Fine Gardening

Posts Tagged ‘Organic Gardening’

organic garden fertilizer

The key to fine gardening is in knowing what fertilizer will work best for your garden. There are a wide variety of different gardening fertilizers available and each one has specific benefits. Also the type of gardening fertilizer that you choose will have a marked impact on the overall taste of your vegetables. Therefore you have to ensure that you are using the fertilizers that are especially made for use for the food crops or flowers you are targeting. The best ones, however, are your organic gardening fertilizers such as cow and pig manures. Before you use these fertilizers make certain that they are fully fermented or rotten before spraying them in your garden.

To grow fine garden vegetables in your garden nothing will compare to the good old tried and true manure fertilizers. If you are not in a location where you have access to the fresh stuff there is still commercial grade manure fertilizers that you can purchase and they will do just as good of a job.

Yet another aspect of choosing a gardening fertilizer for your garden is that you have to pay special attention to any additives that may harm or change the overall character of your soil; and this may affect the quality of your produce. Some side effects are:

• If there are too much sawdust or wood shavings, which are normally found in manure, it can produce sourness to your soil. You should consider using chicken, sheep, or pigeon manure as these are the most ideal. The value of nutrients that are within these manures is comparable to that of the commercial chemical fertilizers that are available on the market.
• Too much of potassium or other salts may increase the pH level of your soil, thereby harming the roots.

The commercial fertilizers can be a lot trickier for you to work with. This is because you should know that application itself has to be more specific to the types of plants that you are planting. It is a lot more difficult however to find the right blend for the various plants that you are planting. When you are purchasing your commercial gardening fertilizer you should see that it is specifically made for vegetables. Also you should read all the package directions and make sure that you understand these directions thoroughly before even starting your fine gardening venture. Initially you can consider testing out the fertilizer in a small area of your garden before you are applying it on larger areas throughout your garden. This way you can judge your plants’ overall reaction to the chemicals present in the fertilizers. Then once you get the plants response you can either add more or less as needed. The above theory is the golden rule of fine gardening.

Therefore the fundamentals of gardening are that you have to choose the right fertilizer for your garden along with other factors like irrigation etc. For this you have to experiment and see what works the best for your garden.

More and more devoted gardeners are now veering away from conventional fine gardening techniques and switching to organic gardening to care for their gardens. The reason is simple: organic gardening works in a wonderful manner as the gardeners eschew the synthetic chemicals and their yards free from potential hazards. This form of fine gardening aims at the core of the very word – soil. As we know that soil is the most essential component to give life to a garden; if enriched with organic matter, it becomes fertile, airy and produces healthy crop.

Despite the popularity and the growing trend in the shift towards organic gardening over the past few years, this is actually not something new. Organic gardening and organic farming has long been the method used by farmers and gardeners throughout the centuries to keep their crops and gardens healthy and beautiful which acts like a sanctuary for them to collect their thoughts and hold parties in. Organic gardening helps the plants to absorb the different nutrients found in the soil and in the air through different techniques such the regular loosening up of the soil to allow the roots to absorb air and the incorporation of compost made from organic products such as manure and dried leaves into the soil to further increase the amount of nutrients that the plants absorb to help them bloom and bear crops.

With the onset of the Industrial Revolution, societies have a penchant for fast and instant results. Not only did this apply to the production of crops, but also in the tending of their gardens in order for them to have more time to do many more things. The introduction of chemical pesticides and fertilizers caused organic gardening and farming to temporarily take a back seat. The chemicals utilized in these fertilizers and pesticides have been found not only to keep the plants more healthy but allow them to produce higher quantities of crops as compared to organic gardening and farming.

There are a number of reasons why organic gardening has now gotten back into the limelight. First is the quality of the produce. Although conventional gardening does yield more crops for gardeners to sell and make some extra profit out of it, the quality of the products is far inferior. Many of those that have sampled the produce resulting from organic gardening and farming find the crops have more flavor, further heightening the quality of the dishes that are made using the produce coming from organic gardening and farming.

Another reason involves the health of the gardener and their families. While chemical pesticides and fertilizers do enhance the health and growth on the plants, the reverse is actually seen in the health of people. Many of these chemical pesticides and fertilizers have been recently linked to a variety of different cancers and other ailments. Although this is absorbed by the body in extremely small quantities, over time inhaling these chemicals and ingesting them through food can affect one’s health in the long run.

Organic gardening involves growing food without the use of any chemicals or petroleum-based fertilizers. The resulting produce is chemical-free and therefore considered to be healthier. How can you manage to grow a backyard garden without the use of fertilizer? The key to a thriving organic garden is compost.

Compost is a mixture of decayed plant and animal matter. The best compost for organic gardening should have a high nitrogen and carbon content. These two nutrients are key for nurturing healthy soil. There is a theory in the world of organic gardening that says you should feed the soil and not the plants. If the soil is healthy the plants will take care of themselves. Proper composting creates the healthiest possible soil for your organic garden.

The ingredients that go into making nutrient-rich organic gardening compost should all meet the following criteria:

• It should be biodegradable.
• It should be chemical-free.
• It should be full of nutrients.
• It should be disease and toxin-free.

As long as your ingredients meet these criteria they should be alright to provide organic gardening compost for your organic garden.

Composting material is divided into two categories, green matter and brown matter. Green matter is nitrogen-rich and moist. Brown matter is carbon rich and much drier. In healthy organic gardening one needs to put a balanced mix of nitrogen and carbon to flourish. Some examples of green matter are:

• Grass clippings and other green garden waste
• Kitchen vegetable scraps (eggshells too)
• Aquarium plants and water
• Chicken manure

Some examples of brown matter are:

• Leaves
• Straw
• Shredded newspaper (black ink only)
• Dried garden waste

Once you know you have the ingredients on hand, you need to find a suitable container to hold your organic gardening compost. There are two basic styles/sizes of compost containers. Look at the size of your organic garden to determine your compost needs. A large garden may want a timber bin. These bins are essentially open topped wooden boxes. If you chose a timber bin, know that you need at least 25 cubic feet of ingredients to reach the proper composting temperature. Only a large organic garden can provide that much material.