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Create Your Beautiful, Sustainable Garden

By Guest Author on Monday, July 19th, 2010 | No Comments

Some of us hire landscapers while others just pick up whatever is on sale at the nursery.  Then there are those who plan out paths and planting areas with specific flora and fauna in mind.  Whatever your method of creating a garden, everyone should approach it in the same way: with an eye towards creating a sustainable outdoor space that not only adds beauty to your life, but also enriches the planet that supports us all.  So if you are looking to build a garden or spice up the one you already have, here are a few tips to help you get the garden you desire with less waste, pollution, or unfortunate side effects.

  1. Plan your space.  If you want to add a deck, put in some planters, or reshape your yard in some way, think about how you can do it with a sense of environmental consciousness.  Use reclaimed wood for the deck, hang some old tires or pick up some used whiskey barrels for interesting or rustic planters (rather than sending these items to the landfill), and bring in soil that has not been tainted by fertilizers (look into the benefits of integrated pest management to introduce beneficial insects and discourage those that are harmful).  Don’t forget to place drip irrigation systems and utilize mulch to deliver water directly to root systems and retain moisture, respectively (for less water usage and reduced evaporation).
  2. Use native plants.  While you may crave the colors of non-native species, they are likely to be more trouble than they’re worth.  For one thing, if they don’t grow naturally in your particular environment, they may require additional expenditures of water in order to grow or pesticides to keep away insects that they don’t have the natural defenses to fight off.  Alternately, they might go crazy and expand uncontrollably, having no predators to keep down their population in your region.  Either way, it’s better to stick to tried and true plants that won’t adversely affect the delicate balance of the ecosystem.
  3. Make your own compost.  Pretty much anything organic can be used to make compost.  Most people like to use yard waste such as fallen leaves, dead plant remains, or clipped grass, but you can also use food waste such as leftover fruit and vegetable matter (anything with fat and bones should be avoided).  There are several ways to set up composting stations in your yard, so you should look into all of the options to pick the one that’s right for your space.
  4. Incorporate edibles.  One excellent and useful way to have a sustainable garden is to plant fruits, vegetables, tubers, and even nuts.  You can create your own organic farmer’s market right in your back yard and reap the benefits of fresh produce throughout the summer (and can it for use later in the year).
  5. Share the wealth.  If you’ve done all you can in your own limited space, look into forming a community garden.  Often you can get space allocated for a collective by the city council, especially if your co-op includes after-school programs (and volunteer hours) dedicated to teaching others how to create a sustainable garden that everyone can share.

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Organic Pesticides That You Can Make At Home

By Alison Wood on Friday, June 11th, 2010 | 2 Comments

Why spend a lot of money on commercial organic pesticides when you can easily and cheaply make your own at home? You will be surprised to know how many items that you have around the house can be used for organic pest control in your own garden. Here are just a few ideas.

Garlic

Garlic is technically not a pesticide because it does not usually kill but it repels many pests. They just don’t like the taste or the smell. You can use garlic for pest control in two ways.

First, planting garlic around other plants will keep many pests off. Garlic planted around tomatoes can prevent red spider mite. (Salt water spray is also good against spider mite.) Around fruit trees, garlic plants can repel borer beetles whose larvae would bore into your tree trunk, damaging or even killing the tree.

Second, you can make an organic pest control spray from garlic blended with water or oil. Use the water mixture directly on growing vegetables or flowers to prevent rabbits and other invaders from snacking on your plants. Use the oil mixture to spray onto ponds. It will form a film on the surface of the pond that can kill mosquitoes.

Boric acid (known in other forms as boracic acid, borates or borax)

This was a common product found in most households until recent years and you can still buy it in drugstores or online. It is often used as an ingredient in industrial pesticides, but it is a natural product mined in the Mojave desert.

Boric acid has anti fungal properties so it can be used to get rid of mildew and other molds and fungi. In powdered form it can be very effective against ants, termites, ticks, fleas, bedbugs, slugs, earwigs, beetles, roaches and even scorpions. It will also kill crickets and grasshoppers.

Boric acid is mildly toxic to humans or pets, although not much more dangerous than table salt. A pet would have to eat a lot to suffer symptoms, and humans even more. However, do not take internally and do not use in large quantities on plants that pets will lick or eat.

Soap

Liquid detergent and other soaps can be effective sprayed onto roses and other plants that suffer from aphids or other small fly infestations. It can also work well against slugs. For extra punch, add equal quantities of hot chili peppers, horseradish (roots and leaves), spearmint and green onion tops to your soapy water.

Many home made organic pest control products do not kill the insects and other pests, but simply prevent them from coming near your plants. This will be important to you if you prefer not to kill any living beings for religious or ethical reasons – or just for good karma. However, other products such as boric acid are true pesticides. You can also find many commercial organic pesticides for sale either online o

Indoor Vegetable Gardening For Beginners

By Alison Wood on Sunday, May 2nd, 2010 | No Comments

Indoor vegetable gardening can be very rewarding, but there are several things to think about before you start. First, do you have enough light? Plants do require a good amount of light to grow strongly and produce a crop. This does not matter so much for general house plants where you just want the plant to survive, but if you intend to grow a plant for its vegetable crop then it will need more light.

A large sunny window ledge is fine for smaller plants. If you have a conservatory or a room where the windows reach the floor, that is even better because you can use the floor space.

Clearly, choosing what to grow will be important. In fact, the most important thing you will do for your indoor vegetable gardening project is choosing the plants.

Tomatoes can work well indoors because they grow upward and do not need much space. They do like a lot of sun so you will need to put them right in the window. You can buy a trellis to stand in your container to support them.

Herbs also make good indoor plants. They usually like well drained soil. Too much water can cause fungal growth. They also like a good supply of fresh air. Most herbs will grow happily in pots on a sunny windowsill. Some, such as parsley, rosemary, mint and thyme, can handle less sunlight.

Root vegetables do not work well indoors in most cases because they need a bigger depth of soil than most homes can provide. The exception may be if you have a conservatory with large containers.

It can be hard to treat indoor pests. You should not have a major pest problem if you are growing from seed, but be very careful when buying growing plants. Be aware of the pests that target different plants, such as red spider mite for tomatoes, and check that they have not infested any plant in the store. It is not enough to check the plant you plan to buy because there could be eggs on it.

Also, check your house plants for pests before you start. There is no point in buying the perfect vegetable plant and then putting it right next to something that has an aphid infestation when you bring it home. It is possible to spray indoor plants although you would probably not want to use chemical pesticides in your home. Organic is better for anything that you plan to eat. Plant garlic with your tomatoes to deter red spider mite.

Hydroponics can be an excellent solution for indoor vegetable gardening. This is an intensive growing method that allows you to control the water, nutrients and light that plants receive. You can use grow lights to augment natural light. Hydroponic equipment does not have to be very expensive either. Simple starter kits are available for indoor vegetable gardening beginners.

Organic Tomato Gardening Tips

By Alison Wood on Saturday, April 17th, 2010 | No Comments

Organic tomato gardening is perfect for almost every backyard, however small. All you need is a sunny corner. And nothing beats the taste of freshly picked sun ripened tomatoes from your own garden! Follow our tips for the perfect home grown organic tomatoes.

1. Location

Tomatoes need support and like a sunny, sheltered site. They usually prefer slightly acidic soil. A south or west facing fence or trellis is ideal.  Some varieties grow up to 6 feet tall, others are smaller.

2. Variety

There are many different kinds of tomato. If you want a truly organic garden, you will want to start out with organic tomato seeds. Otherwise you can use regular seeds and simply avoid using chemicals on your plants.

The best way to choose a tomato variety is to ask around among your neighbors. They will have the same climate and soil type, so what works for them will probably work for you. Maybe they will even share seeds with you.

3. Feeding

Successful organic tomato gardening requires some attention. Feed plants at least twice in the season with a good organic fertilizer. Slow release fertilizers in the soil are more effective than liquids. Spraying with kelp and fish emulsion from time to time will provide the growing leaves with extra nutrients.

Regular watering is vital. Never let the plants become so dry that they wilt. They may recover but they will not produce good juicy tomatoes that way.

4. Pests

Unfortunately tomatoes are vulnerable to various kinds of infestation. Here are some examples of tomato pests and what you can do about them.

Hornworms or Manduca quinquemaculata

This is a big ugly caterpillar native to the USA with a black horn on its rear end. It adores tomato plants and anything else in the same family (eggplant, potato, bell pepper, tobacco).

Hornworms will hide under the leaves of your plants so check every day, especially if you know that they are common in your local area. Sometimes you will find them by seeing their black excretions that have fallen onto other leaves.

The easiest and most effective way to deal with hornworms organically is to squish them. Alternatively, you can buy parasitic wasps or braconid wasps which will lay their eggs on the caterpillar. When the eggs hatch, the larvae will feed on the caterpillar and kill it. If you use braconid wasps, do not kill the hornworms yourself: the wasps will leave your garden if they do not find a few to lay their eggs on. The adult wasps feed on the flowers of dill and cilantro plants so grow some of those near to your tomatoes too.

Eelworms or Nematode

These worms live in the soil all around the world. They feed on the roots of several plants including potatoes and tomatoes. There is an organic pesticide called Methyl Bromide that can help with this. Planting marigolds in with your tomatoes is a good prevention measure.

Tomato Blight

Tomato blight is caused by fungus. Good preventive measures include rotating your plants so that the tomatoes are not always in the same place, and thinning them out so that they have plenty of circulating air. Still sometimes in a wet summer you will see some blight. Remove and destroy affected plants immediately to stop it spreading, or it will ruin your chances of successful organic tomato gardening.

Gardening With Kids

By Alison Wood on Sunday, February 28th, 2010 | No Comments

Gardening with kids is a wonderful activity. It is amazing to see the astonishment on a young child’s face when something that they planted begins to grow! Older kids can be involved in the whole process of planning out, planting, watering and harvesting.

Gardening does not offer the instant rewards that many children expect of life these days. It can help them to learn patience as well as the importance of taking care of things over a period of time. Kids who are used to getting everything they want immediately in our electronic age can benefit greatly from a return to old fashioned activities like this.

So what should you grow when gardening with kids? Flowers, vegetables and herbs can all be used. If there is something that they particularly like to eat, for example cucumber, that would be ideal. Try to plan so that different things will be ready at different times. Flowers often appear quickly and a child can take great pride in creating a flower arrangement for the table from his or her own garden.

With small children, less is often better. Just a tray of seeds in the house or a container in the yard will be enough. At first, they will rush to it every day to see if something has appeared. Later, you can enjoy measuring the growing plant with them, or counting leaves and flowers.

Of course you will want to avoid poisonous plants if you have very young children. Check all the plants that you are thinking of using, because you may be surprised at what is poisonous. For example, tomato and potato leaves are toxic. With older children, you may decide to go ahead with plants like these and simply warn them. After all, they will come across poisonous plants in nature and most parents would agree that it is better for them to be knowledgeable than ignorant.

The garden also offers an opportunity to talk to kids about difficult subjects including death and reproduction in a very natural setting. Having a child around plants is a good reason not to use pesticides, but they will no doubt come across predators feeding on insects. They may also be unhappy when plants die off at the end of the season. This can be a gentle first lesson in the sad fact of life that even what we love most can die.

If you have no interest in gardening yourself, it may be better not to fake it. Kids can usually tell and their own enthusiasm will quickly die. Instead, consider asking your parents or in-laws to take on this activity with them, if they are keen gardeners. Older people often love to grow things too and gardening with kids can create a wonderful bond between grandparents and their grandkids.

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