Organic Amendments to Add to Your Soil
As an organic gardener, you know that the soil is the most important factor in creating a successful garden. Rich healthy soil means healthy, beautiful blooms and juicy vegetables.
Compost
Compost is made from decayed organic materials such as straw, grass clippings, newspaper, leaves, certain food wastes, spent plants, hay, chipped trees/brush, and farm manures. You can easily make your own compost using a bin, tumbler …
Green Versus Brown Compost Materials
Download a Printable Guide for Your Fridge (PDF)Composting in your garden is very easy to do, however, to achieve quick and optimal compost, it should be well balanced with green and brown waste materials.
What are green versus brown materials, and why should you care? Think of compost as a healthy meal for your soil life – those worms and microbes that do the actual work …
The First Organic Gardener
Nature was the first organic gardener, slowly scraping up a thin blanket of rock particles over much of the barren planet, then feeding it with the bodies of tiny, spore-bearing plants and gradually cloaking it in green.
By the mid to late 19th century, chemists decided that they could help gardeners and farmers with new inorganic fertilizers and alike manna from heaven. This seemed to be the answer to the problems …
When Should Compost Be Applied?
The principal factor in determining when to apply compost is its condition.
If the compost is half finished or noticeably fibrous, it could be applied in October or November. By spring, it will have completed its decomposition in the soil itself and be ready to supply growth nutrients to the earliest plantings made.
Otherwise, for soil enrichment, the ideal time of application is a month or so before planting. The closer to …
Grow Your Own Veggies
I have mentioned before the benefit, both financially and healthwise, to grow your own veggies.
There is nothing more satisfying in a garden, than to pull your own carrots, eat your own tomatoes and dig up your own potatoes. The principles of being able to produce good quality vegetables,
relies on good soil. A healthy soil is a living community of tiny organisms that cycle nutrients, which helps plants get those nutrients and overwhelm disease.
Green manures are …
Tomato Madness
Tomatoes are grown by more gardeners than any other vegetable. If the letters that I get indicate anything it is that it seems that this is the only vegetable that many people grow!!
Here are some tips that may help you in your tomato growing:
Grow the correct variety. This may sound obvious but it really isn’t. Many gardeners who move around the country still stick to the same variety that they grew in a different climate …
Organic Matter In the Soil
Organic matter is material in the soil that has several important roles:
acts like glue to hold the mineral particles together.
Is a food source for the minute( or micro) organisms that live in the soil.
Is a source of nutrients for the plants.
Strongly influences what color the soil will be.
Organic Matter and the mineral particles work together somewhat like mortar and bricks. The organic matter acts as the mortar or glue and causes particles to stick together …
Green Manure
Green manure is a term used for grasses and legumes grown and then tilled under. It is very cheap and easy to use, and in most cases is faster-acting than home-made compost.
In severe winter areas, a green manure crop can protect the soil and give the added benefit of nutrients and organic material to the soil in spring. The best plant to add nutrients to the soil are grasses …
Easy Ways To Compost
An easy way to compost if you have limited space is to use a garbage can or drum.
Punch holes in the bottom and sides for drainage and aeration, set on bricks or concrete blocks, and layer the materials with soil inside. You can roll it around on its side periodically to help aerate the material inside.
Commercial compost containers are also available. Most are designed so the finished …
