You And Your Gardening Tools
Whether or not you're thinking when it comes to taking your gardening gravely and getting out there day after day to increase the attractiveness of your garden, then you Will want to get the right tools to help you in this. You might just be tempted to go out to the store and just buy the closest things you see, but you'll Be much more felicitous if you put lots of thought into the styles and types of tools you're buying. There are styles designed just for gardening, and You'll be better off buying those.
You may find most of the tools you will require at your local gardening or home improvement shop. Ordinarily the laborers are going to be plainly thrilled to Aid you in finding the ideal tools. Aid you go to a shop that specializes in gardening, you may normally get some counsel in addition to Service. Gardening store laborers are normally an unexploited wealth of wisdom, and they're how I learned nearly all that I acknowledge when it comes to gardening Today.
Whether or not you are having a hard time finding the right tool or Whether or not you want to save some cash, you may attempt looking online for the furnishes you need. You'll have to pay the shipping costs and wait an extra week or two, but often times if you buy more than one tool, the total savings are going to be worth it. You ought to always buy from a reputable seller, though, and search around in advance for anything negative that individuals had to say when it comes to their buying Experience.
As far as primary digging tools go, you may already have all you'll need. There are several types that you ought to get though, for dissimilar peculiar Tasks. A round point shovel is good for digging holes for plants. A spade is essential for all the further intricate work. A garden fork you may not Use as much, but I have one in my tool shed and I've been thankful for it on multiple occasions. Having these dissimilar varieties of digging tools May help you to derogate the work you have to do. May, if you attempt digging a large hole with a little spade then you'll end up rather tired. The same goes if you are attempting to do more elaborate work with a large clumsy shovel.
A rake is an absolute requirement. You probably already have one, but I'm guessing it's a lawn rake and not a garden rake. There is unquestionably a Divergence, and if you attempt to utilize a lawn rake in a garden then you will not be happy with the effects. Same if you buy a grading or a contractor's Rake. You'll want to look for a bowhead rake. I've found these are the most skillful for gardening intentions. They will provide you the greatest or most complete or best possible control and Accuracy, so you don't accidentally tear up your treasured plants.
As far as hoes go, I don't believe any gardener must have fewer than 3. There are such a good deal of utile varieties on the marketplace that I have a hard time Recommending just one, and that's why I'll tell you all the ones I normally use. The one I use the most is the onion hoe, which is very lightweight And ideal for little cultivations and weeding. The Warren hoe is a larger model, with a pointed end. Whether or not you need to make a hole or dig out a pesky Weed, this is the one for you. There are several other varieties, but I recommend starting with the ones I brought up. As you advancement in your Gardening savvy, you will find the want for more types.
Most individuals believe that gardening just comprises of an easy and not involved or complicated spade. But there are some, some tools with many more variations that you will use in Your gardening career. Ordinarily you may start with just more than one dissimilar tools, but you'll always find that you may use more varieties for special Situations. It's just a matter of recognizing when one tool could be more efficient than another.
Organic Gardening Articles: http://www.organicgardenarticles.com/
Author: Godfrey Philander
Godfrey is a really good author who teaches regarding landscaping landscaping
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4 Steps To A Promising Flower Garden
Flower gardens occur in different styles and assortments, their charm can be dependent to any flower gardener. As someone who takes care of a garden, knowing how to enhance your flower garden can make a big difference in the dealing with beauty and taste and over-all condition of your garden.
Here are 4 easy ways to make your flower garden blossom more:
1. The necessities must always be given major deliberation.
Exactly like with any gardening undertaking, a flower garden must have its sufficient supply of water, light, and rich soil. To be lacking one of these gardening necessities is almost developing the death bed of your flower garden. Irrigate the flower garden more often during dry spells. In addition, make sure that you set the flower bulbs deep enough to allow sufficient room for the rooting.
2. Mix perennials with annuals.
Perennial flower bulbs don't have to be replanted because they grow and bloom for several years while annuals spring up and bloom for only one season. Mixing a few perennials with annuals guarantees that the display goes on with your flower garden.
3. Deadhead to promote more blossoms.
Deadheading is simply clipping off the flower head after it droops. This will cause the plant to grow more and develop more flowers. Just make sure that you don't throw away the deadhead on the garden or mold and other plant disease will assault your plants.
4. Know the beneficial from the bad bugs.
Do you know that nearly all garden bugs do more good than harm? Butterflies, beetles and bees are famous as pollinators. They feed plants through unplanned transport of pollen from one plant to another. And 75% of flowering plants count on them for survival. Why do you believe flowers are that brilliant and beautiful? I’ll bet you thought it was to make mankind more affection of them? It's really to entice more bugs.
Sowbugs and dung beetles both with fungi, bacteria and other microorganisms make the soil more favorable to plants. This is on account they exist on dead materials, breaking down into simpler molecules that feed the soil. These insects are known as decomposers.
Now you don't just chase away insects whenever you see them.
With this info in mind and applied, your flower garden will surely reward you with a breath taking view when it's comes for them to bloom once more.
Organic Gardening Articles: http://www.organicgardenarticles.com/
Author: James Ellison
Jim's articles are from extensive research on each of his topics. You can learn more of flower garden perennials by visiting: Flower Garden
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Organic Gardening Benefits Our Health & The Planet
Did you know that interest in gardening is increasing at a rapid rate? The increase is due to the under 35 set who is said to have a greater interest in the environment and going green. The primary field of gardening interest of Generation Y is organic gardening.
There has been a lot written about organic gardening in the mainstream media and it has become a very popular topic with many people around the world, not just youth. With so many more health and environmentally conscious people around today, organic gardening has become quite popular. With its explosive growth in the past decade, organic gardening has gained acceptance in mainstream society. No longer the realm of hippies and health fanatics, organic produce is now consumed by the general public and readily available in large chain grocery stores.
Organic produce has become a featured item at many large-chain grocery stores so it is no wonder people want to know more about organic gardening. Some would even grow their own organic produce if they only knew how or had the time or had the space for it.
But do we really know what organic gardening is.
My definition might differ from yours, but to me, organic gardening means raising vegetables, flowers and plants without harmful artificial chemical herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers. I don't think it is possible to be one hundred percent organic and I certainly don't think the average hobby gardener should worry about meeting whatever the commercial gardening standards are in their particular area. But I do truly believe that people can enjoy a healthier life by including more organic gardening in their lives and more organic produce on their tables.
So how do we go about creating an organic gardening project that will actually result in healthy harvests of pure healthy foods? How do we nurture a sick planet back to health and assure a brighter future for ourselves and for future generations to come? Well, one way is to stop using so many chemical poisons in general and in our food in particular. It has been said that our food can contain up to 450 different added unnecessary and even dangerous chemicals.
By simply removing artificial chemicals from the gardening equation, we can improve our health. We can be successful at organic gardening without the use of chemicals through building the soil and mimicking nature's ways to do the rest. This doesn't mean that we don't adapt them, but in general, if we follow nature's lead and use the wisdom that the environment has accumulated over the course of Earth's history, we can be very successful in our organic gardening efforts.
Nature is diverse and resilient. It will always fight back to reclaim its rightful place in our ecosystem. Our agriculture will be so much more robust with organic gardening. Poly-culture and lack of pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilizers make organic gardening the only sane choice for our own health and the health of the planet. Try organic gardening today.
Organic Gardening Articles: http://www.organicgardenarticles.com/
Author:
Want more tips like this? Be sure to visit our blog at www.everythingoutside.com/blog
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Protecting Your Vegetable Garden From Large Birds
Its very important to firstly recognise that all life in and around your garden is connected. This includes the life you see as well as the billions of tiny creatures that live in healthy soil. Without a balance being maintained between all this life, your soil will loose its vitality and so will your plants. When the vitality of your plants is lowered, they become targets for insects and birds. Nature provides many mysterious gifts we can tap into which will support your organic food garden. These gifts recognise the synergistic impact of maintaining a balance with all this life.
Its easy to concentrate on the negatives of what birds can destroy in your garden. These impacts are often quite obvious to the eye. I feel its timely to mention some of the good reasons for birds being in your garden, before we get into concepts of limiting their presence:
1. Most birds eat common small creatures that live in food gardens. They can maintain a natural balance with such creatures, if you let them do their job. The birds can be your clean up team. You may notice that if your plants are weakened because of extreme heat and lack of moisture, the grasshopper population increases, then birds will become more frequent in the garden to eat the grasshoppers and so bring back a balance.
2. The bird song can help the plants to grow. Researchers in many parts of the world have proven that sound benefits plant growth. The singing of birds provides a beautiful vibration of sounds waves to roll over your plants, adding to their vitality.
3. The birds and their singing add natural beauty to the garden. When the gardener becomes conscious of this beauty and has a feeling of joy and appreciation in the beauty of all forms of life in the garden, there is an energetic transfer of this feeling to the plants. In other words, if you love your garden and its creatures, the garden will respond positively. If you hate all the creatures in and around the garden and try to destroy them, they will respond accordingly to your feelings.
All that feel good stuff is fine, you may be thinking, but if you don t like the squarking of the crow or cockatoo or the grunt of the bush turkey and its accompanying destruction, what else can you do to counter these large birds that may take more than their fair share of your garden produce:
1. Assume that the birds will visit and always put in more plants than you will consume. This allows for some plants to be eaten or die out due to factors such as poor soil, poor quality seedlings or disease, but most importantly, it provides some food for the birds and other animals of your garden. They have as much right to live in your space as you do.
2. Do everything you can to maintain the vitality of your plants. This includes diligent work on your soil fertility, maintaining appropriate water levels and regular observation of how your plants are going. With this observation, you may be able to stem a weakness in your plants. Healthy plants emit a natural scent, not detectable to humans. This scent minimises the likelihood of the plants being attacked by pests or diseases.
3. Establish a bird family to protect your food garden. This is not as hard as it sounds. Birds are very territorial creatures and you can make use of this aspect of their being to keep other bigger birds out of your food garden. There are three smaller bird families that live around my garden, I call them the garden protectors. Place a seed tray and water bath in an obvious part of your food garden. You may also wish to place a grubs bowl. Each day top up the seed tray in your garden and if you find any grubs on your plants, put them in the grubs bowl. Over time a family of birds will begin to consider your garden as their home base. Once they do this, they will become quite aggressive with other birds coming into their territory. As an example, just last week a bush turkey (as large as a chicken) was nosing around my compost heap. The bird families followed me down to the garden and then began to dive on the bush turkey and continued this until the turkey departed. This deterrence is a common happening and I know it also occurs when I am not around, because my garden is rarely touched and yet there are over 30 different types of birds living on our land, some quite large.
4. Once you have established one or more families of smaller birds around your garden, you'll find they will like to be around you when you are in the garden. I feel its important to keep building a close relationship with the birds so they trust you. Just being around them provides a form of communication to the birds, they become partners in your garden. I conduct gardening workshops at our place and its fascinating to see the families of birds interacting with the participants, its as if they want to be part of the conversation.
So you see, there are ways to work with the balance of life around your garden and grow enough healthy food for all, whilst increasing the beauty, productivity and joy of your organic garden. Our web site at www.cityfoodgrowers.com provides detailed information to members on dealing with pests and diseases for over 130 common food plants.
Peter Kearney - www.cityfoodgrowers.com
# # #
Cityfood Growers provides home gardeners with easy access online to localised knowledge on growing their own food with organic gardening methods. Gardening workshops, urban agriculture consulting and food gardening content for schools also provided.
Gardeners Go Organic
As a gardener, you must work with nature to be able to promote the ecosystem inside your garden. You should know how to encourage healthy bugs and other predatory insects to visit your garden and feed on your pests. One way to help in this area is to plant fennel, alyssum, ammi, cumin, majus and dill.
Organic gardening allows you to work harmoniously with nature. When you garden organically, you need to think about the plant is part of the whole system as it starts in the soil, and including the supply of water and even the insects in and around your plants. Your garden depends on the natural progression of soil and weather to lessen and refill any resources in the garden that are being consumed.
You should think about feeding your soil organically. You can add as much organic matter as you want to feed the soil. In turn, the soil will be able to feed your plants if when the organic matter breaks down. You can do this by making your own compost. In this way, you will not only nourish your soil but also it help to reduce your garden and kitchen waste.
Many gardeners wonder what organic gardening really means. This question is very simple to answer. Organic gardening does not make use of synthetic fertilizers or pesticides.
Finding organic matter for your garden is easy because your kitchen, lawn and garden produce them everyday. The ideal organic matter for your soil is the plant waste from already decayed plants (as long as they are not diseased or infested with pests!)such as grass clippings and leaves that have fallen as well as vegetable scraps from inside your kitchen.
Another meaning of organic gardening is to choose the right plants that are suited to grow in your garden. The plants should have a better response in terms of the climate and their conditions. If you are planning to have plants that are not native to your area or not suited to the particular conditions in your garden, you probably need more effort and natural defenses in order for them to survive and be healthy.
Remember, when gardeners go organic, they are helping not only their own gardens but the whole environment!
Article Source: http://www.articlenorth.com
Lee Dobbins writes for Flower Gardens at Gardening-Wise.com where you can get more great tips on gardening.
Reasons For Trying Organic Gardening – Don't Be A Chicken
| The way we live our lives on a daily basis is changing rapidly. The way we approach certain things in life is different to approach we may have taken 10 – 15 years ago because of the way we are educated by the television media and news paper media towards certain issues. One such issue is the way we eat and what we eat. In years gone by we would eat a fast food meal for convenience without giving a second thought as to what it might have been doing to our body, it was simply treated as fuel to get us through the day until it was time for our next meal. But in recent years there has been a concerted effort in the media and by health organizations to move us away from fast food and towards a more healthy way of eating, which can only be good news for us. The other thing that has changed over the past few years is the way we buy our food. More and more of us are now shopping in large faceless supermarkets because they are convenient and because they are cheaper than local stores. But there is an extra price to pay for cheaper food and that is generally in the quality of the produce or how that food was reared. So what is the real price of cheap food and what can we do about it? In simple economic terms the more you produce of something the cheaper it gets to produce, it is called economy of scale and it is true about every form of production whether it be glass production, plastic production or the production of a chicken for your dinner table. The production of the chicken is what affects you and I most of all, we have all heard and read about battery produced chicken and other forms of meat and we all take the choice of whether we buy the cheap meat that is produced for a price or whether we purchase a free range chicken that is reared humanely and sold for a higher price. But there is another alternative open to you, why not rear your own chicken and have a truly free range bird that will produce both eggs and a meat for you. More and more people are trying their hand at keeping their own chickens for these very same reasons, you can be 100 per cent sure that the animals have had a totally free life and that they have been reared in a natural way and even been fed on totally organic produce. Chickens take up very little space in your garden and can live side by side with other pets as long as they are kept secure. Keeping chickens is a great educational experience for adults and children alike, seeing the birds grow up, learning about their characteristics as well as learning about the value of food and meat when it comes to the time that you have to slaughter the animal. Chickens can be a great way to help you with organic gardening as their manure can be used as an organic fertilizer on plants and vegetables that can then in turn be fed to the chickens. Depending what you want from your chickens should depend on what breed of bird that you go for, certain birds produce better meat than others and certain chickens are better at laying eggs. Organic gardening is becoming more and more popular each year and with the improved education that we have regarding what we eat, where it comes from and how it is produced maybe the time is right for more of us to have a go. Organic gardening is not hard work and rearing chickens in a safe, humane and organic way is both educational and therapeutic so why not give it a go this year. |
| Author Resource:- For more info on organic gardening and organic compost please visit our site - www.organic-baby-toys.com Please feel free to republish this article provided a working hyperlink remains to our site Harwood E Woodpecker. Submitted By ArticleUnited.com |
| Article From New Ezine Articles |
Interested in Organic Gardening Consider These 10 Tips
Tip 1 - Use Natural Pest Control
Your garden is going to have pests. Once you have identified them, research natural controllers you could add to the garden. These natural controllers could be other insects, such as ladybugs to control an aphid population, or plants, such as garlic to prevent armyworms or apple maggots.
Tip 2 - Rotate Plants Regularly
Rotating your plant sites will keep them healthy and also help control some pest populations. When you rotate your plants, the soil has a chance to recoup. Each plant takes different nutrients from the soil, and some even return nutrients to the soil. Properly rotating your plants each year will keep your entire garden healthy.
Tip 3 - Prune Plants Carefully
Remove any dead parts you find on your plants. They are not going to heal, and they will cause the plant to become diseased. Do not leave them on the ground near the plant, either. Remove them from the garden and destroy them right away.
Tip 4 - Make Good Compost
Compost is the best way to feed your organic garden. Compost is not difficult to make. Simply layer leaves, lawn clippings, and organic kitchen waste in your compost heap. If you need to get the compost started quickly, you can add a compost starter to the mix. Keep in mind that the good compose is at the bottom of the pile, so you will need to have a way to turn it or access the pile from the bottom. Once you have a nice amount of compost, work it into your soil to create rich organic soil.
Tip 5 - Air Your Compost Pile
Compost needs air to properly decompose. You can add air by turning the compost pile regularly. You can also provide the pile with air by putting a PVC pipe into it in the center of the pile. Also, build the pile on a layer of branches and sticks to provide some air from the bottom.
Tip 6 - Choose Organic Fertilizers
Organic fertilizer will help your plants grow bigger and healthier. This is particularly important if you are growing food. Choose a low-dose fertilizer, however, because they will not burn the roots of your plants or provide too much of any particular nutrient.
Tip 7 - Purchase Organic Seeds
Since seeds come from plants, the only way to have a truly organic garden is to buy organic seeds. You cannot sell your produce as USDA certified organic if you do not use organic seeds. Organic seeds must come from open pollinated or hybrid plants. Seeds from non-organic plants have been exposed to pesticides and other chemicals, so they may not grow properly.
Tip 8 - Test Your Soil
Your soil is not going to contain all of the nutrients your plants need. Test it to determine what nutrients are missing. Then, alter your fertilizer and compost materials to provide the missing nutrients to the soil.
Tip 9 - Water Carefully
The soil in your garden needs to feel moist, but over-watering can lead to disease and strip nutrients out of the soil. Typically, plants need an inch of water per week. You can keep a rain gauge in the garden to help you determine how much water it needs.
Tip 10 - Intercrop
Intercropping, which refers to growing one crop in between rows of another crop, is an important organic gardening technique. Planting herbs and flowers, such as mint or marigolds, in between your vegetables will keep some pests away. Also, intercropping improves the soil nutrient levels.
BlueWaterArticles.com: - Interested in Organic Gardening Consider These 10 Tips
About the Author
Organic gardening store features organic tips and solutions to common garden problems. Find indoor plant ideas at Redenta's Garden.
Learning the Basics of Organic Hydroponic Gardening
Are you looking to get into the growing trend of organic hydroponics gardening? Well, the first thing you to need to do is understand what hydroponics is before you can know to use it for organic purposes. hydroponics, simply put, is the process of indoor growing plants in water and nutrients under LED grow lights, compared to the normal method of using just soil.
There is a growing majority of gardeners starting to grow their plants this way, feeling as though it is better for the plants. It should come to no surprise then that so many people are using organic hydroponic gardening to grow our vegetables and other food items.
Most opponents of hydroponics kits, mistakenly claim that it is non-organic. This isn't true. Water is organic, and so are the nutrients used to feed to the plants. Fertilizer anymore can be adapted to be organic. Your plants are grown using indoor gardening methods, along with water and lighting such as LED lights or grow lights. Organic hydroponic gardening is as easy as it comes..
The word hydroponics is of Latin descent that when translated means "working-water." It refers to a gardening method much safer for the environment and that's never a bad thing. It is a method of growing plants without soil and has been found to be used as the 1600s. People have been growing plants in water since before they began using soil.
The science behind it is that plants need nutrients to survive and the key to hydroponics is the plants receive these nutrients. Not only are water and oxygen require but most plants depend on large amounts of nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus, calcium, magnesium and sulfur. Along with those, iron, manganese, boron, copper and zinc are used but in smaller amounts.
Water and nutrients aren't the only necessity plants need to survive. They also require ample amount of oxygen and nitrogen and the proper amount of light using grow lights or LED lights. Don't forget about the pH (potential Hydrogen) levels and balance, either. Your plant will also use molybdenum and chlorine but the amount needed for them to thrive is usually found in their water or from the other minerals. I wouldn't worry too much about them to make it an issue.
Now when a hydroponics kit is combined with organic indoor gardening, a gardener starts to see the fruits of his labors. Organic gardening is considered to be so when it comes from the earth. For example, the vegetables at your supermarket supplied from a local farmer are considered to be organic. Anything used in organic gardening needs to be organic and not artificial. With water being organic, you are free to use both hydroponics and organic or semi-organic gardening in the same garden for your vegetables.
When you organic hydroponic indoor growing as a supplement with organic fertilizers, you will find you can grow healthier and better plants.
About the Author: Anne Harvester has a great deal of experience with indoor gardening. Hydroponic gardening is the way of the future. Known to some as “soil less gardening”, hydroponics are proven to grow plants 20-30% faster than their soil grown counterparts.
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Organic Gardening Requires Strict Certification
| There is a shift in buying habits among some families, seeking a healthier, more natural lifestyle, that has moved them to become involved with organic gardening. While some of the major players in the industry have moved into offering all organic gardening as part of their business strategy, some buyers believe that not everything on the market claiming to come from organic gardening fits the bill. To qualify for the designation of organic, food items must be planted in soil where artificial pesticides and fertilizers have been used for a minimum of three years and the farm must offer sustainability for organic gardening beyond one or two years. For individuals, it is easier to produce their own vegetables from their small plots of land, but is does leave open the need to buy products if they cannot grow enough to meet their annual needs. While some stores sell only organic gardening produce, many grocery stores offer their customers a choice of organic and traditionally grown merchandise, attempting to slice off a piece of the natural market. It is also not only the fresh produce section that is touting the presence of organic gardening as many other food items are being labeled and sold as containing only organic ingredients. Questions Arise About What Is In The Name It are these other products that causes some confusion with consumers as the ingredients from organic gardening resources may contain some that are not truly organic. There are different labeling requirement for products that contain only organically grown ingredients and those that contain mostly organically grown items. To carry the designation of 100 percent organic, obviously that has to be the case, however those products that claim they contain organic ingredients need only contain 80 percent organically gown ingredients. It is this disparity in labeling laws that has some people moving to organic gardening to grow their own food, making their own compost fertilizer and natural products to keep the insects away from their plants. The belief of organic gardening is to put everything back in nature that has been removed and not to add anything that will harm the environment or the person consuming the food. Many folks who grow produce and vegetables with organic gardening firmly believe there is a cleaner taste to their products and will recycle the organic waste from their garden to use as compost fertilizer for the following year. They will make sure that nothing other than organic materials are used in the growing stages, keeping their organic gardening sustained for years to come. |
| Author Resource:- For more information about gardening please visit my Gardening and Moon Phases website where you can find more articles and information about organic gardening |
| Article From New Ezine Articles |
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Plus Points For Organic Gardening
Why would one want to indulge in organic gardening?
1.One can easily make compost from garden and kitchen waste. Though this is a bit more time-consuming than buying prepared chemical pesticides and fertilizers, it certainly helps to put garbage to good use and so saves the environment.
2. Organic farming does not use chemicals that may have an adverse affect on your health. This is especially important when growing vegetables. Chemical companies tell us that the chemicals we use are safe if used according to direction, but research shows that even tiny amounts of poisons absorbed through the skin can cause such things as cancer, especially in children.
On the average, a child ingests four to five times more cancer-causing pesticides from foods than an adult. This can lead to various diseases later on in the child's life. With organic gardening, these incidents are lessened.
Remember, pesticides contain toxins that have only one purpose - to kill living things.
3. Less harm to the environment. Poisons are often washed into our waterways, causing death to the native fish and polluting their habitat.
4.Organic farming practices help prevent the loss of topsoil through erosion.
The Soil Conservation Service says that an estimated 30 - 32 billion tons of soil erodes from United States farmlands every year.
5. Cost savings. One does not need to buy costly chemical fertilizers and pesticides with organic gardening. Many organic recipes for the control of pest and disease come straight from the kitchen cupboard. Sometimes other plants can be grown as companions to the main crop. An example of this is the marigold, which helps to repel aphids from vegetables.
Mixing 1 tablespoon of liquid dishwashing soap and 1 cup of cooking oil can make a cheap garden pest spray. Put 3 tablespoons of this mixture in 1 quart of water and spray on plants.
6.A simple mulch of pine needles will help to suppress the growth of weeds as well as keeping the moisture in.
7.Organic gardening practices help to keep the environment safe for future generations.
5 Pieces of Equipment Gardeners Can't Live Without
Gardening is fun and rewarding and may be considered a hobby, talent or both and sometimes it's just luck. Gardening is not as easy as it looks and involves dedication, time and consistency and many trials and errors. There are many aspects to maintaining a healthy garden, but some aspects are more important than others. An individual who likes to garden can have the knowledge to produce the best garden in the world, but without the right equipment and materials it just wouldn't be possible.
Below you will find a list of the top 5 pieces of equipment which gardeners simply cannot live without:
1. Trowel. A trowel is a shovel-like piece of equipment which is used to dig up dirt and set small plants. There are many styles to choose from and type of handle on your trowel will determine how well it works. Easy grip, non-slide and non-slip grips are the best form of handle to choose. These will be easier to use and will require less work than any other form of trowel.
A trowel with no grip will be difficult to use and could end up ruining your garden. Try one out in your hand first to ensure it feels comfortable. There's nothing like having your hand cramp or the trowel slip while using it to dig in a beautiful, new plant.
2. Pitchfork. A pitchfork is a gardening tool which has 2-6 prongs and a long handle. The sizes of pitchforks vary, depending on what they are being used for. The space between each prong varies as well. Pitchforks are used to separate, lift and throw loose pieces of material such as dirt and leaves.
3. Spade. A gardening spade has a long, thick handle and a heavy flat blade. This tool is used to dig up and move pieces of dirt from one place to another. It can also be used to pack down dirt once the flower has been planted.
4. Pruning Shears. Pruning shears are tools which have a long handles and blades. This type of gardening equipment is used to allow gardeners to precisely prune rose bushes and other plants and unruly vines, etc. It can also be used to cut the grass at the edges of walkways and garden beds, in those hard to reach places. It is also used to trim the edges and remove dead leaves or wood on flowers.
There is no other piece of gardening equipment which can do the same job as pruning shears. Without the use of this piece of equipment, your garden will end up looking messy and disorganized. Always, always, always invest in good quality pruning shears. Good ones have a lifetime guarantee and low-end ones will make shrapnel of your heritage rose.
5. Wheelbarrow. A wheelbarrow is one of the larger pieces of garden equipment. It is a cart with a handle and at least one wheel which is designed for easy transportation of materials from one place to another. Purchasing a wheelbarrow will save you a lot of time and effort, especially if you are off to the compost heap, and will make for a pleasant gardening experience. Another option is the 4-wheeled gardening cart.
There are many pieces of gardening equipment which will make this hobby easier and more efficient, however the ones listed above are recognized as the most important. These pieces of equipment will likely last a very long time.
Article Source: http://www.articlenorth.com
Organic Facts is an informative resources site on everything Organic related. Find out how Organic Facts can expand your horizons.
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4 Most Popular Books On Organic Gardening
Organic gardening is the primary focus of Rodale Inc and the founder Jeremy Rodale in a pioneer in this field. Rodale books are marketed through both direct and retail channels. The South Beach Diet is popular worldwide.
Among the many books on organic gardening published by Rodale Inc, the best and the most admired are outlined in this article. Rodale's "All-New Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening" costs $29.95 and provides comprehensively, all the information related to gardening with natural products, and without the use of harmful chemicals. It is a hardcover book of 704 pages, written by Ellis, Barbara W, Bradley, Fern Marshall. The chapters are illustrated very well which makes it easy for the reader to visualize the activities and experiments outlined in this book. The complete reference book deals with every topic related to organic gardening under the sun. A serious organic gardener should definitely own a copy.
Another Rodale book, "Rodale's Organic Gardening Basics: Roses" is a florist's delight. It teaches the readers the basic about growing roses the organic way. The book is 112 pages long and covers basic flower varieties, the most practical and practicable org'anic gardening tools, pest control and even garden designs. The price of this book is listed at $14.95.
Of course, agencies other than Rodale have also published organic gard'ening related books. One such popular book for reference among or'ganic gardeners includes "Gardening for the 21st century" by John Fedor. It emphasizes on the fact that one thing as important as how you're growing something is what it is that you're growing. It takes the reader back to natural remedies including vegetables and herbs used before pesticides and chemicals were invented. It talks about issues such as crop rotation, greenhouses, raised beds, functional food, etc. It comes with an illustrated directory of herbs, fruits and vegetables.
Another great book for organ'ic gardeners to add to their collection is the "Sunset Guide to Org'anic Gardeni'ng". Published by Lane publishers, it talks about how or'ganic garde'ning has made a come back in today's world. It is basically a reference book for planning the organi'c garden and working in it.
BlueWaterArticles.com: - 4 Most Popular Books On Organic Gardening
About the Author
Abhishek is a self-confessed Gardening addict! Visit his website http://www. Gardening-Master.com and download his FREE Gardening Report "Indoor Gardening Secrets" and learn some amazing Gardening tips for FREE! Create the perfect Garden on a shoe-string budget. And yes, you get to keep all the accolades! But hurry, only limited Free copies available!. http://www. Gardening-Master.com
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Helping You Go Green with Organic Gardening Supplies
To prepare the garden for planting, a shovel, spade and spading fork are invaluable. A hoe is useful to remove the weeds in your new garden bed or to remove rocks. A scuffle hoe has a blade that points forward and cuts the weeds off at the surface.
A pry bar can be used to dig up the large rocks or boulders that can be a problem in your garden.
A garden always can use a good pruning. To keep those healthy flowers on your rose bushes, a periodic pruning with good quality shears is a must. Lopping shears will also make a clean cut on those prickly rose stems to ward off disease.
These however are the conventional gardening supplies that any gardener can use. For an organic gardener there are a few different items that need to be added to their organic gardening supply. Whereas the normal gardener has the choice of using chemical enhanced fertilizers the organic gardener can use bat guano or even worm castings.
You will need a couple of applications per month of organic fertilizers. When a worm moves through the soil it creates a tunnel and this is called a worm casting. It adds nutrients to the soil and breaks it up as well. These fertilizers are a vital part of organic gardening as they will make your plants healthier and grow better.
Gardening is said to be like painting. The gardener's canvas is the ground and the paint brushes are the tools that gardeners use. Whether you are a conventional gardener or an organic gardener many of the tools that you will use are the same. However the organic gardener has special items in their organic gardening supply. These items change the looks, taste and smell of the plants that benefit from them.
Organic gardening is 100% all natural and great for the environment. Why don't you switch to organic gardening and see the difference it makes to your life!
Article Source: http://www.articlenorth.com
Are you dreaming of growing a garden but just don't know where to start. The Gardener's Atlas offers lots of helpful gardening tips for gardeners of all levels - beginner or experienced. Visit www.gardenersatlas.com to get more tips and advice about growing your dream garden.
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Gardening OrganicThe Connection Between Organic Gardening And Your Health
Perhaps the greatest benefit is the reduction of chemical exposure. In the process of normal farming, a number of pesticides are sprayed on plants in order to kill bugs that may destroy the crop. These pesticides, however, are not good for humans or for the environment. Eating foods that have been sprayed with these chemicals means you are ingesting these chemicals as well. In addition, the chemicals gets into the air and pollutes it. Similarly, it runs into the water and causes water pollution as well.
The same holds true with artificial fertilizers. While these fertilizers may help yield large crops, they are not healthy for humans to ingest. By gardening organic, you avoid using these unhealthy chemicals and find ways to help the plants grown healthy and strong while remaining bug free.
An area of organic gardening that many people overlook is the lack of hybridization. Genetic engineers have discovered methods for manipulating plants in ways to grow larger crops and to create plants that are more resistant to bad weather, to disease, and to pests. But, in order to accomplish this, they have altered the DNA of plants.
The potential long term effects of this form of hybridization is still unknown. One concern is that humans may have allergies to these altered plants or may otherwise become ill for them. And, if these plants are allowed to cross-pollinate with non-hybridized plants, we may ultimately be left with nothing but genetically altered plants - with no way of returning to the ones that nature provided. For this reason, many countries do not allow genetically altered plants to be shipped to their land.
Gardening organic is the only way to be sure you are growing fruits and vegetables in the way nature intended them to be grown. As such, your body is better able to digest the foods and you are less likely to become ill from the foods you consume. In addition, you can ensure you receive the full nutritional benefits from the foods.
By adding chemicals to crops, some of the nutrients are destroyed. Furthermore, the soil is depleted of nutrients for future crops, which further reduces the nutritional value of the crops that are to be grown. Therefore, by choosing organic gardening, you receive the fullest nutritional benefit from the foods you grow and consume.
While it's a lot a more time consuming method of farming, the results are far superior to other forms of gardening when it comes to your health. Therefore, it is in your best interest to choose organic if growing your own crops and to support the farmers who choose this method by purchasing foods from the supermarket that have been organically grown.
BlueWaterArticles.com: - Gardening OrganicThe Connection Between Organic Gardening And Your Health
About the Author
Learn the easy way to gardening organic and eating healthy for life. Get this amazing fact filled guide which will help you keep your family healthy and save hundreds of dollars each year on your food bill. Visit now: http://womans-health.net/organicsecrets/organicgardening/index.htm
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Organic Gardening - The Importance Of Right Tools!
| These days organic gardening is receiving increasing recognition due to its concept of not using chemicals. Harnessing the power of nature to cultivate healthy plants and vegetable also helps sustain the ecological balance. Armed with a convenient collection of organic gardening implements and tools, you can make your organic garden yield phenomenal results. Then again, appropriate supplies for the organic method of gardening may be in short supply or not readily obtainable. At times, organic gardening lovers may have to pay a visit to the local organic gardening equipment stores. The principal substance used in organic gardening supplies are bugs. A number of insects and bacteria for the most part feed on vermin. Hence, they provide a smart option to chemical pesticides squirted to get rid of vermin. But, the use of these chemical sprays tends to destroy the natural vegetation in the soil. A few of them have a favorable effect on the plant development. Furthermore, the exceedingly damaging consequences of these chemical pesticides can be prevented by the use of bacteria and bugs. A few of these insects provide plants with ample defense against destructive vermin while others target some particular disease-causing microorganisms. The ladybug, also called ladybird or lady beetle, feeds on a multiplicity of bugs such as the leaf worms, mites, aphids, and mealy bugs. In the summer months, they breed a number of times. A close relation of the grasshopper, the praying mantis is a voracious eater that devours almost any insect. They are notorious for attacking beetles, caterpillars, aphids, lizards, and frogs. Other beneficial insects are lacewing larvae, which feed on mites, leafhoppers, aphids, white flies, and thripes. A bacterium known as Milky Disease Spores preys on Japanese Beetles' larvae. These microbes make their blood turn white, thus stopping their development at the larval phase itself. These bugs and microbes can be sourced from the local organic gardening materials store. A reasonable stock of bugs for organic gardening ensures that the garden is flourishing and it is not infested with pests. A wide range of implements is needed for doing garden work. The essential equipment can be grouped based on their purpose. The chief functions are crop growing, lawn maintenance, and tending trees. Organic gardening tools for growing crops are forks, trowels, spades, and hoes. For looking after the lawn, the principal equipment needed is a lawnmower. Tending to trees entails the use of pruning saw, bow saw, and secatures. Aside from these customary implements, a whole host of organic gardening kits is on offer to assist with gardening work. These are technologically advanced devices and very much make the work of the dedicated and industrious gardener easy. A few of these organic gardening kits comprise of soil analysis equipment, mister containers, handy squirters, manure containers for compost making, insect traps containing pheromone and many such others. |
| Author Resource:- Abhishek is a self-confessed Gardening addict! Visit his website http://www. Gardening-Master.com and download his FREE Gardening Report "Indoor Gardening Secrets" and learn some amazing Gardening tips for FREE! Create the perfect Garden on a shoe-string budget. And yes, you get to keep all the accolades! But hurry, only limited Free copies available!. http://www. Gardening-Master.com |
| Article From New Ezine Articles |
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Is your garden Soil or Dirt
Let us look at soil. To begin with, is it actually soil, or is it just dirt?
This makes an enormous difference.
Plants grow in soil, not dirt.
Now, dirt, is just that, dirt - a bit of ground where very little has,
or can be grown. This could be for myriad reasons. All those years ago,
did Grandad decide that where the old incinerator used to be, would be
a prime spot to put the new veggie garden? Having fires on top of it
for donkey's years will have made this dirt. Sterile at that.
However, many things may have been grown and produced since then, but
not without the assistance of copious applications of water soluble
chemical fertilizer - or heaven forbid 'superphosphate'. EEeekk!
Probably looked like something out of one of those old 1960's glossy
magazines; razor sharp edges, newly turned beds showing bare earth, not
a scrap of mulch to be seen - too messy! Strict rows of each individual
crop - no untidy mixing up of varieties.
Goodness! Things sure grew with a bit of the old 'super'! Very true,
but - chemical fertilizers make the cells of plants expand, to an
almost a critical point. In this extended state, these cells are full
of water and/or air. So, the produce you are eating, is actually false
food.
Sort of like buying a loaf of bread that's hollow.
The chemical fertilizers that appeared after world war two, were like
'jack-and-the-bean-stalk' stuff - so much less work than all that
mucking around, tilling the soil and getting dirty.
And GAD's, look at the SIZE of these things!!
Well, no one could have know any better - this was the new modern world
we were entering, where food was plentiful and cheap.
You can certainly eat this produce ( that's what is in the
supermarkets), but as for calorific content, and actual sustenance - it
is severely lacking. Part of this is due to the fact that the plant has
been 'forced', and hasn't had the opportunity to take up the nutrients
and trace elements it actually needs for normal growth.
Looks great, tastes bland.
Anyway, back to the soil. Grandad's passed on and the next gardener
decides to go organic.
The first attempted crops will probably fail - small, stunted plants
without any vitality; at the very least they are not going to look like
Grandad's did. This is because the garden is just dirt. There is no
existing organic content to be had.
Sadly, this is where many would-be organic veggie growers chuck it in,
naive to the fact that a bit of chicken manure, and a bit of mulch, are
only small elements of the whole picture. If Grandad had had some sort
of conniption, and against all common reason, had decided to 'go
organic' one season, his plants would have all failed, if not died
outright, without the contiguous application of the beloved soluble
fertilizer.
In order to have 'soil', as opposed to 'dirt', one must view the entire
garden as a living entity.
A biomass, a biological mass of living interconnected and associated
entities; whether they be macro-organisms like worms and beetles,
micro-organisms like bacteria and viruses, or fungi.
An organic garden should be evolution on a molecular scale. The mulch
and manure that were applied to one crop, including the remnants of
that crop, now partly decomposed, become the base to initiate the
evolution of the biomass.
Some bacterias, feeding on the spent plant material, will attract
organisms that feed on them and their debris, like fungi; which in turn
attracts organisms that feed on fungi, whose debris then feeds the
bacteria, again. As this molecular mass of waste, called seed compost,
builds up with the subsequent applications of mulch, manures and
plantings, other organisms are attracted also, nematodes, various
insects, worms - all of which, in their turn are consumed by some other
organism - adding to the mass.
Slowly, incrementally, the biomass builds, worms transport soil,
bacteria and trace elements around the garden; deep-rooted plants plumb
the depths for trace elements, which are then deposited higher in the
soil as that plant decomposes, making these elements now more readily
available to other plants; in turn releasing them back into biomass for
some other organism.
The greater, or more evolved the biomass in soil becomes, the greater
the number of plants that can be incorporated into the garden, and in
turn returned to the soil, continuing the cycle.
Provided that a garden is added to with organic material, during and
after each crop, and re-planted with a diversity of plants and herbs
filling any spaces (no bare soil), it will only get better over time -
like a stew.
An important rule to remember is - that which comes out of a garden,
must be replaced, in some form.
So, if you have just dug up all the potatoes, replace that crop with an
equal weight of mulch and manure. Balance is what we are trying to
achieve.
Interestingly, an organic garden never reaches critical mass. It is
never going to increase enormously in bulk, nor slowly encroach on your
house and attack you one night.
A balanced organic garden has its own highs and lows, when one organism
or element becomes too profuse, this then triggers a population
increase in whichever organism feeds on it, and so on, until balance is
re-established.
Having stated that critical mass is never reached, I should state that
rather, self perpetuation is reached instead. By this I mean that, when
a good balance is reached, the garden produces enough raw plant
material, animal manures and debris, ultimately returned to the garden,
that it perpetuates itself.
Yes, this is, initially, a lot of work, depending on your definition of
'work'. However, the rewards are many; self satisfaction, for a start;
healthy, 'real' food; exercise; a new found appreciation of the wonder
of nature, to mention a few.
So, what is your garden? Soil, or Dirt?
About the Author: Organic Gardening Magic
Organic Food Gardening Beginners Manual
Compost - feed your plants as Nature really intended.
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Country Gardening
In the first place, several gardeners make an effort to stay away from fall gardening as much as they can on account of the winter frosts which generally arrive quite early and have the tendency to make things a bit difficult. Discovering all you can in relation to fall gardening plus other gardening info will certainly prove useful to you in handling any snags that may perhaps come up. Everyone I know wants a lovely looking garden. A lovely looking garden will require more than just expending a lot of cash. It'll require sustainment in addition to care to get it into the needed shape. However, what is cash compared to getting the precise kind of garden you desire? How much do you actually know about the process of fertilization as a gardener? If you actually don't know much, then pay close attention. Each gardener will want to know it is not sufficient to get just about any kind of glove for gardening as a gardener. Countless folks believe so, and are severely disillusioned when they find how erroneous they are. You see, the glove for gardening has got to tally with you exactly because an oversized one will slide off whereas a small one will result in pains as well as cramps. Don't fail to remember this when going shopping for your garden glove. Subscribing to gardening magazines has various advantages. Gardening magazines give gardeners the chance to share their opinions and skills with other avid subscribers by submitting their own pieces of writing to be in print. You can easily have your such writings included as well! if you have them. Your eating preference in addition to available room which you have for fall gardening are the determinants for the crops you will need to cultivate; it is actually not dissimilar from spring planting. Beautifying your garden will make it more charming as well as unique; it is a wise way of giving it a unique touch, a form of mark which distinguishes it as your own distinctive work. Insects generally concentrate on unhealthy plants so gardeners have to work on growing healthy plants which can get over trivial insect ruin. Your desire to learn all you can with regards to back ache and even the several remedies can be fulfilled on the World Wide Web where you can access several websites which bestow elaborate and even thorough clues with regards to it. To wrap up, if you actually want to engage in organic gardening but you are disturbed about weeds, it's possible to stop weeds from infuriating you into abandoning organic gardening by using organic mulch as well as corn meal gluten which decreases weed growth when applied early enough.
About the Author: More Gardening Tips and Gardening Articles, Fine Gardening Tools
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Online Gardening Catalogues At Your Disposal
Are you searching for gardening catalogues? What kind of gardening and plants do you prefer to read about? There is a wide selection available online. Here are a few websites that offer gardening catalogues. Check out the URL to see if they are free or not.
1. www.jacksonsnurseries.co.uk
Along with nursery facilities, Jackson Nurseries offer landscape designing, ground designing and wholesale plants at wholesale prices.
2. www.mzbulb.com
If you are looking for flower bulbs, McClure and Zimmerman have each and every variety. They have a no fuss website navigation that allows interested clients to easily order gardening catalogs.
3. www.gardennursery.com
In business for over 50 years, Nichols Garden Nursery has an online catalogue unit offering seeds and plants. Their 76 page free gardening catalogue can be ordered by filling out their catalogue request form online.
4. www.gurneys.com
Gurneys offer great deals like buy one, get one free. They also have a no-risk guarantee and a scheduled shipping of orders according to categories of plants, i.e., roses, herbs, shrubs, and trees, tender annuals, and all other plants and bulbs.
5. www.homeharvest.com
Home Harvest Garden Supply offers alternative gardening products, i.e., organic fertilizers, hydroponics, natural insect controls, container, hobby greenhouse, propagation and irrigation supplies, indoor plant grow lights and other rare gardening supplies. They offer an online catalogue for every gardening enthusiast.
6. www.jacksonandperkins.com
Jackson and Perkins are known to be one of the best American gardening experts. They are reaching out to other gardening aficionados through their website, offering gardening products through their catalogue. They sell a wide range of plants - from new award-winning roses and easy to grow perennials, to special outdoor decor. Flowering gifts may also be sent directly to your friends by ordering from their site.
7. www.thegardenwindow.com
This site offers an online catalogue that specializes in imported Chinese tree peonies (from Mainland, China).
While free online catalogues may be good source of gardening supply information, you may also be deluged with a flood of promotion about other products.
Source: Free Articles
Find out more about gardening at http://aboutgardening.org
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