashion compost.

If you are an apartment dweller, you can still make compost. A small bucket (or large) can hold your kitchen waste, newspaper, junk mail, pizza crust, and spent flowers and plants. Remember to add equal amounts of green and brown material to make great compost. You can use Batch Banner, Pit-a-Plenty, Trough or Bin composting methods.

If you do not want to mess with making compost, your local landfill usually has compost for free. Just pick it up and mix into your garden. You can also buy compost at your local nursery or garden shop.

Mulch, Mulch, Mulch!

Mulching reduces weeds, saves water and nourishes the soil. Notice how Mother Nature keeps our forests. She drops leaves, branches, and spent flowers on top of the soil and lets them pile up while the bottom decomposes. You can do the same.

Instead of raking up those leaves and throwing them way, run your mower over them to break them up and put them on your plants as mulch. They will not only reduce weeds and save water, they will put back nutrients while they biodegrade. You can also put them in a pile and they will biodegrade while they winter over supplying you with compost in time for spring planting.

Using rock, wood chips, beauty bark, or sand does nothing for the soil. But if you must use them, get them from your local landfill or a tree trimming company. They have tons of it and usually give it away free. Most store bought chips have been processed with chemicals to make them last longer.

Don't Panic at the First Sign of Bugs!

Pesticides kill almost any bug they touch including the good bugs that prey on the bad bugs. Bug killers do not differentiate among good and bad bugs. They kill them all! Birds, ladybugs, spiders, dragonflies, wasps, praying mantis, and worms eat harmful bugs. Bees and flies are the pollinators of our gardens...so be kind to them and Don't Panic!

If the bug damage is minor, there is no need to act. Sometimes a weather change or good bugs will take care of the problem. If you must use bug spray, make it a natural one. A little garlic water with a few drops of dish soap will usually take care of the problem. If not, cut the plant back to an inch above the ground and bury it in your compost heap and let it grow back.

Find a natural bug spray you like, or use companion planting. If left alone, Mother Nature usually takes care of her own. The good bugs will come along to eat the bad bugs. If you just cannot stand it, put the buggy plant in a clear plastic bag (after spraying with garlic water), for a couple of days but no longer than a week and not in direct sunlight. Remember though, we need bad bugs for good bugs to survive.

Don't Waste those Weeds!

It is impossible to rid a garden of weeds! Accept that you will always have some weeds. There, say it out loud...I will always have weeds! Now you can stop trying to get rid of those weeds. Instead of trying to get rid of weeds...use them to amend your soil!

Weeds require the same elements your beautiful garden does; light, air, water, and nutrients. Weeds are just better at pulling these elements from poor soil. If your soil is poor, meaning there is not enough organic matter, you will have a lot of weeds. Weeds find it very hard to grow in good organic soil but that is the way Mother Nature made them.

What we call weeds, Mother Nature calls fast composters. Where it takes a vegetable or flower 60 to 120 days to produce fruit or flower, some weeds can go from seed to flower in two weeks and then start over again. Weeds live and grow to help amend soil faster than leaves or plants because they biodegrade faster.

Weeds can pull nutrients from the poorest of soil but when they die down, they replenish the soil by decomposing and putting the nutrients back where other plants can use the nutrients. So rather than pulling weeds and throwing them away, try tilling them back into the soil to create organic matter that your vegetables need.

Water, Water, Water!

There are chemicals everywhere! The roof of your house has been chemically treated to withstand Mother Nature. The paint on your house is treated with chemical, your concrete driveway leaches chemicals, your automobile leaks gas and oil, pesticides, weed killers, man made fertilizers, and a host of other chemically treated objects all work to contaminate our water supply. Chemicals disrupt the ecosystem by killing the millions of micro-organism, fungi, and other bacteria Mother Nature uses to biodegrade plant matter. We can help my using methods to conserve and help purify our water supply.

All plants appreciate a gentle and thorough watering. Letting plants get wilted before watering stresses them and makes them open season for bugs and diseases. Using a slow drip system will supply constant water. A low tech drip system consists of a gallon/liter size juice or milk jug. Poke a few holes in the bottom with a pin, fill it with water and sit it beside your plant, shrub, or tree. Loosen the lid to release the pressure and the water will drip out slowly right where the plant needs it the most; the roots.

Rain barrels are the most efficient of water collectors. Connect them to your downspout to collect water from your roof or connect them together. As the average home yields over 200 gallons of wasted water from the roof, using a rain barrel to collect it will save water when you need it for your organic garden.

Another method is a rain garden or bog garden. Rain gardens are holding areas for water that will not run into our already stressed water sewer systems. It will hold the rain water and let it seep into the ground while purifying it at the same time.

So that is it...Five ways to organic gardening. Mother Nature has provided for us for millions of years by recycling. Recycling plant waste is the basis for organic gardening. It is the heart of Mother Nature and it behooves us to follow her direction for our organic gardens. Good luck and enjoy your organic garden.