Successful Organic Gardening Systems
What is it that most organic gardeners want from their amazing food gardens?
* Is it the substantial health benefits:
– knowing that your food is GM and synthetic chemicals and free?
– gathering your food from garden to table in minutes, retaining valuable, health enhancing nutrients?
* Or the pleasure of losing yourself in the delight of time spent in your garden?
* Maybe it’s about spending time teaching your children how to garden
* Perhaps it’s your creative outlet; designing, creating, maintaining
* Do you view it as your part in helping the environment; reduce, reuse, recycle?
I believe Organic Gardening brings us most (or all) of these things. Some of the practices that are a must for having a healthy, high yielding vegetable garden include strategies or systems that bring about healthy soil, deep watering, balanced insect populations and crop rotation / planning.
Having nutrient rich, well balanced soil, high in microbial activity can be achieved by continually adding organic matter to the soil. You can do this with compost (making your own compost has many benefits), green manures, crop rotation and a “no dig” policy. A high yielding garden is dependant on healthy soil.
Deep watering will encourage your plants to develop deep root systems. This enables them to take in more water and nutrients. You then have strong, healthy plants that do well with regular deep watering. Mulching prevents moisture loss, soil erosion and reduces weeds. Installing drip irrigation especially when combined with a timer will benefit you, your garden and the environment.
If you want to be chemical and / or spray free getting the right balance of beneficial and harmful insects throughout your garden is crucial. Yes, I said harmful insects! If there were no harmful insects for the beneficial ones to feed on all your beneficial insects will die or go elsewhere. Nature abounds in symbiotic relationships and this works very efficiently in the garden. Imagine if you had no predatory insects and were then inundated with carrot fly. There would be no stopping them, unless you resorted to chemicals and you should never allow this in your organic garden.
Arm yourself instead with companion planting practices; practical methods to outwit the enemy (harmful insects) the way nature intended. Plant combinations that will confuse pests by masking the smell and shapes of plants which pests use to locate their favourite foods. In my Companion Planting guide you will also discover which plants benefit each other and those you must never plant together.
With the basics covered you just need to decide what you’re going to grow, how much of it and when. You know your family’s food needs better than anyone else, so there’s no point in growing 15 brussels sprouts plants if your family won’t eat them. You also need to know the right time of year to plant different families. For example: Cucurbits (cucumbers, squash, pumpkins, melons) need to grow in warm temperatures. In winter (unless you can artificially provide the right conditions) your crop will fail so leave it till the ground has warmed, the days are lengthening and the risk of late frost has passed (mid spring in most areas).
Rotating your crops is also a good practice. Otherwise you will deplete the soil of particular nutrients / elements that a crop planted continually in the same place needs. This also means that the crop will perform worse each year as the nutrients it needs decline.
I like to spend winter evenings planning what, where and how much I’m going to plant in my veggie garden next season. Keeping a gardening journal comes in really handy when I’m planning. It reminds me what worked previously, what I’d like to do differently and whether or not I planted enough or too much of a particular plant to meet our needs.
If you think this is all a bit overwhelming, just remember progress, not perfection. Just get started and improve upon it as you go. So you really have no excuse. You have enough information to make a great start and you can build on it as you gain more experience.
Watch the video related to organic gardening
In March of 2009 the White House created a plan for an organic garden. There were no beets included the plan. This is a plea to President Obama to add sweet tasty organic beets to the garden. All we are saying is give beets a chance. … White House organic gardening gardning garden beets white house obama Michelle Obama michele the gardeners doug oster jessica walliser pittsburgh pittsburg barack barak
Help answer the question about organic gardening
Tags: 550, AM, Antonio, Bob, garden, green, KTSA, organic, San, Shades, Texas, Webster
March 14th, 2009 at 1:13 am
Thank you very much for the video…
March 14th, 2009 at 1:55 am
This was a very helpful video and easily explained. Thank you.
March 14th, 2009 at 1:04 am
Organic gardening is a total myth. there is no such thing. The last organic gardening on this Earth was in N.W. Europe 400yrs ago before the rich landowners forced villagers off the land with the enclosure acts. They even used their own excrement on their fields. They were doing so well they wouldn't work for the rich, so the Tories ( Republicans)stole their land from them.
March 14th, 2009 at 1:50 am
Corn Gluten is a pre-emergent; meaning it wont kill any existing weeds it just keeps the new weeds from sprouting. You can apply the gluten now, but I wouldn't use it in any beds that you'll be starting seeds in. It's safe for beds that will be planted with starter size plants or existing plants.
March 14th, 2009 at 1:54 am
Pepper plants are good for unwanted insects.
You can also use dish soap. Nothing fancy just regular "Joy" soap cheap soap only. But, there is a good chance you will kill the good insects too.
1st: Get a bucket, fill it with water
2and: Pour the soap in (not to much because you don't want to get rid of all the good insects)
3rd: stir it up so it can blend. (not to much suds)
4th: Let the bucket of soap sit out in the sun for at least a couple of hours.
5th: Use a sprayer and distribute it all over your plants.
See the soap gets in the insects esophagus and the insect dies because it can't breath.
You can use this anywhere in your yard.
works GREAT for cinch bugs.
March 14th, 2009 at 10:37 am
I love the book Secrets of Companion planting. I've never used any chemicals, but thats probably why I spend at least a hour a day in my gardens pulling weeds. Composting is another great thing (and I have horses!)
March 14th, 2009 at 10:57 am
Square Foot Gardening.
http://www.squarefootgardening.com/
March 14th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
Well, far from self sufficient now. But organic gardening is fun. We started that idea from 40 over years ago. In those days, My dad would collect all the garbage and incinerate them and use the ashes as fertilizers. Our garbage bin is always empty. After harvesting all the beans, he would chop up the vines and bury them under the ground to keep it fertile for the next crop. We used to plant corn, long beans, kale, peanuts and sweet potatoes and cucumbers. Of course we have the problem of snails and catepillars. Organic was unheard of then. He just could not spend money on fertilizers. We had a big land area surrounding our house. All used water from the house flows into a pool and we use them to water the plants. Come to think about it, it is what people have been trying to advocate these days. Going green and organic and all that. Alas, Dad passed away at 1994 at age 85. Also, would be great to be still staying at that place. Keep it up, you are fortunate to have land like that.
March 15th, 2009 at 4:42 pm
I have been making my living growing produce organically for the past 14 years. For 8 years i was certified organic. I assume you don't care to get certified, you just want to grow pure food.
http://www.idigmygarden.com/forums/ is a great forum to learn the ropes. Organic gardening also has a really good forum and the magazine is an excellent resource http://www.organicgardening.com
It will take many years to get you soil in shape and learn the techniques for successful organic growing so don't expect a great garden for a few years. Start small, no more than a 10' x 10' (3m x 3m) garden the first year or you will get overwhelmed in august when the weather is hot, the insects are out and the weeds are growing high.
Mulch everything with straw (not hay as hay tends to have a lot of weed seeds) and mulch well-at least 6" thick. Straw mulch will keep weeds down, moisture in the soil and blight from happening on plants like tomatoes. It also adds organic matter to your soil.
Have a good hoe, rake, wheelbarrow, trowel and garden fork as your basic garden tools.
Start a compost pile ASAP, compost will be the main thing you will feed to the soil/plants. Compost is the best thing to build healthy soil and organics is all about building healthy soil as any organic grower worth their salt knows soil is alive and healthy soils means healthy pest free plants.
Good luck
March 16th, 2009 at 10:21 am
1. copy and paste
2. send this to 2 other videos.
3. hold your breath for 10 seconds
4. press refresh twice
3. LOOK AT YOUR HANDS
March 16th, 2009 at 7:40 am
In organic gardening, soil quality decides vegetable quality. That's why you need good quality compost to keep the soil productive for organic vegetable gardening.
Compost can be made from leaves, dead flowers, vegetable scraps, fruit rinds, grass clippings and manure. The ideal organic soil has a dark color, sweet smell and is full of earthworms. Some soil may need more natural additives such as bonemeal, rock phosphates or greensand. A simple soil test will tell you the pH balance and which nutrients you need to use.
March 17th, 2009 at 5:58 am
Contact your county extension agency and ask if there are any gardening classes.
Some websites
http://www.rodaleinstitute.org
http://www.gardenweb.com/forums/organic
http://forums.farm-garden.com/index.php
http://alanbishop.proboards60.com/index.cgi
http://www.johnnysseeds.com