Organic Gardening Tips

Organic gardening can be a healthy and environmentally friendly way to grow flowers, vegetables, fruit, and herbs. Organic gardening focuses on letting the natural growing processes of plants help maintain your garden, and keeping artificial substances, such as pesticides out.

Organic gardening principles can be used in almost any gardening environment with almost any variety of plants. Organic gardening can help you determine safe, effective, and natural ways to keep your garden growing healthy and beautiful.

One of the biggest concerns gardeners have about starting an organic garden is pest control. Organic gardeners prefer the use of natural pesticides, such as vinegar and many varieties of herbs, rather than the use of artificial and potentially environmentally damaging pesticides. One of the best organic gardening tips for using natural products as pesticides is to spray a very diluted mixture of natural soap and water on the leaves of your plants.

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Then rinse with clean water. This method is particularly effective against aphid infestations. Another common natural pesticide is a combined mixture of onion and garlic in water. This simple mixture, which is also sprayed on the leaves of your plants, acts an insect repellent. Household vinegar is an effective tool against weeds. Spray your vinegar on the leaves of weeds during high sunlight. The vinegar will kill the weeds without damaging your plants or causing harmful runoffs.

Organic gardening also chooses natural fertilizers over synthetic or artificial fertilizers that can harm the environment. Organic gardening emphasizes the use of natural mulching processes, and relies on the decomposition processes of natural material to enhance growth. Organic gardening depends on the health and quality of the soil.

Natural compost is another way that organic gardens enhance the quality of their soil. Organic gardeners recommend tilling only the top five or six inches of the soil, rather than the twelve inches many gardeners till. Over eighty percent of the soil’s nutrients are found in the top six inches of your soil. Organic gardeners also recommend spreading two or three inches of mulch over any exposed soil. This encourages plant growth, discourages weed growth, and prevents your soil from eroding.

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