An organic garden requires your most astute and attentive care to thrive. In order to get good results in an organic garden, you need to use smart horticulture techniques. Nurturing your organic garden ensures that your veggies are bigger and your flowers are more beautiful. Using these tips will make you a top-class organic gardener in no time.
Choose plant strains that will give you the best harvest with the biggest yield. In many cases, a disease-resistant or cold-tolerant hybrid will produce a higher yield than a traditional variety.
A handy trick is to turn the handle on a tool that you use often into a makeshift ruler. Tools that have long handles such as rakes, hoes and shovels can be used in place of a measuring stick. Lay the handles upon the floor and use a tape measure along side of them. Label the distances using a permanent marker. When you decide to work in the garden again, you will now have a ruler at your disposal.
Brighten your garden with biennials and annuals. Annuals and biennials that grow quickly can really wake up your flower beds, and they allow you to have a new garden look every season or every year, if you choose to. In addition, they work well as gap fillers between other areas, as long as those areas receive plenty of sunlight. You should get varieties such as cosmos, petunia, rudbeckia, hollyhock, sunflowers or marigold.
Climbing plants make a strong addition to walls, fences or other free-standing structures. Climbing plants can cover a wall after one growing season only. You can also use them in your landscape to cover an existing arbor, or allow them to climb up trees, or through shrubs. Some must be tied onto a support, but a number of climbers attach to surfaces with twining stems or tendrils. Some climbers that have proven to be reliable are honeysuckle, jasmine, wisteria, clematis, and climbing roses.
Check your soil before you begin planting your garden. For a tiny fee, a soil analysis may be done, and based on the results, the soil can support a growing garden by you enriching it as necessary. Before you ruin any crops, make sure you do this. Soil can be analyzed at a lot of cooperative extension offices, so make sure you plan accordingly.
Carbon dioxide, or CO2, is essential to the growth of plants because of its role in photosynthesis. A high level of CO2 provides an optimum environment for growth. The best method to obtain a high amount is to get access to a greenhouse. Make sure to keep CO2 levels high to provide the best growing environment for your plants.
Always protect yourself from the sun when you are outdoors working in the garden; you can do this by wearing clothes that will shield you from the sun. Sunglasses, a nice shady hat, and sunscreen are very helpful. Protecting yourself from the sun will lower your chances of getting skin cancer, as well as prevent premature aging from sun damage.
You don’t want to pick vegetables during the day when it is hot, as that is when they are prone to damage due to them being softer. Also ensure that you use a tool to cut the vegetables off at the vine. If you just yank or twist the whole plant, it may become damaged.
If you’re growing indoor organic plants, you should ensure that you think about how much light is available for them. If your dwelling does not enjoy a great deal of natural sunlight, it makes sense to grow only those varieties meant to thrive in such environments. If you do and this does not help, consider investing in some grow-lights.
Prepare the ground for a perennial garden quickly and easily. Use your spade in a slicing motion to cut a flap of turf. Carefully turn the flap over, then cover the area with a three-inch layer of untreated wood chips. Wait two weeks, then dig in and plant the new perennials.
You may find an old plastic laundry basket ideal for gathering vegetables from your garden. A benefit of using something like a laundry basket is that it can strain for you, as well as hold a large amount of produce. Rinse your crops while in the laundry basket to strain the excess water.
The correct depth for planting seeds in containers is triple the seed’s size. Some seeds shouldn’t be covered and must be in sunlight at all times. Examples of these are petunias and ageratum. Always be sure to check online or with the company you’re purchasing the seeds from as to their sunlight needs.
Organic gardening is a high-risk, high-reward activity compared to normal horticulture, but the rewards certainly are sweet. Chemical giants claim miracles, but those miracle crops come at a price to whoever eats the produce.
Using a soaker hose to water an organic garden is the very best choice. This type of hose allows you to water roots directly without wetting the plants’ leaves. These are more efficient than sprinklers, which use more water, and can save you the trouble of hand watering.
Organic gardening makes a huge difference in the taste and freshness of your produce. A successful garden takes plenty of work and patience, but it’s all worth it when you get to taste your delicious results.