​Organic Gardening; How To Make Your Garden Thrive

by Michael Ertem

Many individuals prefer organic gardening, as they fear the possible long-term effects on their health as well as the environment from the many commercial pesticides and fertilizers that are used. Also, most methods of organic gardening are fairly inexpensive. This article provides several useful tips that will help you improve your organic gardening techniques.

Allow your children to actively participate in planting your organic garden. Helping a garden grow is an excellent learning experience for kids, and it allows your family to spend time together while creating healthy, nutritious foods. Be sure to plant some strawberries for your children and grandchildren. Ever-bearing ones are especially nice. Children find it fun to pick strawberries and love to assist with the harvest if they get some yummy treats as they work.

If you're working to build a sustainable organic garden, try leaving a portion of your garden untouched so that the wildlife will be able to thrive. The kind of birds and insects needed for pollination will be naturally present on your property and help with your organic garden.

Indoor plants need an environment that is between 65 and 75 degrees. This level of heat is required in order for plants to grow. If you do not want to keep your home that warm during the winter months, you can get a heat lamp for the organic plants instead.

Preparing the soil for your perennial garden is easy. Use a spade to dig into the turf, turn the turf over, then spread the area with approximately three inches of wood chips. Wait two weeks, then dig in and plant the new perennials.

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​Make sure you have your gardening tools near you, so you can maximize your gardening efficiency. You can do this by using a bucket, or you can wear rugged pants or a gardening apron that has several pockets. Keep your gloves, pruning shears, a hand spade and your other tools handy to quickly and easily do your garden maintenance.

As the seeds sprout, they'll need less warmth. As your baby plants grow, you can move them from their heat source. Also, remove plastic coverings from the tops of your growing containers to keep them from becoming too warm or humid. Watch your seeds carefully to know when you can take these steps.

​Put coffee ground into your soil. These coffee grounds have many nitrogenous nutrients that your plants could use. Nitrogen is often the most important nutrient when it comes to plants thriving, and a solid source of nitrogen, like coffee grounds, urea, or compost, can boost growth speed and increase height.

Try to avoid letting your organic garden chores build up. While you may not be able to spend a lot of time every day in your garden, even little items done daily will stop the mountain of work from growing. Grab a handful of weeds, throw down some mulch, or toss some water on it anytime you walk by.

You may find an old plastic laundry basket ideal for gathering vegetables from your garden. This will be like a strainer for all your produce. You can clean and rinse the harvest when it is the laundry basket and the water will go out of the holes.

A rule of thumb for when you are planting seeds in containers is to make the hole depth around three times larger than the seed itself. Some seeds need to be in direct sunlight, though, so you need to know information about each type of seed. Ageratum and petunias fall into this category. If you're not sure, a guide either comes with seeds, or you can find this information online.

Calibrate how much you water based upon the time of the year and the weather conditions. The amount of water a plant needs depends on the soil type, time of day and the water's quality. For instance, if you are in a warm and humid climate, avoid getting any water on the leaves because this will cause leaf fungus. Rather, make sure the root system is watered.

If you start implementing the organic gardening advice included in this article today, you can look forward to having a healthy, productive, toxic-free garden in the near future. Organic gardens are also more attractive to a variety of wildlife, who appreciate the chemical free environment.