How To Make Your Own Organic Garden Fertilizer By Denise Loubert

 

Like many people, I have found myself wanting more control over the quality of what I eat. And so – like many people today, I decided to grow some of the herbs and vegetables that I eat the most. Growing them organically seemed the most logical way to know that what I put into my body is not only tasty, but good for me.

To grow organically however, requires learning what that means, and that is where my education began. Online, there are several definitions of what the word organic means.

The USDA defines it this way – anything that is produced without antibiotics; growth hormones; most conventional pesticides; petroleum based fertilizers or sewage sludge based fertilizers; bioengineering; or ionizing radiation. Or to put it more simply, food that is grown without artificial fertilizers or pesticides.

Now, there are two ways you can get the organic garden fertilizer for your garden. You can go out and buy it, and there is nothing wrong with that. I did it for quite a few years. It can be confusing sometimes, you don’t always know if what you are buying is truly organic, but there are a few companies out there that have a good reputation and you can feel comfortable buying from them. In fact, I sell them on my organic garden fertilizer website because I do trust them.

The other route is to make it yourself. This may sound extreme, but the truth is it is not that hard. There was a time when finding the right ingredients took some work. Many of the ingredients were not generally available unless you lived near a few good feed stores or had access to lime through special sources. These days, however, the internet can put you in touch with many wholesalers of all of the ingredients and you can have it all shipped right to your home. What is even better – it is less expensive than commercial organic fertilizers, and it’s much better for your soil life than harsh synthetic chemical mixes.

Here is my basic formula to produce a correctly balanced fertilizing mix composed entirely of natural substances:

Mix uniformly in parts by volume:

• 4 parts seed meal
• 1/4 part ordinary agricultural lime (finely ground)
• 1/4 part gypsum (or double the ag lime)
• 1/2 part dolomitic lime

I recommend adding the following ingredients for your best results. Guano, rock phosphate and kelp meal may seem costly but they add considerable fortitude to the plants and increase the nutritional content of your vegetables. I have also found that they make my plants more resistant to insect infestations.

• 1 part bone meal rock phosphate or high phosphate guano
• 1/2 to 1 part kelp meal (or 1 part basalt dust)

Add the fertilizer in the spring when you are amending the soil in preparation of your first planting and then add from time to time throughout the year in small amounts. Once you start making your own fertilizer, and see the end results in your garden, I think you will agree that for the time and money it is one of the best investments you will make in both yourself and your garden.

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About The Author:
Deni Loubert has been an organic gardener for over forty years, beginning in the early days of organic gardening and has continued to both eat and garden organically whenever she can. She recently created http://organic-garden-fertilizer.com as a website resource for organic gardeners.

Article Source: http://www.articlecoop.com

Keep Pests Out Of Your Vegetable Garden By John Chambers

 

If you have a vegetable garden then you know that can you lose quite a bit of the harvest to pests every year, this is why people adopt various methods of pest control. Plants that receive poor care are much more susceptible to pest problems than plants that get the proper fertilizers, water, and cultivation. First you'll want to choose plants for your garden that have a natural resistance to pests.

Few plants are actually resistant to insect problems, but you will find that many are resistant to common garden diseases. If you've grown your garden from seeds don't save your seeds to use in another garden project.

This is because seeds can carry these illnesses. To reduce the risk of disease, you should work with dealers that are known for selling high-quality seeds that are not prone to diseases.

If you buy transplants, make sure that they are strong and healthy. If your plant appears to be young or old, or spindly and weak, then you may not want to try and transplant these plants as they may not survive through the transplant shock and can be more susceptible to certain pests.

A good strategy for warding off soil based diseases is to rotate the crops in you garden on a yearly basis. Alternating corn with other crops is a good system.

Following corn with cole crops such as broccoli, cabbage, and greens, cole crops with solanaceous crops such as potatoes, peppers, and tomatoes, and solanaceous crops with legumes such as beans or peas, then legumes with corn again, is an intelligent four year rotation plan that you might go with.

You can control pests by weeding volunteer plants from the soil, and keeping cull piles and debris from the crop out of the way. It is not a good practice to save plant residues for mulching as many pests are able to survive in the residue.

Better mulching choices include straw, leaves and materials that are not leftover from the garden. Mulch is useful for keeping the ground moist and preventing weeds, but it has one major drawback that you should keep in mind. Mulch can serve as a home for certain pests, which introduces them to your plants unseen.

Good sanitation will also keep your vegetable garden disease free. Before any intricate cultivation or transplants make sure that you wash your hands and your tools thoroughly with soap. Believe it or not, gardeners that use tobacco products need to wash their hands especially, because many plant viruses can be passed through tobacco to your garden.

Weeds can also provide a place for garden pests to survive and they can end up attacking your plants. Certain weeds exist that will actually attract the pests to your garden all by themselves, so keep weeds out of your garden and also away from the exterior of it as well.

There are many potentially nasty things that can dwell in weeds and damage your plants including aphids, beetles, leafhoppers, many other insects, nematodes, and mites. Keep your garden well weeded and make sure to clear away any Johnson Grass, it is a perennial weed which can often hide harmful pests.

A good tool to use to keep the pests at bay in the garden is moisture control. Water early in the day to help prevent diseases from setting in.

This one simple rule can help you avoid a host of problems. You will likely suffer from fungus in watering your plants at night, since fungus loves wet and warm environments; watering at night keeps the moisture on the plants for greater amounts of time.

You can erect a small shield around your transplants to keep any insect pests away from them. You only need a shield that goes into the ground a few inches.

Any material from cardboard to leftover roof shingles and empty milk jugs can be used for this. Those barriers will protect the young plants from grubs, cutworms, wireworms, and other destructive insects that feed at or below the surface of the soil.

Although you can introduce your own type of predator insect to destroy an existing problem, you should take care to avoid this practice if you are able. It's much better to encourage natural predators, such as spiders, ground beetles, syrphid flies, lacewings, ladybugs, and praying mantises, to take up residence in the garden.

Pesticides are the last option you should go to if you are having a hard time removing a pest population from your garden by non-chemical means. Be sure to use any chemicals according to the directions on the label. When a label advises you to wait for a certain amount of time between treatments, you should follow this strictly, or else you may damage your garden.

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About The Author:

As a person looking for pest control, please visit here to learn more on the topic of organic pest control services.

Article Source: http://www.earticlesdirect.com

Benefits Of Hydroponics Gardening

 

Many gardeners are switching to hydroponics gardening for a variety of different reasons. Hydroponics gardens are small, can easily be grown indoors and are a perfect gardening solution for most vegetables. Also, the equipment required for hydroponics gardening is inexpensive and fairly easy to use.

Basically, hydroponics gardening is the growing of plants, fruit and vegetables without the use of soil. There are many methods of hydroponics gardening, most of which work better than regular gardening. Using this method it is far easier to give the plant exactly what it needs, and when it needs it.

Plants will only receive what you give them, therefore you will be able to regulate the pH, nutrients, nutrient strength, water and light which the plant receives. This makes it vitally important that you research the kind of plants you will be growing, so that you know what they will need to survive.

Hydroponics gardening can be over-complicated if computers with sensors are used to control water cycles, nutrients and light for the plants. It can also be as simple as a single plant and a bucket of water.

The normal home hydroponics system is usually made up of a few basic things, such as a growing tray, light (natural or artificial), a reservoir, a pump for watering (or some type of watering equipment), and an air pump to provide oxygen to the nutrients. You can get instructions from a gardening store, online or even buying separate parts to build your own. Kits are also available in gardening supply stores.

The growing medium used in hydroponics gardening can be any number of things, such as Rockwool, coconut fiber, gravel, sand or even air.

There are certain micro-nutrients that are necessary for healthy plant growth. These include magnesium, sulfur, calcium, cobalt, iron, copper and zinc. These nutrients are absolutely essential to plants, and if missing could cause health problems for anyone who eats it. It is also vitally important that you use a quality fertilizer.

Another important aspect of hydroponics gardening that must be closely regulated is the pH balance. When the pH balance varies, the plants will lose the ability to absorb the nutrients that they need. The ease with which the pH in hydroponics gardening is tested and controlled give it a huge advantage over regular gardening.

Even though there are hundreds of different variations, Wick, Water Culture, Ebb and Flow, Drip and Aeroponic are the five most basic types of hydroponics gardening systems. Hydroponics gardening is easy, affordable, and can provide you with fresh produce, flowers, herbs and spices all year round.