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What is Organic Gardening?

Thursday, June 03rd, 2010 | Author: Home and Garden

Organic gardening is growing plants using vegetable or animal-based fertilizers in place of the synthetically made ones. It is also about doing pest control naturally too without using the commercial insecticides. The pest control is a combination of beneficial insects and natural solutions to keep pests away without spraying harmful chemicals.

Growing organically might be becoming more popular today, but it has actually been around since the beginning of gardening. Chemical fertilizers did not come on the scene until the 1840s. Farming and gardening since then has been more chemically based than organically based. In recent times though it has been found that all these chemicals are harming our environment. It is now being recommended that you return to using organic fertilizers for the health of your soil and the environment.

There are many benefits to gardening organically:

The food that is grown this way has more nutrients and vitamins in them to help one fight off diseases. You are also not ingesting as many chemicals eating organically-grown food. No growth hormone, pesticides, chemical fertilizers and no added preservatives or flavoring are used either. Studies have proven that children have a much lower level in pesticides in their systems when they eat organic foods compared to food grown using other methods. Food grown organically gets delivered to the market with all of its nutrients intake. This food taste much better too.

Doing gardening is much more enjoyable to do organically too. You don’t have to protect yourself while working with dangerous chemicals. This makes gardening much more satisfying to do. It is a great way to relax or get your daily exercise too. Gardening can even be a type of therapy for people to become more emotionally fit along with improving the overall fitness of the body. Any regular physical activity including gardening lowers your risk for obesity, certain types of diabetes, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, heart disease, and stroke.

Gardening organically can bring out your inner child. Remember your childhood when you played in the sandbox or made mud pies in the rain? Digging in the dirt and planting flowers or vegetables give you this same fun feeling that you had as a child.

Organic gardening is no more expensive to do than any other gardening method:

If you are buying your fertilizers both types cost about the same. But if you do your own composting of you kitchen and garden scraps this can cut down on how much fertilizers are needed.

Through the use of beneficial bugs the pesticides will not be needed as much and possibly eliminated all together. This is a natural way to control many garden pests. Many times just planting the right plants enables the plants to fight off pests, also plant or use natural elements that fight off the pest too, such as cucumber peels keep ants away.

There are many methods for gardening available today. Not all of the methods use the synthetic or chemical fertilizers and pesticides. You can work in harmony with nature and have a luscious garden, by doing it organically.

Whitney Segura is the owner of one of the largest manufacturers and distributors of greenhouse equipment and hydroponics systems.

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Organic Hydroponic Gardening – Facts and Advantages

Wednesday, June 02nd, 2010 | Author: Home and Garden


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Some organic gardeners consider hydroponic gardening non-organic since it doesn’t use soil. They believe that true organic gardening is impossible without rich, loamy soil. After all, organic gardening is based on good soil. However, organic hydroponic gardening does exist, and even has some advantages over conventional organic gardening.

Using Less Soil

Organic hydroponic gardening is based on the same principles as usual organic gardening, but it doesn’t use the soil. Organic hydroponic gardening relies on water to provide the nutrients needed for plant growth. Organic hydroponic gardening still requires a growing medium, something solid to put the plants’ roots into. The growing medium is not the source of nutrients, however; it is as sterile as a chemically fertilized monoculture wheat field. The growing medium is simply a structure to root the plants into and to hold the nutrient-filled water.

In organic hydroponic gardening the growing medium can be of any organic material. Vermiculite and perilte are often used. (Be careful when handling vermiculite, as it is a source of asbestos). Straw, cotton, plant fiber or any other organic material are all good choices, too.

Water is Essential

Organic hydroponic gardening relies on dissolving substances in water to provide nutrients for the plants. So, anything that goes into the water must be organic in order to comply with organic gardening rules. So-called compost tea is frequently used in organic hydroponic gardening. It is made by soaking compost in water and straining out the solid material. The water gets enriched with nutrients and then is used to feed the plants.

Manure tea is also used in hydroponic gardening. Manure tea can be a source of bacterial contamination of the produce, including contamination with lethal varieties of E. coli. Therefore, manure should be well-composted or sterilized before making manure tea. You make it the same way you make compost tea, i.e. by dissolving the manure in water and straining out the solid material.

Further organic choices include seaweed and fish emulsion. There are no special fertilizers because you continually circulate and refresh the nutrient mixture.

Special Uses

Organic hydroponic gardening has a special niche in the organic gardening landscape. Its biggest advantage is that it fits anywhere, and requires no soil to support the plants’ growth.

Organic hydroponic gardening is an excellent alternative allowing to grow crops in parts of the world where the soil has been over-farmed and is too depleted to grow food. Organic hydroponic gardening is used in outer space living and will almost certainly be part of any attempt to colonize the moon or another planet. Organic hydroponic gardening is being used for urban gardens on rooftops, allowing urbanites to grow healthy food in wasted space. This is because not every rooftop can support the weight of soil for traditional organic gardening.

As you see, hydroponic gardening can also be organic. Of course, it is different from traditional gardening, but it has a number of its own advantages. And last but not least, organic hydroponic gardening does let you grow healthy, sustainable, organic food.

For more information on Organic hydroponic gardening check out http://www.myorganicgardeningsecrets.com You’ll find loads of tips and techniques plus you’ll find answers to questions many others in your situation have asked before. But Hurry! For a limited time you can get your very own copy of our award winning Organic Gardening Software at absolutely no cost.

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Simple Yet Effective Organic Gardening Tips

Sunday, April 25th, 2010 | Author: Home and Garden


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Organic gardening is considered much more healthy and nutritious as compared the normal gardening patterns followed these days. In this piece of writing, I will be discussing some simple yet effective (organic) gardening tips which will surely assist you in planting and growing your own organic garden.

Soil is the most fundamental part to take care off when it comes to (organic) gardening. In order to make your organic gardening soil nutritious and suitable for different plants, you should use mulch. 2 to 3 inches of fresh mulch should be added each season so the decomposed mulch can be eliminated from the soil. The mulch drains out water and safeguards the soil from rainwater as well. However, you must make sure that mulch is kept away from the roots of the plants other wise the plants will rot.

Natural fertilizers should be used to improve the condition of the soil. Composting is a great process of recycling food and waste and use it in order to provide more nutrients to your (organic) garden soil.

To control the amount of soil and renew nutrients in the soil you need to rotate crops. Each plant requires its own level of nutrients. Rotating crops helps in stoppage of complete elimination of nutrients from the soil. It even saves the crops from pests as pests are not allowed to develop in your (organic) garden as well.

Those animals and insects that benefit the organic garden and growth of the plants should be kept in the garden. They help the plants to grow properly and also safeguard your organic garden plants from pests and other harmful insects; they even assist in the pollination of your organic garden. For example, if you place some earthworms in your organic gardening, the movement of the earthworms beneath the soil will assist in soil breathing. This will make sure that roots and plants are getting sufficient amount of oxygen for their proper growth and maintenance.

Avoid over watering and watering in the late afternoon. If you will water your organic garden plants in the afternoon, the water will evaporate and the plants will not get the sufficient amount of water which they require for their proper growth and maintenance. Try to water your organic garden in the morning.

Above mentioned were some simple yet effective organic gardening tips which will surely assist you in planting or maintaining your organic garden.

Also learn about fall gardening and home gardening tips.

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