Growing an Organic Garden

This guest article was kindly supplied by Jessica Ackerman.

Although many people customarily use synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, it is possible to grow a productive garden in harmony with nature by using organic methods.

Flowers such as St Johns Wort are easy to grow

Optimizing the soil of your organic garden

Instead of using synthetic and chemically based fertilizers, an organic garden can be kept healthy and well-nourished by using natural fertilizers such as compost and manure. Compost is easy to make and can help you dispose of garden and kitchen waste is a natural and productive fashion.

When using compost and manure in your garden, you can optimize the soil by creating raised growing beds. This will allow you to focus all your soil improvements in a concentrated area, which will allow you to greatly enhance the soil right where your plants need it most. Raised beds also warm faster in the spring, which will let you get a head start on the growing season.

Another way of extending the growing season is to add brackets to the raised bed frames that will allow you to add PVC tubing hoops which can support a clear plastic covering. This can be used in early spring and late fall to provide extra warmth and frost protection for your plants, thereby extending the growing and harvest season.

When you weed your garden, put the pulled weeds on the compost pile to keep it constantly replenished.

Organic container gardening

Another convenient method of growing plants organically is to grow them in containers. This can be especially useful for people who do not have a yard large enough for a big garden. It's also easy to focus your organic soil fertilization methods when using gardening containers.

Another advantage of containers is that you can move them to different locations when necessary. For example, some types of pests such as cucumber beetles are only prevalent during certain times of the year. You can avoid the need for pesticides by simply moving the container to a protected area during the time when the insects are present, thereby allowing them to grow for the rest of the season unbothered by pests.

You can also cover containers with floating row covers to block insects and pests as opposed to using pesticides; floating row covers are lightweight fabrics that let air and light pass through and can be found at garden centers and websites.

Container gardening is also a good way of focusing your watering efforts just on your plants, as opposed to watering the entire garden. Containers of garden plants on the patio or close to the house also make it very convenient to gather vegetables and herbs when you want them.

Companion planting

Marigolds, nasturtiums, and many herbs have natural insect repelling properties.

With signature design style, Jessica Ackerman, an online writer with WallDecorandHomeAccents.com, describes bold approaches to music wall art and decorative wall grille.

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