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Tips for your own Organic Garden

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Get Down and Dirty with Organic Gardening

I find gardening really fulfilling. It's peaceful and relaxing but keeps me physically active too. I grow a few vegetables here and there and I appreciate the savings as well as the fresh food.

I've been learning about organic gardening. It's just the same as regular gardening except that no synthetic fertilisers or pesticides are used!

Organic gardening starts with the soil. We have to add organic matter to the soil regularly in order to keep it productive.

Compost is essential, and it's free! Your kitchen scraps (no meat!) leaves, dead flowers, fruit rinds, grass clippings and whatnot.

The ideal soil has a dark colour, a sweet smell, and is full of earthworms

Some soil may need more natural additives than regular compost can give, such as bonemeal, rock phosphates, or greensand. A simple soil test will tell you the pH balance and which nutrients you will need to use.

One thing that makes even gardeners that are very serious about organic gardening reach for pesticides is insects on their plants. The best way to defend plants against insects is to take preventative measures. One thing that can be done is to make sure plants are healthy and not too wet or dry because insects usually attack unhealthy plants and if healthy, they can often outgrow minor insect damage.

A variety of plant types is a good idea to keep pests of a particular plant type from taking out the entire garden.

Make Friends with Insect Predators

The best way to defend against insects is to make your garden enticing to insect predators, such as ladybugs, birds, frogs, and lizards.

Keepi a water source nearby and grow plants which attract nectar-feeding insects. Other ideas are sticky traps, barriers, and plant collars. There are some household items that prevent against insects too such as, garlic and hot pepper.

Ask at your garden Store about disease resistant plants and plant them in their prime conditions. Many diseases will spread because of constant moisture and bad air circulation, so the site of your garden and the way it's watered is of prime importance.

Natural Pesticide Remedy

1/4 cup dishwashing detergent,
1 cup cooking oil
Mix into 1/2 a bucket of water

Make the Most of Mulch

Weeds can be an annoying and frustrating part of organic gardening. Organic mulch can act as a weed barrier, but for even better protection put a layer of newspaper or cardboard under the mulch.

Don't forget the old-fashioned art of hoeing and hand pulling that always works. Your best bet in weed prevention is persistence. Mulch well and pull and hoe what you can; after a few seasons you can beat the weeds for good.

Organic gardening is an excellent way to assure that your plants will be free of all pesticides and as healthy as possible. Just like you will be.

I love containers for my vegetables

McGee & Stuckey's Bountiful Container: Create Container Gardens of Vegetables, Herbs, Fruits, and Edible Flowers

by: Rose Marie Nichols McGee, Maggie Stuckey

Amazon Price: $10.19 (as of 06/03/2012)

The best container gardening book and the only one you'll ever need.

I have hanging containers

I have a number of these hanging plant containers. They're a bit hard for me to put up so I get my son to attach them.. I get him to do my heavy work around the garden.

And various sizes of pots

Get the grandchildren involved

It's easy enough for a small child to help in planting seedlings into larger containers. When they plant a vegetable or two themselves, they're interested in the way it grows and how it turns out.

Organic Gardening Manual

Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long

by: Eliot Coleman, Barbara Damrosch

Amazon Price: $11.95 (as of 06/03/2012)

How to harvest fresh vegetables and salad ingredients literally year-round--yet without an expensive greenhouse or indoor light garden set-up.

Videos about Organic Gardening

Organic gardening: How to grow an organic vegetable garden: by HowdiniGuru | video info

1,033 ratings | 559,110 views

automatically generated by YouTube

Bid for a Garden Bargain

Come on over to my garden ...

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What should be in everyone's garden

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