Harvesting-From-Your-Backyard

A manageable, well looked after more compact garden is equally as rewarding as a large one. You have to have precisely the same two things - a slice of real old fashioned know-how and lots of resolve. The Happy Home Gardener has put together six easy tips to help in keeping your gardening by the yard looking in top shape and beautiful.

1. Deadheading.
Attempt to have each of your plants free from spent flowers and dried leaves by deadheading. All this means is the removal of limp flower heads and wilted leaves, this simple job will inspire your plants to make more flowers for more prolonged periods of time. There aren't many flowers that don't benefit from having dead flowers removed... they will smile and so will you.

2. Nip out your tops.
Most leafy plants will respond favorably to having their tops nipped off, it induces them to be more luxuriant and dense. Some flowering plants like Fuchsias are inclined to become leggy unless they are pinched out. So the rule of the green thumb is - if it's looking thin and straggly, pinch out the tops and watch it bush out.

3. Use minimal fertilizer.
A small amount of fertilizer will aid in further boosting the development of your precious plants. However if you soak your garden often, you will have to fertilize more regularly because water depletes the nutrients. An application of liquid fertilizer including seaweed every two weeks is regarded more beneficial than granulated fertilizer as it is more freely absorbed by the roots and leaves. Container plants will repay you with a healthy grin if a fifty fifty solution of the same liquid fertilizer is put on frequently.

4. Get the weeds out.
One of the easiest ways to enhance the attractiveness of your garden by the yard is to do a periodical weed patrol. The fact is, weeds fight with all your other plants for both nutrients and moisture. My particular approach is to get rid of weeds completely, don't use them for compost or mulch because you run the risk of re-contamination. If you feel you must use a weedkiller, try to get the type with a wick applicator, rather than any sort of spray. This will shield your best plants from spray-drift.

5. Water them well.
One great tip is to give your garden a thorough soaking once a week instead of shallow watering more often, always ensuring that you don't allow run-off which will lead to erosion. This penetrating watering will encourage the growth of healthier, deeper roots that will be more able to tolerate any dry spells of weather.

6. Take a stand against chemicals.
Chemicals are very hazardous to pets, humans and will kill most, if not all, the normal predators of the pests in your garden, so avoid them if possible and only use them sparingly as a final resort. A little bit of study will show there are lots of organic alternatives that work just as well and are much less harmful for the environment.

These six basic tips are useful advice to keep your garden by the yard in top shape and make it the envy of your friends and neighbors.

Organic gardening is the choice of producing vegetables and fruits with the use of substances only created in the natural world.

Why would you want to practice organic gardening?

1. You can simply make compost from your yard and vegetable waste. Though this takes a bit more time than purchasing ready-made chemical pesticides and fertilizers, it definitely helps in putting garbage to good use and so contributes to the environment.

2. Organic agriculture does not use chemicals that can have a harmful influence on your health. This is particularly important when growing vegetables. Chemical corporations tell us that the chemicals we consume are safe if we observe the directions, but study demonstrates that even minute amounts of toxins absorbed through the skin can cause such things as cancer, especially in children.

On average, a child consumes twenty to twenty five percent more cancer-causing pesticides from foods than an adult. This can present several diseases as the child grows older. With organic growing, these occurrences are lessened.

Keep in mind, pesticides contain toxins that have only one objective - to kill living things.

3. Less damage to the environment. Chemicals are constantly washed into our rivers, causing death to the native fish and polluting their environment.

Organic gardening practices assist in preventing the loss of topsoil from erosion.
The Soil Conservation Service says that an estimated 30 - 32 billion tons of soil erodes from United States farmlands every year.

4. Cost savings. There is no need to buy expensive chemical fertilizers and pesticides with organic gardening. Most organic recipes for the restriction of pests and diseases come directly from the laundry cupboard. Sometimes other plants can be grown as companions to the main crop. An example of this is the marigold, which helps in repelling aphids from vegetables.

Mixing 1 tablespoon of liquid dish washing detergent and 1 cup of cooking oil can make a cheap all purpose garden pest spray. Put 3 tablespoons of this mixture in 1 quart of water and spray on plants.

5. A simple mulch of pine needles will assist in restraining the growth of weeds as well as keeping the moisture in.

6. Organic gardening habits assist in keeping the environment undamaged for future generations.

All your hard work can be completely ruined in a few hours by the nasty pests that appear as soon as you've finished planting your garden. That's something no gardener needs or likes to see.

Stopping these bugs from attacking your garden by keeping them out right from the start is the very best option. I'm sure you know there are numerous chemicals that will do this, but you must put your and your family's safety first.

All these chemicals are designed to do one thing - kill living things and they're very good at it. That means they also kill any beneficial insects that you should encourage to make their home in your garden beds.

Ladybugs and spiders are among your best friends in the garden. They're the predators that feed on the pests that damage your plants, so you want to encourage them, not kill them. These helpful bugs will either feed on the pests or drive them away.

You should find out from your local nursery what plants attract these helpful insects so that you can plant them to encourage the good pests to take up residence and keep the damaging ones out.

There are some plants with a scent that repels the bad bugs and others that they just don't like. If you want a healthy harvest of tomatoes, you can plant the herb borage among them or even marigolds, these will stop the pests from damaging your fruit.

Don't neglect your housework in your garden - keep it clean and tidy. The bad pests absolutely love dark damp places, so try to keep these to a minimum. Get rid of any rubbish such as dead leaves, grass clippings and weeds by doing a regular clean up, this will help to deter them from taking up residence.

Some organic gardeners use a hot pepper wax that they lightly spray on the leaves of their plants. The oils from the spicy contents of this wax wards off the harmful insects and other pests as well.

The wax solution is safe for your plants and doesn't affect the produce at all, so don't worry about "spicing" up your vegetables. As long as you properly clean them before consuming them, you won't notice any residue.

By being proactive you remove the risk of all your hard work being undone. Many gardeners are discouraged by the apparent wasted effort when their crop is ruined by these pests - don't let that happen to you.

So before planting your garden, do your research and find the best companion plants to repel the annoying pests and the ones that invite the good insects in according to your geographic location.

The very best thing you can do for your garden is to use organic compost. It's one of the safest ways to grow your plants. Not only that, but your entire garden will flourish from the liberal use of this fantastic organic material.

The basis of good organic compost is carbon, so you need to start there. This means using things like dried leaves, straw, shredded newspaper and dead flowers. These are the vital brown materials that many people forget to add, but that's not going to be you.

The next layer should be green waste that's full of nitrogen. All your lawn clippings, kitchen waste and green garden prunings should be thrown onto your heap. When we talk of kitchen waste we mean any vegetable peelings, fruit peel or green leftovers, but never any meat!

To get your compost to start decomposing, it's very important to add ordinary soil from your garden to the heap as your next step, this will top off your pile.

Let's see, you've now got a layer of brown material, on top of that you've thrown some green waste and covered it with some garden soil. What you need now is another layer of nitrogen rich brown waste. Before you go any further you need to moisten your organic compost with a splash of water. It's critical that you keep your pile damp, but just as important to not allow it to get soggy!

Keep adding alternate layers as above, trying to maintain a proportion of three parts brown waste to one part green for maximum effect. The most manageable size for your pile is abut 3 feet wide by 3 feet high.

Every one to two weeks you will get your garden fork (or pitchfork) and turn your compost heap. The object of this execise is to take the material from the middle and move it to the outside and the outer stuff to the center.

The moisture level is critical. It should be damp but never soggy and make sure you don't let it dry out. Allowing it to dry out stops the decomposition process in it's tracks. You should see steam rising from your pile as you turn it, this indicates that it's all decomposing properly.

You can accelerate the process by adding earthworms to your compost pile if you want to, they are readily available at any fishing bait store. The truth is that the resident worms in your garden will quickly find your pile anyway.

To keep your pile tidy you can build or buy a bin. This keeps your garden looking neat and stops your pile spreading out too much. To make the job of turning your compost heap over easier, you can buy a rotating bin that you simply turn to mix your compost.

You need to wait until your compost reaches an almost black color and smells fresh and sweet, this indicates that it's ready. Now you can use it for potting up your favorite plants, you don't need to add anything else to the soil. It's also wise to gradually mix it through your entire garden because it contains all the essential nutrients your plants will need. Your garden will be the envy of all your neighbors.

The first step to starting a new vegetable garden is to map out your garden. Simply draw up an approximate plan of where you'd like everything to go, keeping as close to scale as possible. Make sure you take into account paths and such.

Next, you need to decide which vegetables you wish to grow. Make a list of everything you'd like to grow, and then narrow the list down to those that you can easily get locally. For example, exotic lettuces may be expensive and hard to find, and tomatoes from grocery stores usually taste terrible.

Don't go to the trouble of drawing a plan and then ignoring it - follow it! Once you've roughed out your beds, it's time to work out where your various plants go so that you keep any problems to a minimum as your crop matures. This is the reason a map is so important.

Put a lot of thought into your vegetable plants requirements. You need to know you're planting your chosen vegetables in the best position for maximum growth. For example, learn which ones tolerate shade and which ones require full sun.

If you're low on space, you can utilize the French cultivation method. This is an easy way to make the most out of the little space you have. Let's say you wish to sow spinach and carrots. You'd take one packet of each and mix them together.

You then sow your seed mixture into a furrow about 1/2 inch deep. The spinach grows rapidly and helps break up the soil to give the carrots more room to grow.

You can harvest some young spinach in approximately 4 weeks, which starts to thin it out to give the carrots room. You'll find that as the carrots begin to mature, the spinach will be almost finished and you'll have a bountiful harvest of succulent carrots.

Another illustration would be parsley or lettuce with radishes. This system can be used with lots of vegetables that mature at different times. Early varieties of radish sown with turnips and lettuce is often done in France.

The quickest growers are the radishes, which will be exhausted before the lettuce are mature enough to be harvested. Likewise the turnips will be ready to pull up by the time the lettuce are just about finished. Also, if your rows of plants are in an east-west pattern, you need to sow your tallest plants to the north side of these rows. This is to make sure that your shorter plants don't get shaded by the taller ones.

This is to ensure that the taller plants don't block the sunlight from reaching shorter plants. Corn is the tallest plant that is normally grown in vegetable gardens, so it should always be placed where it won't block sunlight from other plants.

Of course the reverse of this can be useful if you're wanting to grow vegetables that prefer dappled sunlight or shade. You can be imaginative and make use of larger plants to shade these smaller ones. A case in point would be to grow a tall row of peas or beans to provide shade for a cool climate vegetable like spinach.

This could help you grow shade-loving vegetables in your garden, even if you don't have any shady spots available. By being creative with placement, you might be able to grow vegetables you never thought you'd be able to grow in your location!

Growing your own herbs has many benefits. You'll quickly learn just how great it is to grow your own herbs once you start reaping the rewards of your harvest. Most people who grow a few herbs never want to stop, and their herb gardens only seem to expand every year!

The immediate benefit of growing a herb garden is the money savings. Buying fresh herbs from a store is an ongoing expense, whereas planting your own herbs will allow you to harvest lots more herbs for your money and give you plenty for your cooking.

If you would like to make use of fresh herbs in your recipes, then growing your own from seed is the way to go. For less than 2 dollars you'll get a large pack of seed and be able to grow lots of plants that will keep you in fresh herbs for a long time. If you're already a home gardener, then you won't need anything extra to grow your herbs. Even if you're not, the cost of a few tools and some fertilizer will still save you money and you'll only have to buy the tools once.

Herb gardening is also very relaxing. Many people find that it really helps them reduce stress and unwind. All types of gardening can relieve stress, but herb gardening combines the stress-relieving effects of gardening with the natural stress-relief of aromatherapy!

Of course there's the advantage that herbs can be grown in containers or in very small areas if your space is limited. Containers are a good choice if you need to move them around to assist their growth. Speaking of growth, herbs don't require much maintenance and tend to be very hardy as well as prolific.

You can also use herbs for their good looks, they're attractive plants that can provide some nice accents to your garden. You can mass plant them along paths or around features in your garden to great effect and you still have the bonus of using them in your cooking as needed.

Your fresh herbs will come to the rescue of your family dinners, you'll not hear the word "boring" from your kids again. Your meals will become the focal point of favorable comments and be looked forward to with relish.

Fresh herbs are also a very good source of additional nutritional value. Sure, they taste great and can make a wonderful garnish for all sorts of dishes, but they're also good for you! Some herbs contain decent levels of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. Fresh herbs are very good for adding that extra bit of nutrition to your meals.

Like any well maintained garden, a simple but attractive herb garden will add value to your home. It creates a good selling point should you ever decide to put your house on the market.

Growing your own herbs will also mean you can get varieties that you can't find locally. Most people are able to find fresh chives and standard basil locally, but can you find garlic chives, purple basil, or fresh chervil in your local grocery store? Most people can't, and the only way they can experience these exotic herbs is to grow them.

Plus, growing herbs can also make you more popular. A lot of people really love fresh herbs, and if you neighbors hear you're growing them, they might stop by and ask for some! Your friends and family will be delighted to be given fresh herbs as a gift, and they'll be wanting to hang around you for more handouts as often as they can!

Love to garden but finding that age is restricting your ability to manage your pride and joy as well as you did? As a baby boomer, I know how you feel. The knees and back don't recover from the bending like they used to, do they? What you need is some lateral thinking to allow you to keep gardening and I have the answer... raised beds.

Whether you're in the age group that needs to start thinking about adapting your methods or you're wheelchair bound, all you need is to build some raised beds about 3 feet wide by about 2 feet high and any length that will fit in your garden. Simply built with a timber frame, they get rid of the need to kneel and severely reduce the amount of bending, so saving your back.

There are lots of other benefits to having raised beds other than easy access. For instance your yield of vegetables can be greatly improved, weeds are less and the few you might get are easier to manage, pest control is also much easier and any problems you might have with your soil are eliminated.

You're not restricted to just growing vegetables of course, you can grow just about anything in your raised beds. There's different types of fruit, the huge variety of herbs and the even larger number of flowers. Any plant that needs a well drained soil is a candidate for your new garden.

Your garden beds will need less water because you can plant your crops a lot closer together than you would normally. Then there's the added advantage of less weeds because of less room to grow and shady conditions.

You're also going to be able to extend the growing season, because you can start sowing seeds earlier. This together with better yield, will have you harvesting for longer and enjoying a bigger crop from a smaller area.

If you have soil problems in your garden, you can use raised beds and just bypass your own soil completely. If you start with completely fresh soil, it doesn't matter what type of soil you had in your garden to begin with.

Another great benefit of raised bed gardening is the fact that the gardener doesn't walk on the soil in which the plants are growing. This helps prevent the soil from being packed down, so the roots can grow through the soil more readily.

A lot of pests and diseases will become a thing of the past because of your ability to select good quality soil for your garden beds. Another advantage that will lead to an increase in your harvest and superior quality of your crops.