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Organic Gardening for Beginners
Organic gardening for beginners.
If you are new to gardening, you will want to follow these crucial tips
Organic Gardening for Beginners Tip
Prepare Your Soil
There is nothing more frustrating than to spend hours digging a garden bed, then planting and watering it and reaping next to nothing in produce.
The right type of soil is crucial to your success, and the easiest way to get that kind of soil is through building raised beds using the lasagna gardening techniques recommended by Patricia Lanza in her book, Lasagna Gardening .
In the fall or on a mild winter day, devote a few hours to building your beds by tramping down the grass and other vegetative matter and covering the area with wet newspapers.
Then pile on organic matter such as leaves and moldy hay and cover it with black plastic.
Come spring you'll have a good healthy soil ready for starting a vegetable garden.
Organic Gardening for Beginners Tip
Pick Easy Vegetables
If you are starting a vegetable garden for the first time, you will do best by choosing vegetables that are fairly easy to grow, including tomatoes, bush beans, carrots, squash and potatoes.
Organic Gardening for Beginners Tip
Build Your Compost
When starting a vegetable garden, also start your compost pile.
Never put old lettuce and carrot rinds down the garbage disposal again.
Instead, save those scraps, along with coffee grinds and egg shells and put them in a compost pile instead.
You can add anything to your pile that is biodegradable, including manure.
Just avoid meat scraps and dog and cat feces, as these will attract rodents to your pile.
You can also start a compost pile indoors using worms.
The compost they produce will be worth their weight in gold when you're starting a vegetable garden.
Learn more here.
Make a Natural Pest Control Spray
You can make your own organic pest spray by buying a spray pump water and filling it with soapy water, vinegar, garlic powder and cayenne pepper.
Mix these ingredients together give your mixture a good week or so to completely dissolve before using for the first time.
(Otherwise the cayenne and garlic powder are likely to clog up your pump).
Spray around the base of each plant once a week to discourage beetles and other pests when you are starting a vegetable garden.
Organic Gardening for Beginners Tip
Pick a Good Location
Before starting a vegetable garden, spend some time thinking about the location you want to use.
You will want a spot that gets plenty of sun, but is also convenient to get to every day.
A vegetable garden that is close to your back door is likely to be weeded more.
Better still, plant your garden right by your front steps.
You'll be encouraged to pull a weed or two every day after you get home from work.
Attract Bees
Pollination is crucial to starting a vegetable garden that will provide you with a bountiful harvest.
If you have done everything right and your garden is still not producing many vegetables, the answer may be a lack of bees.
Having these wonderful little insects around are crucial to a successful garden.
The best solution is to keep bees yourself, but that's not always possible, especially if you live in an urban area.
But what you can do is plan on planting some flowers along with your vegetables to attract more bees to your garden.
When starting a vegetable garden, plan at the very beginning to attract more bees and butterflies to your spot by choosing non-hybrid flowering plants that are native to your area, and plant them in clumps throughout your garden.
Provide your bees and butterflies with different types of flowers in a wide variety of shapes and colors that will flower throughout the season.
Extra Gardening Tips
Comprehensive Course on Gardening! Increase the value of your home by 30%.
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A garden kneeler and seat
makes daily weeding chores much easier by easing the strain on your lower back and knees while protecting your clothing from stain and injuries.
To protect your back, use a lifting tool
for heavy pots and other objects.
Long-term exposure to the elements will damage your tools and shorten their use.
Store your tools and other gardening supplies in a portable storage bin .
To make yard and garden cleaning easier, use a Kangaroo Gardening Container .
Invest in a sharpening tool
to keep your shovel and other gardening tools sharp and easier to work with.
Grow a successful hydroponic gardening with this helpful resource.
Protect your hands from insects and other injuries by wearing good quality gardening gloves.
More Homestead Gardening Links
Thinking about gardening the organic way? Follow these simple steps first.
Want to save even more money when gardening? Purchase bulk seeds for cost savings and self reliant preparation.
Get an early start on your gardening by starting your seeds indoors. Here are some tips.
Ready to grow your own vegetables, but you're not sure where to begin?
Learn which vegetables are the easiest to grow by clicking here.
The most comprehensive gardening instruction available on the internet!
Learn more.
Are you thinking about putting in a garden?
Follow these tips.
For healthy strong plants, put in raised beds.
Or avoid the digging altogether and put in these easier raised beds.
For truly rich, healthy soil, learn how to make your own compost.
Protect your plants and keep down weeds by mulching. Here are some mulching tips.
Build up your soil, and you'll keep pests down to a minimum, but what happens if pests do attack your garden? Here are some pest control tips
100's Of Wonderfully Frugal, Eco-Friendly and Highly Resourceful Gardening Techniques.
click here to learn more.
Gotten into poison ivy lately. Learn how to treat that awful itch. Here's how.
Do you have limited space? Consider growing your organic garden in containers.
Ready to have your own container garden? Here are some tips on finding the right garden container
Gardening can be much more than a hobby; it can also be a way to raise most of your food. Here's how.
An good resource for raising your own food is this ebook.
If you want the richest humus for your gardening, consider composting with worms
Save Thousands of Dollars a Year With This Fully Illustrated Guide.
Click here to learn more.
Want to have fresh greens for your salad all winter? Then build this easy, effective cold frame.
Get your garden off to the right start with strong growth and an early harvest. Learn how you can germinate seeds.
So why should you pursue organic gardening? Learn the benefits by clicking here.
True self sufficiency means being able to produce your own excellent-quality seeds. Here's how.
To save seeds, you must start with quality plants. Learn why you should purchase the seeds of heirloom plants by clicking here.
Have you thought about organic gardening but don't know where to begin?
Try these tips.
Have a Bountiful Organic Garden using a tiny amount of space.
Learn more.
As homesteaders, we primarily think about gardening to raise food, but beauty is also important.
Learn the importance of cottage gardening.
When planning your garden, don't forget to grow herbs. Not only do they smell nice and add flavoring to food, many also have healing qualities.
Learn more.
Got a bumper crop of potatoes or other root vegetables this season?
Learn an economical way to store them to keep them fresh all winter by clicking here.
If you want to extend your growing season, a small greenhouse might be just the ticket.
Learn more.
If you are thinking about adding on a lean to greenhouse, there are a few things to keep in mind.
Read more.
The winter months are a perfect time for planning your spring garden.
Learn more.
Summer garden not all you hoped it to be? Consider putting in a fall garden, but be sure to protect your plants from frosty nights.
Learn how.
The ins and outs of storing produce from your garden can be found by clicking here.
If you had an abundant harvest of root vegetables this year, don't let them go to waste; store them using this time-proven method instead.
Read more.
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