Organic gardening has always been a popular activity and there is no shortage of information available. There are thousands of websites and blogs which deal with these topics. The problem with so much information is that a person can easily become overwhelmed with information overload.

We hope that this site will help you develope your own green thumb and that the information here will allow you to enjoy the full potential of gardening. But be forewarned. There is a danger you might just become a slave to your garden. Perhaps Lewis Gannit had it right when he penned: ”Gardening is a kind of disease. It infects you, you cannot escape it. When you go visiting, your eyes rove about the garden; you interrupt the serious cocktail drinking because of an irresistible impulse to get up and pull a weed.”

Gardening Tips

Save all flats and flower pots that come with your plants. First, you can always use these to start your seeds next season (be sure to wash the flats to rid them of any disease.) Second, it may look funny at first, but if you cut out the bottom of plastic pots and place them over younger transplants it will protect them from rabbits. Additionally, placing pots around ornamental grasses is a great way to contain the younger, lower grass strands from rotting as they lay on the ground. The band created by the pot will keep the strands off the ground.

Here’s a coffee tip. Humans are not the only ones to get a boost from espresso. Plants do too! Caffeine and theophylline, two ingredients of coffee are popular ingredients in expensive skin care products, and key ingredients in asthma medications, but also make excellent fertilizer for plants. You can get it by the big bagful and for free just by contacting your local coffee shop. Just mix the espresso in with your existing soil every few months and watch your plants grow.

After choosing your site, decide how large you want to make your garden. Beware of beginning too ambitiously; tending a plot that’s too large can quickly become a chore. A plot 10 feet long by 10 feet wide is large enough for some tomato plants, lettuce, a bush variety of cucumber plant, radishes, an endlessly productive zucchini plant, herbs and some flowers.

Once you’ve chosen your site, draw out a garden plan; this plan will ensure maximum productivity by giving each plant room to grow. Measure the dimensions of the plot and draw a scale model on graph paper, using, for example, a one-inch square to represent one foot.

As you draw your plan, keep in mind each plant’s space requirements at maturity–the little tomato plants you put out in the spring will take up three feet of space by the end of summer. Consider laying out your garden design in blocks instead of the more familiar rows. Because you don’t have to allow as much space for paths, this will enable you to plant more.

Blocks containing a variety of plants encourage mini-gardens of vegetables, herbs and flowers, and are more diverse than single rows that alternate just two plants. Single crops crowded together are more susceptible to disease, so the diversity of blocks can mean healthier plants. Make each block just wide enough so you can comfortably reach the middle from each side.

The layout of your garden depends in part on what it is you want to plant. Some crops, such as lettuce, radishes and spinach, mature quickly and will be short-term residents, unless you plant and harvest them several times during the summer. Other plants, such as tomatoes, eggplant and peppers, will grow over the course of the entire season. Perennial herbs and flowers will remain in the same spot year after year, requiring an increasing amount of space each year.

Be sure to save your garden plan to use as a reference for rotating crops next year. Besides depleting the soil of nutrients, leaving plants in the same spot each year encourages disease and soil-borne insect predators. No annual plant should go in the same spot two years in a row. If you wait three years before putting a plant in the same spot, that works even better.

It is a good idea to consider planting “green manure” plants to fix the soil. You can add this to your plan from year to year. Clover, Alfalfa, and other such plants fix nutrients from the soil, which can be used by other plants, as well as adding bulk and organic matter to the soil, when they are dug, or tilled directly into the soil.

Another key to growing organically is to choose plants suited to the site. Plants adapted to your climate and conditions are better able to grow without a lot of attention or input; on the other hand, when you try to grow a plant that is not right for your site, you will probably have to boost its natural defenses to keep it healthy and productive.

Once you plan out your garden for this year, you should really make a plan for next year as well. Because crop rotation is so important to keep healthy soil, as long as you’re making a plan, draw up where you will plant what in the next season. This will help you remember what was planted where and save troubles next year.

Almost any container with drainage holes in the bottom will work for planting. Paper milk cartons cut in half, Styrofoam cups, tin cans, plastic trays and pots are common containers used. For convenience, however, you may wish to start plants in the plastic trays and pots available at garden supply centers.

Use a rich, well-drained soil. Potting soils made for African violets and other house plants usually are suitable and do not have weed seeds. They are, however, more expensive than soil mixes you can make at home. If you use soil from the yard, it should be top soil that is well drained and not high in clay. The best soils are often found around established shrubs and trees. Add sphagnum peat and sharp sand to the soil in a ratio of about one-half volume of each, and mixed thoroughly.

To kill weed seeds and some damaging soil fungi present in your commercial soil, place the soil mix in shallow trays or baking pans in an oven for 45 minutes at 250 degrees. For best results, the soil should be moist. After the soil has cooled, fill containers firmly but do not pack. Allow about 3/4 inch from the soil surface to the rim of the container. Place seeds on the soil surface. Use a piece of window screen or old flour sifter to sift soil over the seeds to the depth indicated on the seed packet. If you use compartmentalized trays or individual peat pots, place two or three seeds in each pot. Do not cover too
deeply, as this may reduce or prevent seed germination. Just like planting directly in the ground, a general rule is to cover no more than four times the diameter of the seed. Apply a fine spray of water to avoid washing the seed, causing them to float to the soil surface. Household window sprayers are suitable.

Cover the containers with plastic sheets or panes of glass and place in a cool room (60 to 65 degrees) away from direct sunlight until germination. By doing this, you will almost eliminate the necessity of watering the bed again before the seeds germinate. Be sure to keep an eye on it though. DON’T let it completely dry out!

Germination can take anywhere from a few days to a couple of months, depending on what you are growing, so patience will have to be on of your virtues. When seeds germinate, move them gradually (over two or three days) into brighter light. When the seedlings have developed the first true leaves (the leaves above the cotyledons or “seed leaves”), thin to one plant per container if using partitioned trays or peat pots. Use tweezers to pinch off unwanted seedlings rather than pulling them, to avoid disturbing the remaining seedling.

If seeds were planted in larger containers, transplant into individual peat pots or other small containers. An alternative is to thin the seedlings so they are spread about 1 1/2 to 2 inches apart and leave them in the larger containers. This method, however, makes inefficient use of seed and space.

Water your seedlings carefully. Small containers used for starting plants dry out quickly. On the other hand, soil kept soaking wet inhibits seedling growth and may kill the plants.

About one week prior to planting-out time, gradually expose seedlings to longer periods outdoors unless
temperatures are below 50 degrees. At the same time, reduce watering to a minimum as long as plants do not wilt. This will help the plants adjust to full exposure without undergoing undue shock at planting time. When it comes time for planting in the ground, carefully remove the plant from its container keeping the roots intact. Dig a small hole in the garden plot and place the plant into the hole. Cover up the roots completely nearly up to the bottom leaves of the plant. Pack down the soil around the plant and water!

A soil test will measure pH, the soil’s acidity or alkalinity. The recommended pH for a vegetable garden is 6.8. The test results should include guidelines for adjusting the pH, for example, how much lime to add to acid soils or how much sulphur to add to alkaline soils. Both are available at gardening centres.

The test also should analyze the amounts of nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, calcium and other elements in the soil that are critical for healthy plants. The testing agency may suggest nutriments to balance these elements; when you mail off your sample, be sure to enclose a note stating that you intend to garden organically so the tester does not suggest chemicals.

Some of the nitrogen sources the tester may suggest can be problematic, especially for vegetarians: Bone meal is a slaughterhouse by-product, fish emulsion is a fish-processing by-product, cottonseed meal is subject to heavy pesticide use and urea, or crystallized animal urine, is so processed it can no longer be considered even remotely natural. If nitrogen is a problem for your soil, and you are opposed to using animal by-products, your best bet may be to plant a nitrogen-fixing cover crop this first year and start your vegetables the next.

When gardeners speak of a soil, they are referring to earth that looks, feels and smells pleasant. That means fertile soil, with good structure depending on the extent to which the inorganic soil particles; sand, silt, clay, and humus are bound together. No matter what kind of miserable soil you begin with, it can be transformed into the stuff great gardens are made of.

You also should test the soil’s percentage of organic matter, or decomposed plant material. There are different levels of consideration according to your area that will determine if a soil is organic. The best organic matter to fertilize your garden with is compost. As a new gardener, you may not have compost of your own yet, but we have included a post on that subject for you.

Composting involves recycling of natural matter like vegetable peels, coffee grounds, and egg shells. All of these will provide nutrients to the soil that a successful organic gardener knows are of paramount importance! When you till up your plot, work in some loose topsoil along with natural organic matter into the existing soil. Horse or cow manure will work the best here. Find a local farmer and ask if you can buy some dung from him. If you don’t have any of these available to you, most local garden centers will have some natural additives that you can till into the soil. You can also use leaves or grass clippings. By tilling this organic matter into the soil, the organic material will form moisture-holding humus in the soil and the loose structure will permit good drainage. Plus, it can provide needed nutrients to your plants and help them thrive as they grow.

Be careful that you don’t dig up your plot too soon in the season. Cool spring soil holds moisture, and disturbing wet soil will damage its structure. A good tip to help you determine whether or not your soil is ready for tilling comes from gardener Jim Crockett. He suggests that before digging you take “the chocolate cake test”: If the soil has the consistency of moist chocolate cake, it’s safe to dig. If it’s more like fudge, wait until the soil has dried out to cake consistency.

Soil is structured in layers, and it’s best not to disturb those layers. Dig down just far enough to remove clods of grass, weeds and root masses, shaking and pounding out as much dirt as possible back into your garden. Save the grass for composting.

After the dirt is prepared, let the garden rest for a couple of days before planting.

If you want to simply plant the seeds directly in the ground, that’s fine, just remember that growing from seed takes a little more time than growing from plants, so be patient. Many beginners will take a seed packet and dump its contents into the ground hoping a few plants will spring up. What they don’t realize
is that with care, they will probably ALL come up – or at least most of them.

The problem here is that these plants will strive for air and light developing tall, weak stems and they will not thrive as they choke each other out. There are some plants that can be seeded thickly. These include peas, parsnips, radishes and bush beans. It’s fine to block these together as they will grow fine in clumps.
Seeds have within them everything they need to grow, except moisture and warmth. But, if you pile 4-inches of soil over them, though, they are overwhelmed. The soil is heavy and cold and often damp enough to rot off the emerging leaf bud before it can break the surface. Be kind to your seeds. Cover them with soil to a depth no more than 2-times their size. Very fine seeds shouldn’t be covered at all.

There are also some vegetables that are conducive to early planting. These include radishes and leaf lettuce. They tend to come up quickly and can be harvested before any of your other plants have even begun to bud. With these types of plants, plant a single row or small bed and keep replanting every two or three weeks in small amounts. You’ll take up the same amount of space, save harvest time, and have a continuous crop throughout the growing season.

When planting your seeds, you’ll need to dig a small trench and sprinkle them evenly throughout the row. The rows should be at least an inch apart, but increasing that distance make for easier weeding and gives you walking space between the rows.

As we said, sprinkle them evenly and try to avoid crowding. In other words, don’t just dump the seed packet in the trench. You must leave room for the plants to grow and be able to get adequate light and air circulation. Once they’re in the ground, mark what you have planted where. We use a Popsicle stick with the plant name written on the front and stick it in the ground at the beginning of the row. This way once the plants start to bud, you’ll know where to look for them.

Water well after you’ve planted your seeds and then wait. You’ll soon begin to notice small plants popping
through the soil and reaching for the sun. Before long, with proper cultivation, you’ll have beautiful plants! Sometimes, it’s more satisfying to start your seeds indoors in the winter time so that when the spring arrives, you’ll have your own organically grown starter plants ready to put into your garden plot.

Plants need light and water to grow. The light is already taken care of by Mother Nature; you have to take
care of the water!

Watering the garden every evening after dinner can be good therapy for the gardener, but it’s not good for the plants. When the soil is often sprinkled on top but never deeply soaked, plant roots tend to remain in the damp, upper few inches of soil where they are vulnerable to searing mid-summer heat and drought. Vegetable plants need an average of 2-inches of water a week. Be sure to water thoroughly so the soil is soaked to a depth of 4 to 6-inches. This will encourage roots to grow deep. Germinating seeds and seedlings need to be kept uniformly moist without being washed away, so water them with a gentle spray every day or two. Developing plants need to be watered deeply, but less often, to encourage deep root growth. Water to a depth of at least 6 inches and then let the surface inch or two completely dry out before
watering again.

As a general guideline, garden plants that have been watered properly, and therefore have developed deep
roots, need a thorough watering every 5 to 7 days in hot weather.

Hand watering delivers water directly to the plants, thus eliminating waste, but it takes time. Spot check to make sure you are delivering enough water, and be careful to give all areas of the garden adequate coverage. Sprinklers have the disadvantage of wasting water by watering paths and other open spots in the garden. They also lose water to evaporation and wind drift. Because they wet the foliage, sprinklers also can promote the development of leaf diseases.

However, sprinklers are easier and eliminate the need to stand outside holding a hose for 20 minutes – especially if you have a large garden. If you use oscillating sprinklers, elevate them above
the tallest plants so the water streams are not blocked. To make sure all of your plants are watered, place sprinklers so their patterns overlap. Runoff indicates you need to water at a slower rate.

You can also consider taking a simple garden hose and making your own irrigation system by poking holes in the top of it at uniform angles. Simply place this hose between the rows of plants and move when the watering is done in that particular section.

You should generally water your garden in the early evening when it is cooler. This will reduce the chance of evaporation from the hot sun and heat. Early morning watering is fine, but less effective.

Be wary of over-watering your garden. This can cause your plants to be less successful and produce disappointing yields. Generally, the first few weeks after planting and transplanting and during the development of fruit or storage organs are times when plants may be adversely affected by
shortages of water, so water plentifully during these times. Obviously, Mother Nature will provide you with some of her water as well. Monitor your rain levels and check to be sure that your garden has enough moisture if it has rained to see if you need to add to it.

Even if you’re not an organic gardener, weed control is a problem. There really is no easy answer to this problem. It just takes time and effort to control the unwanted overgrowth in your garden. This is where mulching and composting come into play.

First of all, twice a week, run the edge of a sharp hoe just under the surface of the soil to behead tiny weeds before they grow large enough to compete with your seedlings.

Once the seedlings are larger, the soil is warm and drenching rains have ended, put down a layer of mulch to hold in moisture and smother weeds. Mulch is material that can be laid down around the plants to control weeds. Choose ingredients that allow the soil to breathe, let water in and keep light out. These can include dried–not fresh–grass clippings, chopped straw, lawn-mower-chopped leaves mixed with dried grass clippings or well-rotted sawdust (avoid fresh sawdust, as it leaches nitrogen from the soil), and pine needles are all good choices. Apply the mulch several inches thick.

Be warned that if you use grass clippings or weeds, you run the risk of bringing insects or diseases into the garden if these are not composted. Either of these types of mulching can become incubators for insects, so it’s best to compost them before using as mulch.

A thick layer of mulch keeps light from reaching weeds. Without adequate light, the plants don’t produce enough chlorophyll to enable further growth. Most of these plants sicken and die before you even notice them. The few plants that do manage to stick their leaves into the light will be shallowly rooted and very easy to pull.

Organic mulches—straw, grass clippings, leaves, shredded bark—nourish the soil as they decompose. They
are fairly effective weed barriers. You can also apply a layer of compost to control weeds.

If you live in a wet climate, you may wish to avoid mulching and keep cultivating, because mulch can lead to waterlogged soil and fungal diseases. In a climate subject to dry spells, mulch can dramatically reduce plant stress by helping the soil retain moisture. If you irrigate, feel under the mulch to be sure the water is getting through.

Mulch is great, but there are two ways to misuse it. One is to mulch heat-loving plants too early in the season, before the soil warms up. Mulch smothers weeds, but it’s also a good insulator. Cantaloupes, tomatoes, potatoes, watermelons, peppers and egg plants will produce better if mulched.

Another mistake is to put down too little mulch. It looks good for a few weeks, but then weeds poke through, and they must be hand pulled, for there’s just enough mulch covering the ground to make hoeing impossible. Insufficient mulch gives your plants much less drought protection. How much is enough? Well, maybe this will give you an idea: Sawdust; 2 to 3-inches / Shredded leaves; 8 to 10-inches / Straw; 5 to 7-inches / Newspaper; 4 to 7-inches / and Grass Clippings; 5-inches when you first spread them.
Another way to control weeds is through various ground covers. This is often called “soil solarization”. Soil
solarization involves placing thick plastic sheeting on top of the weeds and allowing the natural sun to “bake” the weeds until they die. This can take some time, so you must be patient!

Many people prefer to use newspaper for their ground cover. Because the paper will naturally decompose, it is environmentally friendly as well. Simply place 4-5 layers of newspaper in between your plants and cover with a light layer of dirt so they don’t blow away! By covering up the weeds, you will be better able to
control them! Also consider Kraft paper – like grocery bags – or cardboard. By using Kraft paper and cardboard, even less light can reach the weeds and makes the cover even more impenetrable.

You can suppress the growth of weed seeds early in the season by spreading corn gluten meal over the area where they’re growing. Corn gluten meal, a by-product of corn processing that’s often used to feed livestock, inhibits the germination of seeds— bear in mind, once the weeds have gone beyond the sprout stage, corn gluten will not affect them. Be wary, however. Corn gluten doesn’t discriminate
between seeds you want to sprout and those you don’t want, so avoid using corn gluten meal where and when you’ve sown seeds. It works best with established plants. Unfortunately, you will have to employ some old-fashioned methods to weed control in your garden. It can’t be avoided.

Hoeing is a huge part of a successful garden. Annual weeds die when you sever the stems from the roots just below the soil surface. With a sharp hoe, you cut the weeds easily. You may want to eschew the traditional square headed hoe for this job and try an oscillating one. To hoe your garden without cultivating a backache, hold the hoe as you would a broom—that is, with your thumbs pointing up. Skim the sharp sides of the hoe blade through the top inch of the soil.

You will also have to do some hand-pulling of those weeds. It doesn’t have to be back-breaking work, though. It just takes persistence.

Here’s the trick to comfortable, quick weed-pulling: Put your hands in front of you, thumbs up and palms facing your body, one hand in front of the other. Now roll your hands, like kids do when singing “This old man goes rolling home.” Pinch your forefinger and thumb together as you reach the outermost edge of the imaginary circle your hands are tracing and move your arms to the side as you roll your hands. With practice, you will be surprised by how quickly you clean up a row in the garden with this movement.

Finally, organic weed control can be done easily by placing common household vinegar in a spray bottle and apply to those weeds. Vinegar is the organic equivalent of the commercial Round-Up, so be careful when applying around thriving plants.

Beside those incessant weeds, you’ll also need to worry about pest control.

Because they prefer succulent foliage, they are primarily pests of seedlings, herbaceous plants, and ripening fruit such as strawberries, artichokes, and tomatoes that are close to the ground. However, they will also feed on fruit of some trees, citrus is especially susceptible to damage.

Slugs are nocturnal and come out at night. They slither under rocks and leaves in the day. Holes chomped
into leaves and fruits are tell-tale signs of slug feeding. A more certain sign of slug activity is the silvery trail of dried mucous that these pests leave in their wake. If that’s not sufficiently convincing, go out into the garden at night with a flashlight and surprise them.

Slug control is actually quite easy. They are rather large, so they can be caught by hand and disposed of. This is another garden pest that be caught by setting out a dish of beer.

You can trap the slugs by placing a plastic bag in the garden containing two decaying lettuce leaves, 2 cups of bran cereal, and pouring beer over the whole mess. Put the bag out before sundown. In the morning, check to see if the slugs are in there and dispose of them.

Prevent slug infestation by removing dead and decaying leaves. This will remove their primary food
source. Coffee grounds and egg shells will also keep slugs away. Just place them around the plants you want to protect at ground level.

In general, earwigs can be beneficial to your garden, but they can get out of control, so you should use the
general spray we’ll give you later. There are a number of ways to control earwigs, but trapping them is
probably the best way to eliminate them from your garden

One way we like is to take a shallow dish and place beer in it. Any beer will do. The earwigs will be attracted to the beer, climb in, drink, and die. You can sift out the dead ones and reuse the beer for trapping again. They are also attracted to corn oil, fish oil, or water and vinegar. You can place these in dishes just like the beer.

However, when it is sprayed, it is not a selective insecticide. It can be used to control cabbageworm,
leafhoppers, squash bugs, whitefly, but will also affect beneficial insects so be careful where and when you apply this product.

Instructions

3 ounces finely chopped garlic
2 tsp mineral oil
1 pint water
¼ ounce liquid dish soap

Allow the garlic to soak in the mineral oil for 24 hours. Add water and liquid dish soap. Stir well and strain into a glass jar for storage. This is your concentrate.

To use: Combine 1-2 tablespoons of concentrate in 1 pint of water to make the spray. Do be careful not to make the solution too strong. While garlic is safe for humans, when combined with oil & soap, the mixture can cause leaf injury on sensitive plants. Always test the lower leaves of plants first to make sure they aren’t affected