Garden Maintenance Articles
Organic Lawn Care Bits for Spring
If you are thinking about transitioning to organic lawn care this spring, now is the time to start lining up your plan. It is possible to use organic techniques when maintaining your lawn. Organic lawn care solutions are not as quick as conventional methods, but they will keep your lawn, and your surrounding environment healthier in the long run.
Organic Weed Control
You can start anywhere, …
Should I Turn to Organic Gardening? Pros and Cons
You are likely reading this because you wish to know more about becoming an organic gardener, and have this burning question: How much time will this take? Or, how the heck can I keep my flowers alive in a pesticide-free yard without insects and disease destroying them? These are excellent questions, and many of the answers aren’t clear-cut. So, let’s start with the #1 basic difference …
The Basics of Organic Lawn Care
Anyone interested in organic gardening surely is interested in an organic lawn care regimen. Lawn care free of chemical fertilizers and herbicides isn’t difficult nor is it any more expensive than traditional lawn care. It turns out that our lawns have a major impact on our environment.
Did you know that 30% of water on the east coast, and 60% of water on …
Organic Versus Conventional Gardening – Comparing Fertilizer
We all know that organic gardening is better for your health and better for the environment, yet people new to organic gardening have way too much confusing information thrown at them. Worse, they may turn to organic gardening with the mind-set of a conventional gardener. Many conventional gardeners who go cold turkey and switch to organic fertilizer will …
Organic Gardening New Year’s Resolutions
2009 is almost here, and I’m making my gardening New Year’s Resolutions. In theory, these resolutions should be fun to keep. In practice, I might need a nudge from time to time. Thinking about the previous year of gardening, blogging, copy writing and more, I’ve come up with some things I definitely want to try so that I can I can write about them (and enjoy …
Bye Bye Botrytis
Last week, in preparation for what appears to be a long, warm, winter, I planted four flats of pansies, two flats of snapdragons and some camellias. Now, I have to see if botrytis strikes. I certainly hope it doesn’t, as I prefer to not spray my plants with anything, if possible, even organic fungicides. However, if it does strike, I suppose I will treat it. After …
What about Witchhazel?
Continuing with the seasonal plant profiles, this week ends with Witchhazel. Underloved until it starts blooming, Witchhazels are mysterious and beautiful additions to fall and winter gardens. Organic gardeners have much to love about the witchhazel because the plants are rarely affected with pest or disease problems. There are two main species in North America. Hamamelis virginiana, or common witchhazel, blooms in the fall–October and November …
Top Tips for Fall Gardening
In the last post, we gave you all kinds of advice about what NOT to do to put your garden to bed in the fall. I figured that it was only fair to follow that post with a list of things you SHOULD do at this time of year to tuck your garden in for the winter. If you follow this advice, …
How NOT to put your Garden to Bed
At the end of September, it is time to think about putting your garden to bed. Your location will determine exactly when you need to complete certain tasks. There are, however, some definite NOs when putting your garden to bed for the winter, if you want to make sure that everything comes back nice and lush next spring.
What NOT to Do
1) …
Using Humic Acid as a Soil Conditioner
There are many products on the market that can serve as a soil conditioner to help correct deficiencies in the soil to help it better support plant life. One of the most impactful organic soil conditioners out there has got to be humic acid.
Humic acid is still a relatively new concept to most and is not widely available at most lawn …
